Join us for the 1st public screening of The Good Curse of Bird Mummy Moon by Zack Sievers!

Shot in Ljubljana, Slovenia, The Good Curse of Bird Mummy Moon is a historical mockumentary about sacred conspiracies involving nature, architecture, and eternity. The film documents Ljubljana artists Bara Kolenc and Leja Jurišić as they invent performances which question the nature of time, language, and laughter. Through the question of the nature of time, the film travels back to the 1970s and 1930s to investigate the sacred architecture and urban planning of Jože Plečnik (7 UNESCO sites) who famously incorporated deep ecological attention to nature and what he called “eternal architecture” into the urban design of Ljubljana. As he continues to reconstruct Ljubljana during the 1930s, a team of Yugoslavian archaeologists in the 1970s investigates connections between Plečnik’s hidden architecture and his worship of nature and eternity through his celebration of Bird Mummy Moon, a Paleo-Balkan harvest moon ritual which may harbor both charms and curses dating back to the time before Jason and the Argonauts fought dragons in the Ljubljana marshes.

Featuring original music composed and performed by Chicago’s own Shi-An Costello, Gustavo Cortiñas, and Missing Piece.

With support from JSKD Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities and Pekinpah

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.

$FREE ADMISSION$

Artists in The Good Curse of Bird Mummy Moon:

Zack Sievers is a philosopher and international filmmaker whose current work focuses on creative attention to time-consciousness, critical attention to technology, and sacred attention to deep ecology. Director of Haptic Cinematography (2017), writer of award-winning Golden Voices (2018), director of videography with Gustavo Cortiñas’ on Desafío Candente (2021), The Crisis Knows No Borders (2025) and The Drum Also Sings (2026)

Bara Kolenc is a philosopher and artist. Director of Inventor on Earth (2018 / 2021), author of “Voyeurism and Exhibitionism on the Internet” (2022) and Repetition and Subjectivity (2026)

Leja Jurišić is a dancer and choreographer working in the field of performative and political art, creator of Concert (2022), featured artist in Inventor on Earth (2018 / 2021), It is Impossible to Wait in Vain (2020), and Together (2018)

Music in The Good Curse of Bird Mummy Moon:

Composer Shi-An Costello contributes original music performed on prepared piano, a modified piano instrument creating unique sounds by placing various wood, metal and plastic objects on or between the strings of a piano. In 2025, Costello started Alloy, an initiative dedicated to the promotion of prepared piano technologies.

Gustavo Cortiñas, composer and drummer, contributes music from his records Desafío Candente (2021), The Crisis Knows No Borders (2025), and The Drum Also Sings (2026)

String ensemble Missing Piece contributes music from their projects thirdstream, Composing the Climate with Cacie Miller, and Heroes, Interlopers. Alongside music therapist April Hickey, Missing Piece recently founded Bridgeport Music Collective (BMC), a community space offering music therapy, music education, and music performances for the south side of Chicago.