Visiting Artist: Jonathan Rattner

The Rourke is pleased to welcome artist and filmmaker Jonathan Rattner for a series of events. Rattner produces experimental documentary films and videos and is an Associate Professor of Cinema & Media Arts and Art at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

---

Schedule of Events

MAIN GALLERY SCREENING:
Northward and The Interior, 6 p.m. Thursday 9 April 2026

NORTHWARD, 22 minutes
​
Northward is a poetic journey to the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, the fastest warming place on Earth. Shot on film and digital video, the piece moves through shifting light, ethereal seascapes, and moments of close observation, becoming a portal where atmosphere, uncertainty, and the passage of time engage in the subtle rhythms of our changing environment.

THE INTERIOR, 22 minutes
​
January, the Alaskan Interior, 56 dogs, four humans, five hours of sunlight. This observational work - shot on both 16mm and digital video - is a sensory journey that follows Brent Sass, an award-winning dog musher, and his community of dogs living in isolation in the rural inland of Alaska.

WORKSHOP: Intro to Smartphone Filmmaking: Videography and Editing,
​2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday 11 April 2026

Learn more & register

MICRO-THEATRE SCREENINGS OF RATTNER SHORT FILMS,
​9 April through 10 May 2026

---

About the artist

​Jonathan Rattner holds an M.F.A in Film and Video Production from the University of Iowa, an M.F.A. in Intermedia Art from the University of Iowa, and a B.F.A. in Film and Television from Tisch School for the Arts, N.Y.U. He has exhibited work in galleries, museums, microcinemas, festivals, and universities internationally.

From fall of 2005 to the summer of 2009 he acted as the creative director of Iowa City Senior Television, a twenty-year-old station consisting of crewmembers whose ages range from 65 to 89.  Since 2009, he has been an Assistant Professor of Cinema & Media Arts and Art at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.