​​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.

The micro-theatre is located on the second level of The Rourke, inside the Reading Room + Archive. Films are played on a loop during open hours.

3 Short Films
​by JONATHAN RATTNER

9 April - 10 May 2026

end, end, end (8 minutes, 46 seconds) is a meditation on the fragmentary nature of thoughts, memories, and emotions. Combining found recordings of a man marking the beginning and end of analog audio tapes with a collage of images of the natural world, this experimental short weaves in and out of the past and present, stopping along the way to reflect on death, love, and the appropriate way to make a cup of coffee.

Grey Seals (10 minutes, 17 seconds) is an experimental documentary, shot on super eight and digital video, that explores the visible and the invisible, parenthood and childhood, the impermanence of experience, and the fleeting nature of memory.

Wildfire and Paperkites (12 minutes, 16 seconds) is a rhythmic collage exploring shifting thresholds—between intimacy and distance, the personal and the collective, the organic and the technological, and the precarity of our/this/the moment. 5 Parts. Shot on Super 8 and digital video. Sound created with plants.

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