Empty Metal

"Filled with energy, rage, and the smallest measure of hope, Empty Metal is a new kind of political film for these extraordinary times" -Film Society Lincoln Center

Squeaky Wheel and Hallwalls are excited to present the essential 2018 cult-political thriller Empty Metal, with co-director Bayley Sweitzer in person!

Perennially unsettling and cutting since its debut, EMPTY METAL features an apathetic punk band who are ensnared to commit a series of assassinations by an Indigenous family whose mother communicates telepathically with her meditation companions, a Rastafarian hacker, and a Buddhist whose son is a member of a secret militia. These disparate actors are united by rage, boiled in the history of the United States, and finding itself at a point of no return in our neverending contemporary moment. Inspired by Lizzie Borden's classic Born in Flames (1983), Adam Khalil and Bayley Sweitzer's film has been widely acclaimed since its release.

This event is supported by Teiger Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Biographies of the filmmakers

ADAM KHALIL (Ojibway) is a filmmaker and artist whose practice attempts to subvert traditional forms of image-making through humor, relation, and transgression. Khalil is a core contributor to New Red Order and a co-founder of COUSINS Collective as well as a frequent collaborator with Zack Khalil, Bayley Sweitzer and more. Khalil’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance Film Festival, Walker Arts Center, Lincoln Center, Tate Modern, HKW, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Toronto Biennial 2019 and Whitney Biennial 2019, among other institutions. Khalil is the recipient of various fellowships and grants, including but not limited to a Herb Alpert Award in the Arts 2021, Creative Capital Award, Sundance Art of Nonfiction, Jerome Artist Fellowship, Cinereach and the Gates Millennium Scholarship. Adam Khalil is a core contributor to the public secret society New Red Order.

BAYLEY SWEITZER (b. 1989) is a filmmaker living and working in Brooklyn. His practice revolves around repurposing narrative film form in order to convey radical political possibilities. His work has been shown at Film Society Lincoln Center (New York City), International Film Festival Rotterdam, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Museum of Modern Art (New York City), Tate Modern (London), Berlinale, Centro de Cultura Digital (Mexico City), the Sharjah Biennial, and numerous other galleries, museums, and film festivals. Sweitzer is the recipient of a 2021 Creative Capital Award, a 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Fellowship, and has received moving image commissions from the Park Avenue Armory (New York City), Gasworks (London), and Spike Island (Bristol).

Sweitzer also works professionally as a focuspuller and is a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600.