Patricia Ledesma Villon is a curator, moving image archivist, and researcher based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is Assistant Curator of Moving Image at the Walker Art Center(opens in a new tab).
Her interdisciplinary work focuses on artist-made films and exhibition, intersections of collections and public curation, film and media archives, and photochemical filmmaking and preservation. As an archivist, she has processed audiovisual collections and worked on related initiatives for the Prelinger Archives, the Center for Asian American Media’s “Memories to Light” home movie project, filmmaker and scholar Trinh T. Minh-ha (What About China?, 2022), and the Philippine Film Archive.
Born and raised in the southeastern San Francisco Bay Area, Patricia holds an MLIS with a specialization in Media Archival Studies from UCLA and a B.A. in Media Studies from UC Berkeley. Since 2019, she has been a member and co-organizer of Light Field(opens in a new tab), a collectively-run exhibition of recent and historical moving image art on film in the Bay Area. She serves on the Board of Directors of Canyon Cinema(opens in a new tab) and the advisory editorial board of Artifact & Apparatus(opens in a new tab).
She enjoys all sorts of Asian cuisines, a local dive and supper club, searching for and fixing up vintage 48cm chromoly bikes, tinkering with various media objects, and being outdoors. Recommendations always welcome.
Book Launch: The Time of the Novel by Lara Mimosa Montes in conversation with Patricia Ledesma Villon with films by Bas Jan Ader, presented by Wendy's Subway and Dreamsong, Minneapolis, MN (Jun. 25, 2025): https://www.wendyssubway.com/programs/events/montes-launch-villon-ader(opens in a new tab)
Curator, Light Field 2025, Program 7: http://www.lightfieldfilm.org/2025-program-7(opens in a new tab)
Invited Speaker, AFVS 157Y: Handmade Films, Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Lecturer Rhayne Vermette (Spring 2025)
Invited Speaker, Grinnell College Film Society, Dept. of Studio Art, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA (Mar. 13, 2024)
Invited Speaker, Arnold Flatten Memorial Artist Series, "Archivist as Curator, and Relationships in Between: Activating the Moving Image," Dept. of Art and Art History, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN (Feb. 26, 2024): https://wp.stolaf.edu/art/guests-artists/(opens in a new tab)
Medium Specific: Materiality in 16mm Artists' Films from Canyon Cinema, Presented with Seth Mitter, Century of 16mm, IU Libraries Moving Image Archive, Bloomington, IN (Sept. 15, 2023)
The Relational Sea, an accompaniment to Allan Sekula: Fish Story, Walker Art Center, https://walkerart.org/magazine/the-relational-sea(opens in a new tab)
Invited Panelist, Archival Film Labs, Analogue Resilience: A Film Labs Gathering, Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT), Toronto, ON, Canada (May 30, 2023)
Invited Panelist, Analogue Film Festivals and the Future of Projection, Analogue Resilience: A Film Labs Gathering, Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT), Toronto, ON, Canada (May 28, 2023)
Curator, Light Field 2023, Program 3: http://www.lightfieldfilm.org/2023-program-3(opens in a new tab)
Dispersed Renderings: A Salon with Patricia Ledesma Villon (Mar. 14, 2023): https://canyoncinema.com/2023/02/21/3-14-2023-dispersed-renderings-a-salon-with-patricia-ledesma-villon/(opens in a new tab)
Light Field in Los Angeles, Co-Presented by Los Angeles Filmforum and Mezzanine (Oct. 9, 2022): https://www.lafilmforum.org/archive/summer-fall-2022/light-field-los-angeles/(opens in a new tab)
Facilitator, Kinetta Film Scanning Workshop, Information Studies Media Preservation Lab, UCLA Department of Information Studies (May 2, 2022)
Presenter, “Critical Digitality and Indeterminable Frames: Approaches and Applications for the Moving Image,” 2022 UCLA Artifacts Conference (Apr. 23)
Guest Speaker, The Archive Project: A Conversation with Light Field, San Francisco State University, Fall 2021 (Aug. 26)
Co-Moderator, Handmade Cinemas, Unruly Films: Preserving DIY and Nontraditional Film Elements, Fall 2021 Association of Moving Image Archivists Conference, Online (Nov. 19)
Light Field at Winnipeg Underground Film Festival (WUFF) 8 (Jun. 5, 2021): https://www.winnipeguff.com/index.php/2021-program/24--light-field/(opens in a new tab)
Panel Chair, Taking Stock of Amateur Film: Advancing Preservation Through Online Resources, Spring 2021 Association of Moving Image Archivists Conference, Online (Apr. 14)
Co-Presenter, I Know the End: A Salon with Light Field, Canyon Cinema, Online (Feb. 11, 2021): https://canyoncinema.com/2021/02/01/i-know-the-end-a-salon-with-light-field/(opens in a new tab)
Invited Panelist, The After After Life of Home Movies, 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Presented by the Center for Home Movies and the Roxie Theater, Online (Jan. 29): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfHbc60SBoM(opens in a new tab)
Guest Speaker and Collective Member, Commingled Containers: Echoes from the Bay, Program 2—covalences: works from black hole collective film lab, San Francisco Cinematheque, Online (Jan. 9, 2021): https://www.sfcinematheque.org/video-programs/covalences-works-from-black-hole-collective-film-lab/(opens in a new tab)
Invited Co-Presenter, Center for Asian American Media’s “Memories to Light,” The Exploratorium, After Dark Online: Sustenance—Home Movies, Online (Nov. 5, 2020): https://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/calendar/after-dark-online-home-movies(opens in a new tab)
Curator, Light Field 2020, Program 7: http://www.lightfieldfilm.org/2020-program-7(opens in a new tab) [Cancelled due to COVID-19]
Invited Panelist, Home Movie Digitization and Access: New Models for Outreach, 2019 Association of Moving Image Archivists Conference, Baltimore, MD (Nov. 16)
"Medium Specific: Materiality in 16mm Artists’ Films from Canyon Cinema," in A Century of 16mm. Indiana University Press. (Forthcoming)
"From Creation to Preservation: Film Laboratories in the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Field," The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (Forthcoming 2025)
"Photochemical Pedagogy: Film Preservation Education Beyond the Archive," Synoptique: Journal of Moving Image Studies 11, no. 1. (Forthcoming Spring 2025)
"Why is it There: David Kiehn on the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum," Screen Slate (Feb. 2024): https://www.screenslate.com/articles/why-it-there-david-kiehn-niles-essanay-silent-film-museum(opens in a new tab)
"From Creation to Preservation: Film Laboratories in the Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Field," Master's thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 2022. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6ns501xm(opens in a new tab).
Review of Girl Head: Feminism and Film Materiality by Genevieve Yue. The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists 22, no. 1 (Spring 2022): 164-66. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/885312(opens in a new tab).
“Indeterminable Frames: Exploring Digital Humanities Approaches and Applications for the Moving Image,” Cinergie – Il Cinema e Le Altre Arti 10, no. 20 (2021): 125–38. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2280-9481/13055(opens in a new tab).
2022 UCLA School of Education and Information Studies Marjorie S. Mardellis Scholarship
2021 Association of Moving Image Archivists Rick Chace Foundation Scholarship
2021-22 American Library Association Spectrum Scholar
2020 Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Scholarship Award
2019 Association of Moving Image Archivists Savada Family Legacy Fund Travel Grant
Fluent English proficiency, Full Cebuano (Bisaya) proficiency, Working Tagalog proficiency, Elementary French proficiency