To describe the plight of artists who make films and videos, Martine Syms compared the situation to a viral meme starring a giant, vacant head waiting to be filled in with words below a familiar prompt: “Why you so quiet? What’s on your mind?” For her part, Syms said she would fill in that empty noggin with some stark words: “I’m trying to fund my no-budget experimental film.”

There has never been an especially easy time to make moving-image art, which is notoriously hard to monetize. But these days, the challenge is even more formidable because of the abundance of film and video art in the context of biennials, museums, and the art discourse more broadly.

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Syms should know. For more than a decade, she has conceived acclaimed videos, installations, and performances about identity, often with a focus on Blackness and meme culture.…