Film Categories: Capitalism + Economics

  • Different as Night and Day

    “Different as Night and Day,” shot in the Port Lands of Toronto, Canada, examines the disconcerting coexistence of technology and nature. It cycles through three views of two power plants as light and climate transition (cf. Claude Monet’s series of Rouen Cathedral). The views are bridged by long dissolves of smoke streaming from one of the plants. The dissolves are often gorgeous and reminiscent of the Northern Lights, but are composed with images of airborne pollutants (cf. the pollutionenhanced sunsets painted by JMW Turner in the 19th century). “Different as Night and Day” is a dynamic painting.

  • The Incorporated

    THE INCORPORATED is shopping as ritual-a twenty-first century, yet primeval dance. The Incorporated was shot entirely inside mega-malls with a pocket camera, dismissed or unnoticed by security guards and public alike. It is comprised of mass behaviours and intimate unguarded moments between individuals. The ritual is enacted in front of logo texts like Armani, Lacoste, Holt Renfrew, Victoria’s Secret, Banana Republic, Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla. No product is ever shown, but we know what those words mean.Outside, the cosmopolis may be divided by class, race and ethnicity. But inside the mega-mall, the diversity of its peoples-commingled-is strangely celebratory.

  • Tale Of Winter

    Tale of Winter focuses on the societal indifference towards homeless people. One the of the biggest challenges of ours times is the lack of empathy towards the underprivileged, the poor, the deranged: the people who live on the margins of the society but who are often treated as if they are invisible, ignorable or as if they are nuisances. With Tale of Winter, I would like to draw attention to how much and how easily we disregard that which is right in front of us, that which call for our sensitivity and understanding.

  • Gulf

    This film was shot on the north shore of Cuba looking towards the Gulf of Mexico, just months before 4.9 million barrels of oil was spilled by Deepwater Horizon between April 20-July 15, 2010. Wave patterns fill the frame, tearing apart the filmstrip itself. Selected Screenings: Berwick FIlm & Media Arts Festival, 2017 (Berwick-on-Tweed, UK)

  • Persistence of Memory

    A skilled programmer commences work for Galatea, a robotics company launching the next generation of personal companions. Unlike generic robot companions, the C-1000 is made to a client’s precise specifications, which either give the companion a unique personality and complex individuality, or replicate those of someone else…  Against the backdrop of activist protests over outsourcing emotional connection, the programmer brings a C-1000 “to life” through trial and error. Using photographs as her guide, she trains the artificial companion to adopt the mannerisms of its original, from the basics, like holding a pen and writing, to advance concepts, like flirtation and…

  • Somnium Lapidum (Dream Stones)

    This stop-motion 16mm film offers an audiovisual meditation on the material animation of stones. The concept is inspired by Camillo Leonardi’s “Speculum Lapidum”, published in 1533, which describes the magical healing virtues of a variety of stones, categorized by colour. The character-based animated vignettes are inspired by the woodcuts in “De Hortus Sanitatis”, a natural history encyclopedia published in 1485, which details various methods of harnessing the power of gems. It was believed at the time that a given gem’s powers could be absorbed through focused viewing. Proposing an analogy between this belief and attraction to cinema, this film offers…

  • ôtênaw

    “ôtênaw” is a film documenting the oral storytelling of Dwayne Donald, an educator from Treaty 6, Edmonton Canada. Drawing from nêhiyawak philosophies, he speaks about the multilayered histories of Indigenous peoples’ presence both within and around amiskwacîwâskahikan, or what has come to be known as the city of Edmonton.

  • 2076 (Elegy)

    In the year 2076, a cyborg finds moving images made by their great-grandmother in the last years of celluloid. Looking at the images, they are struck by the past, causing them to dig into their own memories, history, and identity.  Gleaned from images from the filmmaker’s life, 2076 looks at the ways in which familial history and queer identity are communicated through the archive/photographic image. Topically situated as the analog image is quickly disappearing, this film explores its virtues, illustrating the ways in which the past imbues small moments with power and glimpses of our past can speak and serve…

  • The World in Ten Blocks

    Welcome to Bloorcourt, one of Toronto’s most diverse neighbourhoods. Small business owners from all over the world have made this one of the most vibrant parts of Toronto. Meet some of these immigrant entrepreneurs and hear about their dreams, struggles, victories, and the unexpected ways in which they’ve changed. An intimate journey into the kitchens and behind the counters of small businesses where cultures and traditions are preserved, shared, and evolve.

  • Boardwalk Músico

    A young trombone player from eastern Cuba, Liuber Martínez, came to Havana to make it as a musician. With Havana’s iconic seaside boardwalk as his practice studio, Liuber plays his heart out every day and dreams of touring the world.