Film Categories: environment

  • Our Future Is Bright

    This atmospheric short film alludes to a catastrophic event that has left two women grief-stricken and isolated in a barren snow-covered wilderness. Their intimate life together is shaken when they discover a man lying unconscious in the frozen terrain. For Bria, the older of the two women, he represents hope for the future and the possibility of a child. For Renee, he threatens to disrupt a life that has given her refuge from the traumas of violence. Renee must ultimately decide between having a child and her personal desire to remain free from emotional attachment. Canadian Society of Cinematographers Award…

  • Off World

    Two million tonnes of waste inhabit the landfill known as Smokey Mountain in Manila, Philippines. A squatter community of more than 30,000 people live in the slums around the landfill, and make their living by picking through the decomposing mountain of trash, looking for rare valuables. This is the setting for director Mateo Guez’s raw, ethereal first feature film. “Off World” follows a young Toronto man, Lucky, as he returns to Smokey Mountain for the first time since his adoption by Canadian parents when he was just a year old. Aided by NGO worker, Julia, Lucky tracks down his surviving…

  • Basin

    The forest and river awaken to a new day; the hum of the highway is constant. This is a boom town. An oil town. But what of it? An environmental scourge, or an economic miracle? … Just look. And listen. Selected Screenings: Hot Docs 2010 (Toronto, ON); Inside Out LGBT Festival, 2010 (Toronto, ON); Out on Screen, 2010 (Vancouver, BC)

  • Bathers, The

    Three naked bathers gather at the river on a warm day in September. The film was a commission from Ladyfest Ottawa and the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative of Ottawa. Eight women were given the theme of sexuality and two rolls of Super-8 film. I wanted to capture something wild and free, unfettered by society – human sexuality in nature.

  • Tracking Sasquatch (field report #1)

    A search for the elusive Sasquatch. The first chapter in an ongoing series.

  • Burning Bush

    “A virtuosic use of video sets this burning bush alight with crimson colour and transcendent allusions. “ – TIFF Wavelengths Series, 2010 “In Eastern Orthodoxy’ a tradition exists that the flame Moses saw was God’s Uncreated Energies / Glory , manifested as light, thus explaining why the bush was not consumed. Hence, it is not interpreted as a miracle in the sense of an event, which only temporarily exists, but is instead viewed as Moses being permitted to see these Uncreated Energies / Glory, which are considered to be eternal things; the Orthodox definition of salvation…” – New World Encyclopedia…

  • City Under Siege

    “City Under Siege” examines contemporary representation of war in the media. The particular image under investigation first became predominant in the broadcast news media during the Gulf War. It is of a wide, high angle shot, recorded at night from the roof of a building looking out over a city, usually Baghdad. The shot stays static while the city below is bombarded in a fire show. There does not appear to be any life represented down there, no blood or exploded body parts. There doesn’t even seem to be a camera operator as the image never moves or reacts to…

  • Tourist of memory

    In this journey through time and place – an Ottawa snowstorm, Niagara Falls, and the filmmaker’s childhood home – recollections come unbidden and half-articulated, of trains, marshes and wind turbines, resolving at the inexpressible place where memory lies. A stand-alone chapter of the video essay, “In Between (remembering and forgetting),” “Tourist of memory” was filmed in 16mm, Super 8 and video, with sound design by Edmund Eagan.

  • Bouquets 11-20

    Comprised of ten one-minute films, shot at ecological sites in Italy, Switzerland and France, “Bouquets 11-20”, continues the work begun with the series “Bouquets 1-10” and “21-30.” Each bouquet of flowers is also a bouquet of film frames, woven together using in-camera techniques. “Bouquets 11-20”, filmed in Italy, Switzerland and France, was delayed by the weather and a series of related technical/aesthetic incidents. The ten little films (1 minute or 1440 frames each, with the exception of 23 frames or nearly a second more for n°16), continue the work begun with the series “Bouquets 1-10” and “21-30.” This consists of…

  • Jardin du soleil (Sun Garden)

    Beginning with natural light, an élément that played a major rôle in cinematographic développement, the subject of the film evolves around solar panels in two different places, Cascina Piola, Asti, in Italy, and Le Vieil Eclis, in Loire Atlantique, Asserac, France. We find ourselves in the middle of sparkling light, exposed to the wind, like the butterflies, the bees and the little clouds. (R.L.)