Film Categories: environment

  • CARBON SKY

    During the in-between period of the 2017 record breaking forest fires and the 2018 record breaking forest fires, conditions were often ideal in the BC interior for filming at a fixed place with a fixed camera. I would often return to the exact same location time and time again. Sometimes five, ten, or twenty times over a period of days, weeks, and months. The locations that sustained my fascination were more or less located in a geographical triangle from Kamloops to the east, Cache Creek to the west, and Spences Bridge to the south. My main focus was on the…

  • FURNACE

    For three years I researched and filmed various locations in the interior of British Columbia, Canada in more or less a geographical triangle from Kamloops to the east, Ashcroft to the west, and Spences Bridge to the south. My main focus has been the semi-deserts, deep valleys, and plateaus to define how I see the interactions of the natural and manufactured worlds, worlds brought into my perspective by the ever changing presence of shadow and light. Since I began filming this movie in 2016 there has been a yearly increase in the widespread smoke and haze from each new record…

  • Bonsai

    A once joyful teenager, Frida, a girl with a head full of leaves is faced with challenges after losing her mother, Lu. Frida has a head full of leaves to depict the metaphor of the relationship humans have with nature to how parents treat their children. Nature has to be taken care of in order for it to beautifully develop. Unfortunately, today, individuals today are sometimes not aware of the slow but terrible destruction they are capable of. Children on the other hand need nurturing from their parents to have a good upbringing both mentally and physically. But due to…

  • Ocean III

    Ocean III is part of a series of films loosely connected by a similar process of cinematography that sees the operation of the camera as a kind of intuitive performance; specifically the way lenses, filters, and camera are manoeuvred in a single long take to create an impression of a space, while also frequently abstracting it.

  • Ocean IV

    Ocean IV is part of a series of films loosely connected by a similar process of cinematography that sees the operation of the camera as a kind of intuitive performance; specifically the way lenses, filters, and camera are manoeuvred in a single long take to create an impression of a space, while also frequently abstracting it.

  • CORNUCOPIA

    The interior Plateau of British Columbia is a confluence of volcanism, plate tectonics, and glaciation punctuated by intermittent cycles of fire and droughts. The perennial constant in shaping the plateau is the influence of storms from the Pacific Ocean and the multiple mountain ranges (including the Rockies) that carry glacier silt and other minerals through the myriad of rivers and lakes. For 1000’s of years First Nations Peoples thrived in this region with civilizations and customs that remain a powerful guiding presence today. In 1858 gold rush fever gripped a region in North America that would later become part of…

  • A Year

    An examination of the natural textures of the world and their changes over the course of one year.

  • Flower

    This animated film seeks to rediscover a positive, joyful reunion with the earth via the medium of flowers. Using different animation techniques, the filmmaker exploits myths surrounding flowers to examine the way to a peaceful civilization. Also available on DVD on the compilatiion “James MacSwain Retrospective.”

  • M3RM41D

    based on past research to find gender radicalism in the wild, this rock was !discovered! with a moderately blown-out tri-colour weave and wearing a mad decent lipstick. I danced with it for a few minutes before i realized it wouldn’t be able to survive outside of its natural habitat, thus i released it back into the wild.

  • Fly My Spirits

    Elaine Pain has been drawing stylized birds for many years. To her, they are a universal “bird of hope.” Bright and colourful birds, with a life of their own, move to percussion music by Gordon Parsons, giving them a primitive power.