Film Categories: Families

  • Mechanical Memory

    Created from super 8 footage that was shot in the 1970s of the family dogs and the trains that my father worked on, this film explores the decay of memory and image. The super 8 film grew fungus while stored in a basement. It was then optically printed up to 16mm and slowed down so that the snowflake shaped fungus could be studied. Narration presents fragmented stories of childhood memories. This film was created as a source film, which was later physically cut up and reprinted with a flashlight to destroy the image and sound for the subsequent film “Mechanical/Animal…

  • Destroying Angel

    “Destroying Angel” is an experimental documentary that relates two stories of illness, and weaves them into a filmic tapestry of family history, memory and loss. The narrator, confronted with his own mortality, guides us through a landscape of recollections, dreams, close friendships and family ties. Narratives about present-day events interplay with lyrical reminiscences of the past. Eventually, just as the past always informs the present, the two styles of narrative begin to merge. In the end, we are left with a moving portrait of the struggles involved in dealing with AIDS, cancer, memory and intimate relationships. “What was clear from…

  • Man Who Built My Childhood, The (The Epic Story of My Life Appendix B)

    Brian Stockton’s series of humourous autobiographical shorts takes a detour into architecture with this 5-minute “appendix” about renowned Saskatchewan architect Joseph Pettick. Pettick has designed a staggering 500 buildings in Saskatchewan, and his impact on the province and the filmmaker is enormous. “I have lived my life in Joseph Pettick’s buildings” states the narration. Stockton explores three of Pettick’s masterpieces including Grant Road Elementary School which had a huge impact on the filmmaker’s early life and has figured prominently in Stockton’s EPIC STORY OF MY LIFE series.

  • Whitmore Park (The Epic Story of My Life Part 4)

    Brian Stockton’s series of humourous autobiographical short films goes beyond his acclaimed SASKATCHEWAN TRILOGY and into the suburban neighbourhood of Whitmore Park. Filled with ruminations about ‘the future’, strange performance art projects from grade four, and the beginnings of a life as a filmmaker, “Whitmore Park” transcends the neighbourhood and revels in the ‘epic’ story of a life in the suburbs. Like others in the series, the film is a unique mix of documentary, drama and animation, all presented in the visual feast of 35mm Cinemascope.

  • Saskatchewan Part 3

    Brian Stockton’s series of eccentric autobiographical short films continues with “Saskatchewan Part 3,” the conclusion of THE SASKATCHEWAN TRILOGY. Part 3 takes a humourous, animated look at the filmmaker’s family tree, and how it is that his grandparents ended up in Saskatchewan in the early 20th century. As with the previous installments, “Saskatchewan Part 3” is a melange of personal history. family mementos, and Saskatchewan lore, mixed tobether with a bone-dry sense of humour. Filmed in glorious 35mm cinemascope, “Saskatchewan Part 3” seeks to define what it means to come home.

  • Tziporah

    “Tziporah” is the Hebrew work for a bird. The film is another cinematic reflection on loss and grief. Premiere: October 2007, New York Film Festival: Views from the Avant Garde January, 2008, Rotterdam International Film Festival April 6, 2008, San Francisco Cinematheque April 27&29, 2008, San Francisco International Film Festival September 6,2008,Toronto International Film Festival:Wavelengths Program October, 2009, FAMU, Prague, Czech Republic October, 2009, WRO Art Center, Wroclaw, Poland

  • Surface Tension

    snow, water, christmas lights, and shopping malls created for the afcoop Super 8 Xmas screening

  • Dishes

    measuring time in coffee spoons created as a part of the Ladies Film Bee with Helen Hill

  • Here

    an exploration of presence created as a part of the Ladies Film Bee with Helen Hill

  • Maternal Record Not Fully Recorded, A

    super 8 home movie footage captures memories not otherwise remembered while other memories never materialize in the tangible home photo archives