Film Categories: Memory
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Pulp Revelation
“Pulp Revelation” is a surreal tale born from the bizarre realm of the Bible’s Revelation prophecies. A cryptic vision of the second coming of our maker…but did we make the maker? Is redemption, betrayal and rebirth a never ending cycle for mankind? A grand yet intimate journey of memory, faith and the zenith of artificial intelligence.
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Cleveland: The Resurrected Arcade
“The dreaming collective…through the arcades, communes with its own insides” – Walter Benjamin. A visit to the restored arcade in post-industrial Cleveland, the piece uses architectural footage and archival audio to explore the city’s repeated efforts in urban renewal.
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The Forms of Utility
A short film essay analyzing a landscape shaped by religion, capital, and war. The film blurs the line between memory and history, only to reveal their cyclicity. The focus of this work is the mistreatment of the modernist architecture of Zilina, a small town in Slovakia, built by a growing Jewish minority in the 1920s and 30s and by new settlers from rural areas in the 50s and 70s. Their tastes and ideologies have been visibly projected onto the town.
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Flash Flood
Deep within a dream, a cataclysmic flood washes over the planet, and reveals three unique perspectives on gender and identity. The film is animated by volunteer transgender artists and animators from across the globe.
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Bubba
BUBBA shows the portrait of an old man (the filmmaker’s grandfather), altered in several, increasingly abstracting ways. The first way the man is shown is through composite imaging, and the use of masks while shooting 16mm on a Bolex camera, achieving surreal, distorted, cubist-like impressions of the face. The second effect was achieved by sandwiching the negative print and positive print of the original portraits and printing them using a Model J printer. The third, and final effect was generated by hand processing the negative/positive hybrid, alongside negatives from a previous film. The concluding effect is a feeling of the…
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Deema
After years of living abroad, Deema is reunited with her childhood friend Nidal. When their love blossoms like the Arab Spring, a pain nested deep within suddenly re-surfaces as she fights to revive the phoenix inside of her.
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Elegant Flower
‘Elegant Flower’ is a diaspora story that follows the life of a Hungarian refugee over the course of his 60th birthday weekend. Burdened by the separation of his beloved family and little sister, Zoltán Király engages in activities to bridge this chasm of geography and time. Incorporating beautiful 8mm found film and distinctive Toronto landscapes, one is given a subtle revelation and connection into this quiet and passionate man’s internal struggle.
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The Solitary Life of the Stoic
The ‘Solitary Life of the Stoic’ is a short documentary project that juxtaposes the formidable life story of a dignified woman in her nineties with imposing architectural structures and expressive imagery. Shot in Central Europe and integrated with portraits of Leah Laufer in Toronto, this film aligns visual poetry with the wisdom of an old friend, candid confessions of life at her stage and the gratitude of a Holocaust survivor.
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Video Home System
‘Video Home System’ traces the convergence of popular culture and politics in Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s. This video showcases the connections between pop culture and nationalism, and how bootleg economies kept the cinema industry alive during periods of censorship. Image description: A young man sits at a desk behind a pile of VHS tapes, illuminated by a desk lamp. The wall behind him is vivid green.
