Film Categories: music

Fotdella

Fotdella follows Ryan Baer, a Canadian street musician – influenced by San Francisco one-man-band legend Jesse Fuller – as he constructs instruments from salvaged junk and performs in markets, ragtag parades, beach towns and underground spaces. As it drifts from Lake Huron to Berlin, the film captures the solitudes and celebrations of nostalgic touring bands who recycle 20th century blues, jazz and folk cultures. Fotdella tinkers with intimate and surreal performances to present a world of hacksaws, tubas, washboards and song staged between a transnational present and an imagined past. Featuring rare archival footage of Jesse Fuller’s last public concert,…
A Year

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

A hand-drawn meditation composed with charcoal on paper documented on 16mm film. “Platform” explores train metaphors: “wrong side of the track;” “end of the line;” “fast track;” “bound for Glory;” etc. The Platform in the New York City Subway provides the architecture for this imaginary contemplation of the word “platform.” Be it a set of principal goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate; a programmable infrastructure upon which software can be built; an architecture from which to speak or act; a political stage; or simply a place to board the train.
Queer Camp Trilogy

The Queer Camp Trilogy is a series of experimental films exploring the hidden dimensions of queer Japanese American wartime history. This trilogy, made up of Looking For Jiro (2011), Warning Shot (2016), and On the Line (2018), was inspired by first-generation Japanese Americans who were incarcerated by the US government during World War II. These subjects left subtle yet discernible traces of same-sex intimacy or gender nonconformity in the archive, despite the enormous pressure put upon Japanese Americans to accept their imprisonment quietly, prove their patriotic loyalty, and smile for Ansel Adams during their unlawful imprisonment. I approached their enigmatic…
A Day With My Family

Some video segments of a day with my family at the farm. At editing, I had fun doing something more meaningful. The message of this film is: family, love, friendship are important things in life.
1857 (Fool’s Gold)

Four types of visual forms appear in this film: photographed scenes, written texts, mathematical symbols and numerals. The course of the film is charted by the transformations which these images undergo. The film has a narrative form, but… one that is developed purely in terms of the manipulation of the colour characteristics of the images. The texts included in the film are drawn from Ezra Pound’s “Cantos.” They serve, in the first place, to involve the spectator in the process of reading. Furthermore, Pound’s text is ideal for exploring fairly completely the range of relations that can exist between image…
Badassery

This compelling exposé takes a look at three female DJs who are unapologetically disrupting the Toronto hip-hop scene. The film chronicles the journey of women who are pursuing their passions and crafting their careers in a male-dominated industry. From the up-and-coming independent curator to the global powerhouse, these creatives have crafted a brand for themselves as industry leaders, without compromising who they are. They are paving the way for a generation of women and LGBTQ people, previously excluded from the social and cultural norms of the hip-hop world. It is the weirdos and nonconformists who are now redefining what it…
Nadia’s Songs

“Nadia’s Songs” follows a teenage boy who finds a collection of CDs that used to belong to a stranger known only as Nadia. In their shared taste in music he imagines her life story while in turn reflecting on his own. One part essay and one part love letter to second-hand music shops, “Nadia’s Songs” explores the many ways we can forge our identities through the art we consume and things we collect as young adults.
Scottish Concert

Scottish Concert is an experimental concert film observing traditional music, dance, language and culture of Cape Breton Island. The hand processed black & white and color footage has seen many variations of encouraged decay.
Hello, Goodbye

An LGBTQ+ story of an entire relationship in its most powerful and emotional first and last moments.