Film Categories: Portraits

  • Flush

    The film follows Abagail through the intake process into an eating disorder inpatient program. We glimpse her struggle with anorexia, bulimia and self harm and how they have thoroughly affected her entire life. We see her deepest most intimate thoughts she rarely shares with anyone; and through her memories, we delve into her private past. Based on the true story of the directors own life, eating disorder, and hospitalization; Flush is a candid look at living with the struggle and pain of a debilitating disorder.

  • Every Day 1, 2, 3

    “Every Day 1, 2, 3″ is a set of three small artist zines about the relation between film and life, living and filmmaking as Sternberg sees it. The books reference different experiences of time respectively: 1. Daily, repetitive; 2. Random, contingent; 3. Cumulative. Book 3’s images document Sternberg’s studio: film strips, cans of film, editing equipment, optical printer, and Bolex camera. Price: $15.00 + applicable taxes & shipping CREDITS: Text and Photographs: Barbara Sternberg Size: 5″ x 5 1/4” Pages: 28 p. per booklet Year of Production: 2016 Designer: Ann O’Callaghan Production: Shawn Samson Country of Production: Canada Edition Size:…

  • Stillness (Inertie)

    Through an innovative and unexpected approach to 16mm frame-by-frame cinematography, Pelletier offers a deconstructed and introspective view of portraiture. Idle faces come in and out of existence through a dance of light and texture, toying with our perceptual need to project our own image onto the abstract. Reminiscent of a meditative state, the concept of self can be fleeting.

  • 6500

    The color temperature of different light sources is measured in Kelvin. 6500 Kelvin corresponds to the value of overcast daylight and is used as a standard for the neutral registration of white surfaces. Unconsciously the human eye adapts to different light conditions, while cameras need adjustment through white balance. 6500 is a short video essay on the relativity of words, questioning the application of absolute values in an argument, visualized through a play on colors, their spaces, and their highly subjective perception. Quotes from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s “Remarks on Colour” emphasize this rhythmic flickering and slightly absurd conversation between colour and…

  • Torrey Pines

    “Torrey Pines” is a stop-motion animated feature film by director Clyde Petersen. Based on a true story, the film is a queer punk coming-of-age tale, taking place in Southern California in the early 1990’s. Raised by a schizophrenic single mother, Petersen’s life story unfolds in a series of baffling and hallucinated events. With a mother fuelled by hallucinations of political conspiracy and family dysfunction, twelve-year-old Petersen is taken on a cross-country adventure that will forever alter the family as they know it.

  • Blair’s Last Day

    Blair Maddox has been projecting IMAX films at the Space & Science Centre in Edmonton, Canada for almost 30 years. ‘Blair’s Last Day’ documents his last day on the job before the IMAX theatre switches to a digital projection system, leaving Blair unemployed after projecting over 30,000 films.

  • A Celebration of Darkness

    A woman with a tortured past is triggered to take an unexpected walk down memory lane, she finds herself face-to- face with her inner child. Giving her a chance to make peace with her past. Does she find a way to celebrate darkness or does she become engulfed forever by it? In 2015, Jaene turned 40. This lead her to become introspective about her unusual life history. From a childhood of severe abuse, neglect, psychiatric institutionalization and being in care, she grew to become a street involved sex worker by 20. She met Elder, Isaac Day from Serpent River First…

  • Helium

    Commissioned by the 8 Fest for its 10-year anniversary, “Helium” is a dual-projector work that explores the worlds of competitive bodybuilding and balloon fetish. Originating from a deep fascination of the ability to derive such intense pleasure from otherwise innocuous objects or activities, “Helium” observes inflation, lust, and explosion.

  • Lily Eng’s First Thursday

    Lily Eng was a progenitor of the first wave of Toronto performance art and experimental dance in the early 1970s. she was mostly Female Warrior rather than Tutu’d Princess—using deeply exploratory movement techniques, plus hardcore performance art concepts. Eng was cutting edge, defying ethnic and anti-feminist prejudices. Surfing on a wave of acclaim, she was one of few from the scene to establish an intercontinental reputation. The film’s title comes from Lily Eng’s First Thursday performance at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada, in 2016. She was there by invitation, but it was 39 years since the 1977 Documenta 6…

  • The Films of David Rimmer

    Available for purchase in the CFMDC Shop: https://www.cfmdc.org/shop. This three-volume set brings together some of David Rimmer’s most seminal early works. Born in Vancouver, BC, Rimmer has been a pivotal figure in the city’s art scene since the early ’70s. Known for his experimentation with superimposition, looping and optical printing, Rimmer’s aesthetic reflects a “West Coast sensitivity to landscape, poetry and psychedelia” (Chris Kennedy). Volume One Square Inch Field -1968 / 13 min / 16mm / CLR / Sound Migration – 1969 / 11 min / 16mm / CLR / Sound Landscape -1970 / 8 min /16mm / CLR /…