Film Format: 16mm

  • Dead Time

    Innovative and challenging, “Dead Time” is an investigation into the lives of four young people who grapple with drugs, crime, prostitution, family and ultimately hope for their future. Beautifully hand-processed and with an incredible soundtrack, “Dead Time” combines documentary, narrative and experimental elements into a fascinating whole. Selected Screenings: 2006 Rotterdam International Film Festival

  • Saddle: The Making of a Western Saddle

    This film is a lyrical journey that captures the major stages of making a western saddle. Beautifully filmed, it follows renowned saddlemaker Chuck Stormes as he transforms wood, leather and silver into an elegant balance of form and function. Shot on location at Stormes Saddlery in Calgary and Longview, Alberta, “Saddle” is a slice of Canada’s western culture and heritage. Honorable Mention, Columbus International Film and Video Festival “Chris Awards,” 1995

  • Cigarette Blues

    “Cigarette Blues” is a little film with a big message – that smoking cigarettes causes cancer and cancer will kill you. The pain and sorrow of this fact is demonstrated through the work of two very different artists. A sculpture, composed entirely of cigarerette butts smoked by prominent West Coast artist Louis Bunce, completed shortly before his death of lung cancer, opens the film. Oakland Blues singer Sonny Rhodes follows, singing the title song, a mournful tale of his lover whose refusal to stop smoking led to her death. “‘Cigarette Blues’ is a beaut!… you take people right up to…

  • In Bobcaygeon

    A moving portrait of one boy’s strength of character in the face of challenges associated with having microtia, a birth defect that causes severe hearing loss. “John Morgan, the 10-year-old subject of the short, artful documentary In Bobcaygeon, has microtia, a birth defect that caused him to be born with only one fully developed ear. There’s nothing wrong with John’s mouth, though – he talks a lot, about his microtia, about playing minor hockey and about the camel his family keeps in the backyard. The film’s vaguely avant-garde construction may pose a challenge for younger viewers, but there’s an unpretentious…

  • Time We Killed, The

    “The Time We Killed” is a lush B&W experimental narrative that portrays the life and imaginings of a writer unable to leave her New York City apartment. Robyn Taylor tries to comprehend and fight her growing agoraphobia by looking into her own past and confronting the world events of the present (from a murder-suicide next door to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq). Robyn’s obsessive ruminations threaten to drive her deeper into the solitude of an illusory world, until a personal encounter with death prompts her to leave the safety of home once again. Documentary material, scripted and improvised scenes are…

  • Circle

    A cinematic document of one year, shot day by day from the same viewpoint.

  • Standing Up

    At a surreal Texas bus-stop we meet Kate, a young punk who is befriended by Dorothy, an eccentric older woman. In this unlikely pairing, expectations and identity are questioned.

  • mary/me

    “mary/me” is a handmade cameraless film which uses collage techniques to sculpt the images and sound. The visual composition was made by meticulously cutting, shaping and collaging pages from “Cosmopolitan” magazine onto the film strip, combined with handpainting on the film. The sound treatment is created by pasting the words of an article from “Cosmo” titled “Why Men Marry Some Women and Not Others” directly onto the film’s optical soundtrack, with the letters themselves forming the audio as their graphic shape is translated into sound. “‘mary/me’ is a stunning experimental collage film that explores the prevalence of the virgin-whore dichotomy…

  • tangly wood

    “Tangly wood” is the story of Loupe, a young puppet artist who spends her days collecting found objects to create her art. One day, she finds something that brings back a memory and drives her into a frenzy of painting and creation.

  • Green

    “My first foray into collage animation uses low-fi techniques, such as a photocopier, to illustrate a story in limerick form. The limericks tell of a place where creativity is suppressed and all acts of resistance are covered over with white paint. It also illustrates a character who displays an open sexuality, both queer and polyamorous. The DIY aesthetic calls up notions of subversion of the dominant culture through its ues of low-tech and hand-made traces.” – Juliana Saragosa Selected screenings: Splice This! Super 8 Film Festival, Toronto, 2004