Genres: experimental

  • Praise

    A prologue excerpt from the poem “Try to praise the mutilated world” sets the mood for this film of contained contrasts: black and white, negative and positive, light and dark. Recurring images of trees root the film, unifying its segments, and suggest further twinnings: (knowledge of) good and evil, humanity and nature, ephemeral and eternal – praise and mutilation. “A meditation on mutability and transience in the face of the perduring stone of the canyon.” – Barbara Godard

  • Crack Glass Eulogy

    A nostalgic envisionment of city living – the potential shards of memory seen as if always on the verge of cutting the mind to pieces …: “Nostalgia is the most dangerous thought process” (poet Charles Olson, mid-60s). (Stan Brakhage)

  • Robota

    “Robota” is a stop-motion animated film done entirely in Lego. Set in a decayed urban core, a panhandling robot, Robota, makes enough money to place a bet at the robot-cockfighting arena. At the arena, Robota witnesses the carnage of robots created specifically for tearing one another apart for others’ amusement. Luckily, Robota wins enough money to continue on her journey. She navigates through deserted city streets, across highways of ferocious traffic and even takes the subway to get to her destination. Finally, Robota makes it to the Robot Repair Clinic (though a rather cut-rate one) and it is here that…

  • c: won eyed jail

    “c: won eyed jail“ is a 35mm film project consisting of two parts: a quilt patterned out of 35mm still negatives and 35mm found motion picture, and a traditional film print of the quilt that is screened through a 35mm motion picture projector. I consider this quilt/film homage to Joyce Wieland, whose artwork called into question the binary oppositions concerning issues of art and craft, personal and public space, content and form, narrative and experimental, as well as commenting on the sociopolitical environment in which we live. The dual existence of “c: won eyed jail” as projected film and as…

  • transparent c

    transparent “c” is a formal investigation into the structure of language and meaning. Not only does transparent “c” break down the language structure to the basic common denominators, but it also flushes out the direct correlation between sound and image in my work. transparent “c” demonstrates the range of the sonic palette in animated sound through the mechanical performance of the projector optically reading the alphabet. After the loss of my grandparents, and of all the possessions and artifacts my family had ever owned due to a devastating fire, I entered into a very contemplative period where I really tried…

  • Devil Lives in Hollywood, The

    As the narrator sings of her confusion and disillusionment about the way the world is run, iconic images are presented and dismembered for both comic and unsettling effect. Conveyor-belt happy hamburgers cause heads to explode into love, flying deer are used for target practice and superman eats ice cream in his wheelchair. I’d like to share share, pretend I care but there’s no superheroes and I just don’t give a I wanna be a super model, a super model model, super model

  • Sylva Lining

    Amy Lockhart uses cut-outs and quirky drawings to bring you a short little animation with a big bang and a happy ending. “Sylva Lining” is a short animated film with a whole bunch of little guys in little windows, then a zeppelin comes and they get scared away, but don’t worry, it has a happy ending!

  • Blue Monet

    NOTE: BLUE MONET is dual-projection 16mm. “[Carl Brown’s] documentaries of perception explode across the screen in colours that would make Disney blush, transforming even the simplest objects into teeming washes of longing and despair. Brown’s painterly vigils . . . mark him as a unique figure of the Canadian fringe.” – Mike Hoolboom “Brown is among the world’s major innovators in the experimental use of film chemistry, placing him among a small cabal of cinematic alchemists that includes Jürgen Reble and Phil Solomon. His works have typically been feature-length, and are marked by a cyclical editing style and remarkably intense,…

  • Changing Evan

    Is my daughter Evan like a puzzle? Just when I think everything is going well, either a germ will attack or a new emotion will surface. I hear that children change every week. When I was making this film, my daughter was invaded by the chicken pox virus. I was convinced that I must finish this film as quickly as possible because her health was directly linked to its completion. Honourable mention by the Canadian Film Centre at the 2006 Ottawa International Animation Festival.

  • In Cairo

    Exploring the reasons why people travel, RM Vaughan recounts his journey to Egypt in a series of slow, reverse dissolves that show the narrator standing, like a classic tourist, before the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx.