Genres: experimental

  • we two boys together clinging

    “we two boys together clinging” juxtaposes Elsie Wayne’s tirade in Parliament against gay marriage, with her repetitious, assumptive use of “we,” to Walt Whitman’s poem in which the personal is the political: “no law less than ourselves owning”, to question the interface of the law, personal freedom and moral judgement.

  • traveling thru with eyes closed tight (map #2 – january 03 thru january 06)

    a yellow field meets clear blue skies. a mist of water over bright green grass. a well worn sidewalk in grey and white. a lone black crow on a sandy beach. a lowering sun fades into the sea. Made with the support of LIFT & the New Directions in Cinema Series, 2006.

  • hysteria

    An unstable community leads to accusations and panic. Re-considering the Salem witch trials of 1692. Then doesn’t always seem so far off from now. “In ‘hysteria’, Christina Battle refers obliquely to the contemporary political climate using schoolbook illustrations of the Salem witch trials. She works the surface of the film in distinctive ways, lifting the emulsion to add new wrinkles to the image one frame at a time.” – Chris Gehman & Andréa Picard, Toronto International Film Festival Made with the support of LIFT & the New Directions in Cinema Series, 2006. Selected screenings: Toronto International Film Festival, 2006

  • three hours, fifteen minutes before the hurricane struck

    Inspired by the diorama-like boxes of Joseph Cornell, and with text taken from victims of hurricane Katrina, “three hours, fifteen minutes before the hurricane struck” imagines moments just before a violent weather storm. “three hours, fifteen minutes before the hurricane struck” is part of a larger project titled “weather series one (hurricanes)”, a mixed-media installation with works on paper, film, video and small objects. Made with the support of LIFT & the New Directions in Cinema Series, 2006.

  • Sequent of Hanna Avenue, The

    The Sequent of Hanna Ave. is the result of my reworkings of some experimental film practices and my enquiries into the phenomena of movement-illusionism in the film form. By combining found footage, hand processing and hi-end digital technology, I propose to elevate a few mundane gestures to a new perceptible wholeness, and give some small fingers and a c-cassette tape all the attention, grace and drama they somehow deserve. (This film was produced partly during my residency at the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto in late 2005.) Selected screenings: Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film, Durham, ON, 2006

  • Making Pictures

    “Making Pictures” is an experimental film that follows a fine art photographer being photographed by a documentary crew as he travels through China “making pictures” of massive industrial projects. The film contrasts the photographer and the laborers ‘at work’ and brings up complex questions about making art in that context. The film was photographed as a home movie on black and white super-8, hand-processed and blown up to 35mm for release. All of the lab work was done by the filmmaker including the optical printing and print processing. The texture of the film is as impressionist as the photographers’ work…

  • FLOW

    A stuffed pig, a pregnant woman, and a polar bear are among the unlikely cast of FLOW, a playful and surreal video shot entirely underwater. Unfolding within a concrete triptych the players alternately drift and hurry, locked in a dance of beginnings and endings.

  • close & low

    An ordinary dog effortlessly contains the most admirable human traits, much to the sorrow of one pathetic little man.

  • Remembrance Day Parade

    A somber parade shot on laboratory printing stock not intended to be used in a camera. All of the superimpositions were made in-camera and the roll was processed by hand in a very active developer. note: the presentation print is the unedited camera original

  • Almanac, The

    A 52-week film cycle shot with a vintage 35mm hand-cranked camera and processed entirely by hand. The project is a survey of essential human rituals that have not changed in thousands of years and the contemporary landscapes against which these rituals continue to be carried out. Loosely structured around the milestones reached during the first year of a child’s life, it is an examination of the human condition though the lens of 19th-century technology.