Genres: experimental

  • Moving Pictures Quartet

    A new DVD compilation of four short dance films produced by the Moving Pictures Dancefilm Art Society. ICARUS Dir. Curtis Wehrfritz, 6 min., 2001 Shot on two hand-cranked cameras, this film captures segments from “Wind,” part of a performance cycle about the four elements choreographed by Bill James. Inspired by the Greek myth of Icarus, who fell from grace after flying too close to the sun, this work contrast post-industrial waste with stunning images of artifice. Performed by Yvonne Ng, Shannon Cooney and Robert Glumbek, with music by Tom Third. GARDEN OF STONE Dir. Gregory Nixon, 5 min. 1999 Kathak…

  • Devotion

    “Devotion: a story about Ogawa Productions” is an 82-minute documentary of an important Japanese post-war documentary collective that made significant films of social struggle and village life. This investigative documentary situates the revolutionary lifestyle and films of Ogawa Productions within the framework of the global student movement of the New Left in the mid-’60s and the emerging documentary movement in Japan. In-depth stories from the collective members who contributed to this unique film making process are examined from a variety of perspectives and understandings. OSHIMA Nagisa, HARA Kazuo and HANEDA Sumiko, well-known film directors, present their personal recollections of this…

  • Taking My Skin

    “I’m not aware of you taking my skin,” says the artist’s mother to the camera as it zooms in on her eye as close as the lens will allow. “Taking My Skin” tracks a dialogue between the artist and her mother. Their exchange ranges from narrating the filming process “in the moment” to relations in an earlier time – “how long do you think it takes for a child to become separate?” Throughout the journey film spaces continuously dissolve and collapse only to separate again. Sometimes the artist is behind the camera, sometimes the mother, sometimes both simultaneously behind and…

  • Dance of Life, The

    “The Dance of Life” features the extended monologue of a first-generation Canadian woman. This stream-of-consciousness reflects a discourse of existence fractured among the many “characters” seen in the film. A dizzying exploration of many people in the process of becoming many other people. Inevitably this cyclical dance, this tautology of existence, leads us to “la vie c’est la mort.”

  • Dear Guy

    “Dear Guy” dramatizes an inward and sometime romantically sentimental meditation on the relevance, remembrance and acculturation of Guy Debord’s life and works. The layered histrionics of the film engender reconsiderations of identification, moral responsibility, nostalgia and the potential of art in contemporary society. Excerpts from Debord’s memoir and fictional epistolary monologues are combined with an eclectic assortment of appropriated materials, invented leitmotifs, lecture performances, hybrid forms of the essay film, documentary and edutainment formats. “Dear Guy” drifts through a labyrinth-like montage structure that frustrates passive viewing while inviting contemplation. “DEAR GUY is an energetic response and thoughtful companion piece to…

  • Party #4

    “A special one for my first son… his last as a lone ranger (only child). Shot on double-perforation B&W 16mm, the film ran through the camera twice and doubled the consumption of ice cream and cake.” – John Price

  • Shimmer Box Drive

    Reflections, recollections and thoughts from the front seat of an automobile.

  • America the Beautiful

    A dark satire of the history of the United States…in under 8 minutes.

  • Fountain of Youth

    The last home movie. Shot on now discontinued Kodachrome 40 super 8 film stock, a cine-poem to time, childhood and the colour of memory.

  • Purple Lipstick

    Purple is the colour of a fresh bruise. Haley’s latest videopoem, “Purple Lipstick” confronts the insidious nature of domestic violence through compelling juxtapositions. A disembodied female voice employs vivid language, absurdist against a backdrop of banality, images of “normal” family life. Numb in her isolation and still in her nurse’s uniform, a wife and mother prepares dinner. The inherent terror of her homelife is invoked with excruciating tension. Its brutality can only be alluded to.