Genres: experimental

  • Drop

    “‘Drop’ restages Newton’s celebrated encounter with the heaviest and most voluptuous fruit of the vegetable kingdom. It tracks the eye’s apple from the graceless decline of the primal couple to our own fall into the orbits of applied science. Begun at a crossroads soon abandoned, Drop’s anxious recollection services this passage from orchard to orison, reminding us of Toto’s immortal quip from ‘The Wizard of Oz’: the less the firma, the more the terra.” – Mike Hoolbom

  • Away

    Fragmented memories are recaptured on Super 8 film when Diego visits New York City for the first time, intent upon coming to terms with the love he lost years earlier.

  • Visitation, The

    “A statue of the Madonna from a shrine in the house where I grew up takes on an uncanny appearance as if in response to an incantation (an oft-recited prayer from my childhood).” – Louise Bourque

  • Remains

    “The mother figure revisited – a recurring theme in my work. A celluloid deterioration that addresses the ephemeral quality of the captured moment (the present) while revealing the insistent power of human presence in even the most deteriorated of states. The image of the mother is like a ghost that we won’t let go. A lament for the inevitable loss of legibility. “ – Louise Bourque

  • Fountain of Youth, The

    Old age is no barrier to wishful thinking; in fact it may be the time we can indulge in our most provocative fantasies. Madame Spinoza and Dr. Ramsbottom, denizens of an old age home and confined to their wheelchairs, are off on their wildest travels to seek the fountain of youth. Along the way they are assisted by memories of the past and resisted by the future of flaming youth. The vision ends with their nightly medication. Also available on the DVD compilation “James MacSwain Retrospective.”

  • Bouquets 11-20

    Comprised of ten one-minute films, shot at ecological sites in Italy, Switzerland and France, “Bouquets 11-20”, continues the work begun with the series “Bouquets 1-10” and “21-30.” Each bouquet of flowers is also a bouquet of film frames, woven together using in-camera techniques. “Bouquets 11-20”, filmed in Italy, Switzerland and France, was delayed by the weather and a series of related technical/aesthetic incidents. The ten little films (1 minute or 1440 frames each, with the exception of 23 frames or nearly a second more for n°16), continue the work begun with the series “Bouquets 1-10” and “21-30.” This consists of…

  • Drowning in Flames

    Torossian’s latest film marks a leap forward, and that’s saying a lot for a filmmaker who’s been releasing brilliant splashes of handmade abstraction into the world for the past two years. “Drowning in Flames” uses an astounding palette of image processing techniques to address the artistic process in both subject and form.

  • Jardin du soleil (Sun Garden)

    Beginning with natural light, an élément that played a major rôle in cinematographic développement, the subject of the film evolves around solar panels in two different places, Cascina Piola, Asti, in Italy, and Le Vieil Eclis, in Loire Atlantique, Asserac, France. We find ourselves in the middle of sparkling light, exposed to the wind, like the butterflies, the bees and the little clouds. (R.L.)

  • Jardins du Marais (Marsh Gardens)

    These magnificent gardens, in the Parc naturel régional de Brière, in the middle of the presqu’ile de Guérande, Loire-Atlantique, in France, covers over a hectare of land. It’s vegetable garden, ornamental garden, small forest and two ponds, make up a continuously evolving space, but also a visual mumble-jumble of wild life that draws one to delve into it in order to explore it cinematographically. In honor of Annick Bertrand-Gillen and Yves Gillen, the creators of this magnificent space in the middle of nature. (R.L.)

  • Rien d’extraordinaire (Nothing Special)

    Just a glimpse of this beautiful spot around the Hôtel-Pension Beau-Site on the Chemin sur Martigny, Switzerland, in a hamlet surrounded by snow-capped mountains. (R.L.) Music by François Alexis Degrenier (NB: Music starts before picture and ends after picture).