Genres: experimental
-
Faust’s Other: An Idyll
“Faust Part 2”reveals the modern Faust in a romantic interlude, an idyll (from the Greek idein, “to see”); also, a journey of the id. A sense of story is inferred through the complex interweaving of human gesture, expression, and bodily movement within vibrantly shifting colours and rhythmic development, creating multiple levels of metaphorical meaning. A collaborative work with paintings by Emily Ripley and soundtrack by Joel Haertling. (SB)
-
Mezzo
When Breanna was 12 years old, she discovered opera and began exploring and acknowledging her gender identity. At age 25, she is the first transgender woman to complete a Masters in Opera at a major conservatory. The film traces the days leading up to her graduation recital while harkening back to the defining moments of her girlhood.
-
Luna e Santur
“Originally commissioned as a short for Ben Coonley’s My First 3D Part 2 at Microscope Gallery, I expanded this project into what it currently is: hooded figures, violent passion, and stroboscopic tenderness brought on by a paranormal encounter I had in the summer of 2015.” –JGS ‘‘A visually assaultive threnody for losses never fully revealed and composed for monstrous times, LUNA E SANTUR mingles sex and death with the supernatural and subnaturalistic.’-Colin Beckett “Moon and sun are elliptically and stroboscopically conjured in Joshua Gen Solondz’s cloistered yet operatic Luna e Santur. In milky, hand-processed images, hooded figures recalling Magritte’s The Lovers enact a…
-
Whitewash
“Whitewash” examines slavery in Canada and its omission from the national narrative. The country prides itself as being the benevolent refuge where enslaved Africans who were brought to United States gained their freedom via the Underground Railroad. That powerful image overshadows the fact that slavery was legal in Canada for over 200 years under both French and British rule. “Whitewash” brings to light some of the slave families that were brought to Prince Edward Island by Loyalists and looks at how nine generations of descendants have assimilated to the point of leaving very few visible traces of their origin.
-
Watch Tower
Structured in seven parts, each segment considers the impact a transmission beacon relays into its surrounding environment. Watch Tower acknowledges the act of watching through an acute awareness of how form influences perception while also observing the communications and time-keeping properties of the subject.
-
Flush
The film follows Abagail through the intake process into an eating disorder inpatient program. We glimpse her struggle with anorexia, bulimia and self harm and how they have thoroughly affected her entire life. We see her deepest most intimate thoughts she rarely shares with anyone; and through her memories, we delve into her private past. Based on the true story of the directors own life, eating disorder, and hospitalization; Flush is a candid look at living with the struggle and pain of a debilitating disorder.
-
AbRuPtiOns
AbRuPtiOns is a short abstract-musical film set to an original score by the composer-animator. Forms and shapes blink on and off in a complex rhythmic structure.
-
Watergazing
Watergazing is as old as humanity. It is the practise of calmly and peacefully studying the water, its motion and its shimmerings in order to experience images rising from our own depths. The flowing water becomes a metaphor for time, which assists the practised watergazer in seeing into the past and the future.
-
Brain Heart Lungs
A meditation on the end of life. Brain Heart Lungs is a visual music film set to an original score by the composer-animator. In an era of electronic imaging, transplants, and implants, much has changed in the contemporary view of our physical selves. Brain Heart Lungs delves under the skin, beyond race, religion, and gender into the world of organs and their contemporary meanings.
-
XircaNoX
It is an abstract musical narrative in which the hunting instinct plays out in an other-world setting. XircaNox inhabits a mysterious and challenging world full of art historical images. Set to an original score by the composer-animator, XircaNox is a significant addition to the artistic genre. Art history images include iconic works by Van Gogh, Holbein, Fragonard, Rodin, Manet, Da Vinci, Velazquez, Renoir, Ingres, Michelangelo, and more.
