Genres: experimental

  • BLU In YOU

    Walter Benjamin suggests that film is comparable to surgery, the instrument allowing the operator to penetrate the body of the subject while, paradoxically, maintaining his or her distance. This statement self-reflexively sets up the female spectator at the helm of the art-installation opening of Blu in You—an eloquent essayist film with visual conversations that dissects historical and contemporary representations of the black female body, sexuality and subjectivity. The female spectator (Melanie Smith), views the staged art installation conversations between visual arts curator (Andrea Fatona) and writer (Nalo Hopkinson). The conversations begin with a cultural history of violence, ethnographic display and…

  • Death of a Gentleman

    Playing tour guide, the director takes the audience through his own disintegration as an old man. Hints of his past loom about in the form of himself as a young boy and a beautiful woman who emanates a relinquished love – or love relinquished. All this, and eventually his own death, must play out in front of the dismissive narrator.

  • 16 Reasons Why I Hate Myself

    Matthew Lancit’s 16 Reasons Why I Hate Myself wryly plays with the concept of selfhood, traversing themes such as neuroticism, introspection and self-denigration. By allowing us an intimate look at sixteen of his supposed personal flaws from the physical to the psychological, Lancit posits the idea that we do not determine our identities but rather they determine us. (Sullivan+Strumpf Gallery)

  • Flâneurs – Street Rambles

    Between film projects and following the birth of his daughter, a Canadian in Paris (Matthew Lancit) must confront his slacker lifestyle and decide if there is something in it worth passing on to the next generation, or if he is better off getting a job. In search of the remaining traces of flâneurs (19th Century wanderers of Paris), he takes his daughter on a series of poetic strolls in which he assumes the role of a contemporary flâneur and crosses the path of people who help reveal the relevance of such a figure today. In the movement back and forth…

  • Iridescence

    “Iridescence” is an experimental visual short film, which exposes how society needs to label a person by their sexuality. In this story, dance and interpretive movement replaces the dialogue, allowing us to use the body to communicate the relationship between the characters and they’re true human emotions. Through stylize lighting and abstract visual, Iridescence tells the story of an emotionally repressed abusive father and his son who struggles to accept himself and his sexuality.

  • SENSORS

    In the summers of 2017 and 2018 record breaking forest fires dominated British Columbia with the number of forest fires in 2018 exceeding the 2017 record. One key difference between the two years was the timing of the widespread outbreaks. In 2017 the BC interior was inundated by haze and smoke as of early June while in 2018 the haze and smoke didn’t engulf the landscape until late July. Up until then the temperatures were relatively mild with enough moisture to create light conditions that were some of the most interesting I’ve seen in years. As satisfying as the early…

  • Protector

    “Protector” is the first in a series of short documentaries that explores Osborne’s relationship with their uncle/godfather and his experiences with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), institutionalization, and working in Mental Health.”Protector” attempts to portray a person living with DID in an authentic and multi-faceted way. This documentary was funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

  • Flying to Nowhere

    A flock of seagulls persist in the senseless attempt to move forward against heavy winds coming off the ocean.

  • Framing Agnes (short)

    In the late 1950s, a woman named Agnes approached the UCLA Medical Center seeking sex reassignment surgery. Her story was long considered to be exceptional and singular until never-before-seen case files of other patients were found in 2017. Watch as preeminent trans culture-makers of our time breathe new life into those who redefined gender in the midcentury. Starring Zackary Drucker (Transparent), Angelica Ross (Pose), Silas Howard (By Hook or By Crook), and Max Wolf Valerio (The Testosterone Files). “An incredible film that transforms the most difficult of archives and shows us critical trans study in action, on screen—I will be…

  • Senescent Vivarium

    Bordering on the fantastic, “Senescent Vivarium” represents four distinct seasons created by plants and insects selected to imitate authentic biospheres. These macro worlds are architectural masters of their own domain yet defy traditional still life representations. Transient narratives of familiar ecological cycles are pushed further into supernatural territory by the effects of hand processed 16mm black-and-white film, and a deeply atmospheric sound score.