Genres: experimental

  • stage fright

    The curtains are drawn, a clown stands in the spotlight, the reception is dismal. Before s/he can even begin to perform, debilitating fear takes over. Both sad and humorous, this film explores how one can be manipulated by the depths of fear.

  • Larry’s Recent Behaviour

    One of Joyce Wieland’s earliest works, shot in 8mm and finally blown-up to 16mm, “Larry’s Recent Behaviour” has been described by Simon Field as an “irreverent and wilfully juvenile examination” of a nasty habit that Larry has recently acquired.

  • Yesterday’s Wine

    “Yesterday’s Wine” is a found-footage film that explores the nature of filmmaking by deconstructing the violence common to commercial, narrative cinema. Constructed from old regular and Super 8mm films, with a dialogue created from language tapes, the film also examines the self-referential nature of filmmaking. Inspired surrealism and dadaism, disparate material is brought together through intuitive associations to create an absurd homage to old and obscure cinema.

  • Book of Lies

    An Air Canada commercial is broken into single frames and then reconstructed to show the movement of the body and the movement of the exotic coming together in a spectacular free fall.

  • Cloister

    As the wheel turns, the religion of the body moves to and through the physical into the psychological. We see the feared, all is moved. There is a hint of seclusion, an idea from the past re-worked and still dangerous. The participants unsure choose a convent and are still revealed. Through a window there appears a tree, and then a forest. Too many options. The monastic life, safe and sure. We cluster for the cloister. Sound by Michael Snow and John Kamevaar.

  • Zyklon Portrait

    “Zyklon Portrait” is about Zyklon B – the pesticide transformed into a genocidal weapon by the Nazis in the 1940s. It is also an elegy for the filmmaker’s grandparents. After years of silence, the filmmaker’s mother finally talks about her parents’ horrific fate. “Zyklon Portrait” is a Holocaust film without Holocaust imagery: family photographs, underwater photography and hand-painted imagery draw a personal story out of historical minutiae. “Elliptical and eerily beautiful.” – John Doyle, The Globe & Mail Awards: Grand Prize, Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Film, Spain; Best Short, Best Editing and Vision TV Humanitarian Award, Hot…

  • Mothers of Me

    “‘Mothers of Me’ is a visually glorious, abstract study in which the filmmaker explores, partly out of fear, the women in her family, their history of insanity and their response to a repressive environment. Through the use of close-ups and fragmented composition we are compelled to participate in her examination.” – Stacey Donen, Toronto Intenational Film Festival, 1999 Awards: 2nd Prize Danzante de Plata, Festival de Cine de Huesca, Spain; Marian McMahon Award, Images Festival, 2001

  • Snailfingers

    On her immigration flight to Canada, Lailey, a young Iranian woman, encounters Snailfingers, an ancient aboriginal water-spirit. When Lailey and Snailfingers make contact, their stories become intertwined and unfold simultaneously. The drama chronicles a slice from the lives of Lailey and her sister Parvaneh, attending ESL school. Here Lailey meets Claire, the teacher’s assistant, a disillusioned lesbian of colour who represents the Sapphic voice. The secular lives of the three women are juxtaposed with Snailfingers’ spiritual existence. A poetic narrative presents glimpses of Snailfingers as she embarks on a healing quest. Several montages featuring water as the quintessential Yin element…

  • Hi I’m Steve

    Dissatisfied with his sex life, Steve decides he’ll give gay telephone dating a try. Although he never seems to find the right person, he does discover a new fetish at the core of his sexual being.

  • Eulogy / Obverse

    A filmmaker confronts his own sense of responsibility based on images he has created. AWARDS 1999 Regina Film and Video Competition: Best Experimental, Best Critical Thought, Best Overall 1999 Niagara Film and Video Competition: Best Experimental 1999 Montreal World Film Festival: Best Experimental 1999 TVO Telefest Competition: Jay Scott Award for Best Overall Production, Best Experimental 2000 Ann Arbor Film Festival: Honorable Mention 2000 Black Maria Film Festival: Honorable Mention ADDITIONAL SCREENINGS 2000 Cinematheque Ontario, Jackman Hall 2000 Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival 2000 Images Festival of Independent Film and Video 2000 Millennium Film Workshop 2000 BBC British Short…