Genres: experimental

  • Resurrectus Est.

    “Resurrectus Est.” is a hand-painted film which suggests, from the first, a spread of fragments of plants and flowers, individual petals and bits of twig with multiple colors, with much green “leafiness.” This gives way to solid yellows and browns of, or suggesting, dried grass and earth (the decay, as it were, of the above mentioned fragments); but then again, and so spaced with clear light whites as to appear airy, wind-blown, somesuch, miniscule fragments of plant life, gradually enlarging to fill-the-frame. Amidst the many floral and earthen tones, there is a particular ethereal pale, almost phosphorescent, blue which so…

  • If

    “If” is a story of longing and loss, taking place within the confines of a room whose objects represent the emotional perceptions of space, and the missing lovers presence. The reality of the outside world encroaches on the inner-space of daydreaming.

  • If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now

    “If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home By Now” is about the divisiveness over land, the relationship of public and private space in small-town America, and the concept of home. Using documentary strategies, landscape stills are juxtaposed to stories “ripped from the headlines” of a small-town newspaper. The struggle over public space described in the stories reflects universal concepts of space, privacy and property ownership.

  • Closer to Heaven

    Using the weather as a metaphor for the stages of grief, “Closer to Heaven” is a good-bye poem and homage to my Dad. Shot on Super 8 and optically printed. “Who can really distinguish between the sea and what’s reflected in it, or tell the difference between falling rain and loneliness?” – Haruki Murakami

  • Dear Mom

    “Dear Mom” is a story of the formation of a girl’s identity in relation to her powerful mother, her matriarchal family, and domestic fantasies created by melodramas of the 40s and 50s. When the young girl’s fantasy of matricide comes true with the untimely death of her Mother, she finds herself at a crossroads. She is left to reconstruct her own identity and find out that her Mother is more complex than she imagines.

  • Panels for the Walls of Heaven

    “This film is an entirely hand-painted film composed of a combination of highly complex step-printed super-impositions of hand-painting (at variable speeds), and raw and highly textured strips of hand-painted original film run at speed (24 distinct frames every second). It can be considered the fourth part of what had been called the “Vancouver Island Trilogy” (A CHILD’S GARDEN and THE SERIOUS SEA, THE MAMMALS OF VICTORIA, and THE GOD OF DAY HAD GONE DOWN UPON HIM), making the entire work now the ‘Vancouver Island Quartet.’ “Purple flashes are followed by a curtain of purple and blues, first seemingly static and…

  • Eye of the Beholder, The

    “The Eye of the Beholder” is a stream-of-consciousness montage of images created from light and shadow. It was made in conjunction with LIFT’s Second Annual $99 No Excuses Film Festival. Segments of the film are hand-processed.

  • Goodbye, I Have to Go

    A film about friendship; two women visit their old meeting place to exchange their goodbyes as they move on in life. Starring Victoria Balsom and Maria Calleja, music by Victoria Balsom.

  • hollow

    A film about the aftermath of loss. One person’s journey through grief and acceptance. Rage, mystery, and peace – all on the waterfront. “Intention and resolution soon become one in this contemplative black-and-white study which is as still and surreal as a painting by Magritte.” – Kathleen Smith, Director, Moving Pictures Festival

  • Central Character, The

    “A woman’s attempt to keep chaos at bay by naming, classifying, and ordering her domestic environment. This ultimately results in a total loss of ego and verbal capacity. Through the innovative juxtaposition of printed text, graphics, step printing, and disintegrating soundtrack, Gruben constructs a narrative breakdown that parallels the unconscious patterning of her character’s mind.” – Richard Stanford, National Gallery of Canada