“‘Digital Speech’ uses a traveler’s anecdote, a perverse variant of a classic Zen parable, as a vehicle for an exploration of language, thought and gesture. The tape plays with the nature of narrative, with ways of telling, performing and illustrating, and uses nonsense language, scat singing and video rescan for comic comment. “Rose’s terrific sense of humor and genius at timing make him a cross between an intellectual Eddie Murphy and an old-time vaudeville comedian with a PhD.” – Ann Sargent-Wooster, Afterimage “His works asks very serious questions regarding the nature of thought and the meaning of language, while at the same time casting banana peels for unsuspecting minds.” – Tom Gartside, New Art Examiner
Filter Films
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The filmmaker considers, with the help of animation, a piece of fan mail he received. Jury Award for Best Short Film, Pink Apple Film Festival, Zurich, Switzerland (2009) Selected Screenings: Berlinale, 2009 (Germany); Toronto International Film Festival, 2009; International Short Film Festival Winterthur, 2009 (Switzerland); Frameline LGBT Film Festival, 2009 (San Francisco, USA); image + nation Film Festival, 2009 (Montreal, Canada)
Island, The
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The friendship between two boys is jeopardized when they share secrets inside a yellow tent.
Yellow Tent, The
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HOW THE GRINCH STOLE MY HEART! (AND MY FAVOURITE SWEATSHIRT…) borrows Dr. Seuss’ famous villain, the Grinch, and transforms him from Whoville’s mythical Christmas hating goblin into a modern-day ex-girlfriend who breaks Abigail’s heart. Crushed by her loss, Abigail falls into a world of lovelorn misery, obsession, internet stalking and self-medicating. But finally, Abigail is struck by a sense of renewed self-worth, and triumphs over her love for the Grinch…or does she? Selected Screenings: Queersicht Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, 2009 (Bern, Switzerland); Reeling Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, 2009 (Chicago, IL); Seattle Lesbian & Gay FIlm Festival, 2009 (Seattle, WA)
How The Grinch Stole My Heart! (and my favourite sweatshirt…)
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“With Vincent Grenier’s LES CHAISES (2008), the suspended moment is loosened and stretched, and like the wind that blows throughout, there’s no sense of where it starts or stops. The HD views, which should quiet once and for all any remaining skeptics of the medium, are appropriately breathtaking; under the rustling leaves of a quiet afternoon subtle gradations of light and shadow, red and green, form. “In one recurring shot, Grenier fixes on the vinyl surface of a red chair, inviting us to sit and get lost in the image. The mottled reds, seemingly endless in their variation, fill the screen, and become more than an image, more than just an abstract rendering of a commonplace object, but an experience of the sublime. In Grenier’s hands, the camera becomes a tool for discovery, a way of seeing, an open path.” – Genevieve Yue (http://www.reverseshot.com/article/views_avantgarde_2008) Two weather-worn red vinyl chairs on an outdoor promontory oriented toward a “view”, stand as witnesses. The chairs themselves provide openings or internal views, into color fields, their standard issue “natural textures” upholstery, oval screens for the light projected through wind swept tree leaves. – VG Selected screenings: First Prize (Jury’s Choice Works), Black Maria Film & Video Festival (Jersey City, NJ, 2009); Athens International Film & Video Festival (2009); Media City Festival (Windsor, ON, 2009); New York Film Festival, Views from the Avant Garde (New York, NY, 2008)
Chaises, Les
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BECOMING SUSAN is a portrait documentary about Toronto activist Susan Gapka. The film enters Susan’s world through an exploration of the spaces around her, with Susan’s story filling these personal spaces before her visual representation does. BECOMING SUSAN presents a way of sharing the world of a trans-woman without focusing on the physical. Instead, visual fragments of Susan and her world serve as powerful metaphor for Susan’s journey from pieces to a whole. As we explore each new piece presented by the documentary we begin to understand that each is as important as the last to understanding her. Multi-faceted and complex Susan is, as we all are, made up of fragments of each moment of life.
Becoming Susan
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CORONATION PARK is constructed from haunting, sometimes abstract, cool blue shots of bare maple and oak trees in winter. The images are paired with the single word breathe. Inspired by the many languages spoken in the city of Toronto where the film was shot, the words rhythmically appear then disappears, each time in a different language. This pairing of text and image suggests a plea for the trees to “breathe”, to come back to life, to transform themselves from bare branches to the green leaves of spring. The winter leafless trees also resemble human body parts, limbs and veins, thus this plea is also for the humans — the living city. Occasionally, impressionistically rendered automobiles blur and stutter past the trees. These images reveal the location of Coronation Park as a busy urban island. This juxtaposition of traffic and trees represents our urban paradox: the traffic produces copious amounts of carbon dioxide, while the trees absorb it, releasing oxygen back into the air – ultimately, trees “breathe” for our city.
Coronation Park
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Outside his high school, Ángel talks to an older stranger on a bench, but the boy’s got more in mind than a simple conversation.
En el instituto (In the Highschool)
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This is a short tape about date rape that shows how two people can have different perceptions of the same situation. A great discussion starter for issues surrounding sexual assault and dating. Suitable for High School and up.
Difference of Opinion
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Mad pursuit for the wild life leads to an outrageously messy story about a cover girl who encounters dangerous magazine cut-outs. irmaVep / Stars the bride of quietness / In a flowery tale, / Who will transform thy shape, / Leaving behind unanswered questions: / What maidens loath? / What mad pursuit? / What struggle to escape? / What wild ecstasy? Selected Screenings: Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival, 2009 (Toronto, Canada); Cucalorus Festival, 2009 (Wilmington, NC)
irma Vep
