A dark satire of the history of the United States…in under 8 minutes.
Filter Films
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Ten years after the triumph over Apartheid in South Africa, four former activists deal with the consequences of their dedication to human dignity with humour, frustration and hope. In this poignant and educational documentary, filmmaker Sarah Abbott presents issues that have been largely ignored by mainstream media, as its focus on the brutalities of apartheid shifted to the successes of transforming a nation. “Tide Marks” is an evocative collection of interviews, memories, observational footage, found photographs and South African music that re-visits apartheid history and looks at aspects of its present-day aftermath. Abbott’s intimate engagement with Cape Town residents reveals the irony that many people who fought at the grassroots level for democracy still struggle for daily survival a decade after South Africa’s first all-race elections. “Abbott blends extensive interviews with four people selected to represent gender, race, class and socio-economic status… [These are] powerful personal stories from a group of people not always written into the freedom narratives of South Africa.” – Mriam Conteh-Morgan, Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO) For full review see: http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=3725 www.sarahabbott.ca/tidemarks
Tide Marks
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“A special one for my first son… his last as a lone ranger (only child). Shot on double-perforation B&W 16mm, the film ran through the camera twice and doubled the consumption of ice cream and cake.” – John Price
Party #4
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“Dear Guy” dramatizes an inward and sometime romantically sentimental meditation on the relevance, remembrance and acculturation of Guy Debord’s life and works. The layered histrionics of the film engender reconsiderations of identification, moral responsibility, nostalgia and the potential of art in contemporary society. Excerpts from Debord’s memoir and fictional epistolary monologues are combined with an eclectic assortment of appropriated materials, invented leitmotifs, lecture performances, hybrid forms of the essay film, documentary and edutainment formats. “Dear Guy” drifts through a labyrinth-like montage structure that frustrates passive viewing while inviting contemplation. “DEAR GUY is an energetic response and thoughtful companion piece to Guy Debord’s work. Jeremy Todd provides the written scripts used in the film as well as references and links to Debord-related materials on the Internet at his Dear Guy blog (www.dearguyfilm.blogspot.com). This film is highly recommended and, quite frankly, often more interesting to watch than its source of original inspiration.” – Oksana Dykyj, Educational Media Reviews Online For full review, see: http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=3707
Dear Guy
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A young, cynical French film student comes to London for the weekend to make a film project for his course. Disillusioned by his London experience, he’s befriended by a stranger who shows him a side of the city, and himself, that he never would have seen. The story unfolds through his Super 8 film footage, and his voice-over narration gives us an insight into his thoughts and feelings throughout the journey.
Le Weekend
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Byron Chief-Moon is a multi-talented actor, stuntman, dancer, choreographer, playwright, founder of the Coyote Arts Percussive Performance Association, and member of the Blackfoot Confederacy, member of the Blood Band. Through his art and his life, Chief-Moon’s story is one of cultural survival. Themes of his dance creations begin with his people’s traditional stories, his attachment with the land and his community, as well as the inner conflict he faces in existing within the Aboriginal culture and the wider community. He is ensuring the preservation of his native language through its incorporation in his work. As well, he’s firm in his resolve that the spoken legends of his people are communicated to the next generations in his society, and for the larger society too. His art and his life cross boundaries. Challenging the cultural construct is never easy, but Chief-Moon does.
Byron Chief-Moon: Grey Horse Rider
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“The Dance of Life” features the extended monologue of a first-generation Canadian woman. This stream-of-consciousness reflects a discourse of existence fractured among the many “characters” seen in the film. A dizzying exploration of many people in the process of becoming many other people. Inevitably this cyclical dance, this tautology of existence, leads us to “la vie c’est la mort.”
Dance of Life, The
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“I’m not aware of you taking my skin,” says the artist’s mother to the camera as it zooms in on her eye as close as the lens will allow. “Taking My Skin” tracks a dialogue between the artist and her mother. Their exchange ranges from narrating the filming process “in the moment” to relations in an earlier time – “how long do you think it takes for a child to become separate?” Throughout the journey film spaces continuously dissolve and collapse only to separate again. Sometimes the artist is behind the camera, sometimes the mother, sometimes both simultaneously behind and in front, or neither. Both perform, film, and alternately instruct, position and direct the other. Formally and thematically, the film is an exploration of closeness, of synching, and the threat this poses to the self.
Taking My Skin
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“Devotion: a story about Ogawa Productions” is an 82-minute documentary of an important Japanese post-war documentary collective that made significant films of social struggle and village life. This investigative documentary situates the revolutionary lifestyle and films of Ogawa Productions within the framework of the global student movement of the New Left in the mid-’60s and the emerging documentary movement in Japan. In-depth stories from the collective members who contributed to this unique film making process are examined from a variety of perspectives and understandings. OSHIMA Nagisa, HARA Kazuo and HANEDA Sumiko, well-known film directors, present their personal recollections of this unique group. Memory, history, national culture, gender, and identity all figure in the stories as the evolution, development, and finally, disintegration, of this seminal film collective unfold.
Devotion
