As the narrator sings of her confusion and disillusionment about the way the world is run, iconic images are presented and dismembered for both comic and unsettling effect. Conveyor-belt happy hamburgers cause heads to explode into love, flying deer are used for target practice and superman eats ice cream in his wheelchair. I’d like to share share, pretend I care but there’s no superheroes and I just don’t give a I wanna be a super model, a super model model, super model
Filter Films
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transparent “c” is a formal investigation into the structure of language and meaning. Not only does transparent “c” break down the language structure to the basic common denominators, but it also flushes out the direct correlation between sound and image in my work. transparent “c” demonstrates the range of the sonic palette in animated sound through the mechanical performance of the projector optically reading the alphabet. After the loss of my grandparents, and of all the possessions and artifacts my family had ever owned due to a devastating fire, I entered into a very contemplative period where I really tried to pare down to my fundamental values and desires. My film work followed suit.
transparent c
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“c: won eyed jail“ is a 35mm film project consisting of two parts: a quilt patterned out of 35mm still negatives and 35mm found motion picture, and a traditional film print of the quilt that is screened through a 35mm motion picture projector. I consider this quilt/film homage to Joyce Wieland, whose artwork called into question the binary oppositions concerning issues of art and craft, personal and public space, content and form, narrative and experimental, as well as commenting on the sociopolitical environment in which we live. The dual existence of “c: won eyed jail” as projected film and as a sculptural object is meant to call into question the original place of analysis of film: is it in the content projected on the screen or in the filmstrip/film negative—the “score” of the filmmaker? The quilt itself allows audience members access to the negative of the film, an art object normally sequestered from its viewing public. The two components of “c: won eyed jail” are meant to explore the very notion of film’s existence in time and space. This film explores experimental narrative and structural forms through the use of traditional “women’s work.” Narratives are told through the symbolic patterning in quiltmaking practices. I wanted to collect and re-present images in order to create a formal narrative guided by structural concerns. I decided to use only found film for this project, incorporating both 35mm still negatives and 35mm motion picture. Although 35mm still photography film and 35mm motion picture film are made from the same stock, there are huge differences in the size of the frame and the intended directionality of the filmstrip. Playing a print consisting of still picture negatives through a motion picture projector has a dramatic effect on the perception of the image. The result is almost like a collage unfolding and accumulating in real time before your very eyes. The fragmentation of the image re-presents the visual information in a more kinetic form: traces of the image. At the same time, “c: won eyed jail” exists as a very tangible object—a whole united through fragmented parts, which placed together create a coherent tale.
c: won eyed jail
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“Robota” is a stop-motion animated film done entirely in Lego. Set in a decayed urban core, a panhandling robot, Robota, makes enough money to place a bet at the robot-cockfighting arena. At the arena, Robota witnesses the carnage of robots created specifically for tearing one another apart for others’ amusement. Luckily, Robota wins enough money to continue on her journey. She navigates through deserted city streets, across highways of ferocious traffic and even takes the subway to get to her destination. Finally, Robota makes it to the Robot Repair Clinic (though a rather cut-rate one) and it is here that her dream comes true….well, kind of……
Robota
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Sweet SHIUAN, a non-Muslim Malaysian, secretly loves her tudungs (Muslim headscarves), but none of her friends and family know. She is looking for friends who understand and on this particular Tuesday, she finds them. ‘TUESDAY BE MY FRIEND’ tells the story of one Malaysian girl that decides to take her fate into her own hands just so she can be happy. Mandarin with English subtitles. “TUESDAY BE MY FRIEND” is set in modern-day Malaysia, a country with Islam as its official religion, and Bahasa Melayu (Malay language) as its national language. The tudung (hijab) is a Muslim headscarf normally worn only by Muslim women, who are predominantly Malay. According to the most Malaysian’s ‘interpretation’ of the Quran, Muslim women must wear the tudung. According to the Malaysian government, all Malays must be Muslim. The Chinese community rarely shows interest in the Malay community unless business is involved, and much antagonism and tension exists between the two races despite Malaysia’s tagline as a pluralistic society. Unless a Chinese woman is married to a Malay man and converted to Islam, Chinese women are never seen wearing a tudung. The tudung is a religious item used by Malay women for the purposes of covering their heads; a fabric of modesty.
Tuesday Be My Friend
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A nostalgic envisionment of city living – the potential shards of memory seen as if always on the verge of cutting the mind to pieces …: “Nostalgia is the most dangerous thought process” (poet Charles Olson, mid-60s). (Stan Brakhage)
Crack Glass Eulogy
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A prologue excerpt from the poem “Try to praise the mutilated world” sets the mood for this film of contained contrasts: black and white, negative and positive, light and dark. Recurring images of trees root the film, unifying its segments, and suggest further twinnings: (knowledge of) good and evil, humanity and nature, ephemeral and eternal – praise and mutilation. “A meditation on mutability and transience in the face of the perduring stone of the canyon.” – Barbara Godard
Praise
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Vision. Leadership. Expertise. Monster. Who the hell is running things anyway? Is he man or beast, machine or god? Toronto, New York, London, Tokyo – “BUSINESS AS USUAL” invites you along for a psychotic ride through the financial power capitals of the world. Witness the omnipresent executive citizen as he (it) imitates you with his bizarre rituals of behavioral dysfunction. Description – “BUSINESS AS USUAL” If a Corporation were to be embodied in a human being, how would it act? What would it do? What would it look like? Described as an art-film version of ‘The Corporation’, “BUSINESS AS USUAL” presents unusual representations through a more than usual character; the generic businessman. Gestures were filmed in front of stock exchange buildings in TORONTO (TSX), NEW YORK (NYSE), LONDON (FTSE) AND TOKYO (TSE) and edited as a collage-in-motion, combining location, gesture and image manipulation. The actions executed in each city reflect themes relating to the icon of the businessman, his costume, his behavior and his relationship to the historic symbols of money, but each theme is somehow contaminated. In Toronto many of the same businessman repeat a robotic nod of the head, surrounding the perimeter of the TSX, suggesting the easily reproducible image of the businessman. In London the icon has become head-less, frantically executing hand signs from the trading floor of the stock exchange. In Tokyo the businessman-icon becomes as digital as the screen he is examining inside the TSE. In New York he fondles a large wad of bills until they are blown all over Wall St. “BUSINESS AS USUAL” reveals the grotesquely human nature of the executive citizen and questions the threatening prevalence of global economic markets as the new world culture. “BUSINESS AS USUAL” is being developed into an installation version, which will include the original short film, as well as black and white 35mm photographs from Berlin, Seoul, Buenos Aires, and manipulated photographs from London.
Business as Usual
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This film explores the work and travels of John and Frank Navin, two gay brothers from Chicago, who create modern easy-listening music under the moniker The Aluminum Group. The film documents a music tour of Northern Italy where their musical past and future meet. With Cynthia Plaster Caster.
Pursuit of Happyness, The
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A hand-etched and collaged film where three figures navigate the modern social spaces of being “together alone.” Created with scratch animation, with an original score by Stephen Kelly of pop trio The Just Barelys. Selected screenings: Atlantic Film Festival, Halifax, 2006
Assembled
