INDUSTRIE / INDUSTRY Oeuvres récentes / Recent Works by Richard Kerr Edited by Brett Kashmere Part high-tech, part handmade, this unique DVD-format exhibition catalog contains two hours of audio-visual material, including three new collage films and a spellbinding slide show by the Montreal filmmaker and visual artist Richard Kerr, as well as a bonus 60-minute audio collage/radio drama by Gerstyn Hayward. Packaged in original handcrafted and painted covers, the disc is accompanied by 70 pages of critical writing, notebook drawings, production notes, photographs, exhibition documentation and related artworks, plus a pullout gallery floor plan. With essays, conversations, program notes and other texts by Gerda Johanna Cammaer, Randolph Jordan, Brett Kashmere, Michael Rollo, Astria Suparak, Bart Testa, and William C. Wees. Edition of 500, signed and numbered. Essays in English and French. Handcrafted and painted covers by rdp. DVD CONTENTS collage d’hollywood (Richard Kerr, 35mm film, 2003, 8 min) hollywood decollage (Richard Kerr, digital video, 2004, 9 min) le bombardement le port des perles (Richard Kerr, 35mm to digital video, 2004, 8 min) Demi-monde (Richard Kerr, 35mm slide show, 2004, 25 min) A Family Thing (Gerstyn Hayward, audio collage, 2004, 60 min) DVD-ROM CONTENTS: Taking Inventory / Le Grand inventaire Introduction by Brett Kashmere Notes, Drawings and Ideas for Industrie / Industry Richard Kerr Richard Kerr’s Recuperation: After Motion Pictures and Les Collages de Hollywood Essay by Bart Testa Richard Kerr’s Stilled Cinema: Instilled Visions, Distilled Revisions Essay by Gerda Johanna Cammaer Melodrama for a Dying Medium: Richard Kerr’s Adventures on the Periphery Essay by Randolph Jordan Re-making collage d’hollywood A dialogue between Brett Kashmere and Michael Rollo Stealing from the Dream Factory: Collage, Montage, Hollywood and the Avant-Garde Essay by William C. Wees TROUBLE Program notes by Astria Suparak and Brett Kashmere 2005 Telecine Editions and Concordia University ISBN: 0-9736523-0-6
Filter Films
-
“Distemper” is a visually stunning dance film that deals with the emotional complexities of nightmares and suffocation. Directed by John Albanis and choreographed by Kimberley Cooper, it features music by Amon Tobin (the track “Rhino Jockey,” from his critically acclaimed album SUPERMODIFIED). Selected screenings: Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film, Toronto, ON, 2004; Constellation Change Screen Dance Festival, London, UK, 2005; Dance Camera West Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA, 2005
Distemper
-
Bahar is a 52-minute documentary about a Turkish transsexual, who has lived through many periods of tumultuous times, each of these chapters a fragment of her life marked by a different name she has chosen to call herself after abandoning her original name of Mustafa: Ayla (Aura), Ülkü (Ideal) and Bahar (Spring). The film was shot in Turkey with interviews conducted around the time of Bahar’s much-desired facial surgery. Having a sex change operation is surprisingly easy in Turkey. But the bill a transsexual has to pay is to be cast away from an ordinary life and suffer from the sensationalistic pathos that is cast on her life by the mainstream society. Transsexuals are often perceived only as sex-workers one sees on the streets in the night or on the news. They are portrayed as screaming sub-human creatures to be kept away from. With this work director Huseyin Karagoz wants to present a different perception of the lives of transsexuals and thus to show that the emotions, the passions, the warmth, the love, the insecurities are not much different than those similar feelings shared by the mainstream society. In Turkish with English sub-titles.
Bahar
-
A reworking of the trailer for the movie “Pearl Harbor,” using both handmade and digital techniques. Formally, “Le bombardement le port des perles” explores collage and found sound as voice-over.
Bombardement le port des perles, le
-
MATERIAL INCIDENTS is a DVD compilation of work featuring the following titles: TABULA RASA (1993-2004) 7:30 min. Filmed in a South Bronx high-school, “Tabula Rasa” explores the ambiguousness of appearances cultivated by institutions, the clues that tell the history of objects, colours, textures, architecture and, ultimately, psychological states. Second Prize, Media City 11; Jury’s Citation, Black Maria Festival HERE (2002) 7:00 min. “Here” plays as some form of synthetic/organic haiku or renga (Japanese linked poetry), linking semblance to semblance working with the primal power and suggestiveness of transient colours. Gold for Best Experimental Film, New York Film Expo COLOR STUDY (2000) 4:30 min. A humorous, digitally induced meditation on colours, motion and space form a few frames of roadside fall panorama in upstate NY. Second Prize, Black Maria Film & Video Festival WINTER COLLECTION (1992-2000) 4:30 min. MATERIAL INCIDENTS (2001) 5:00 min. “Material Incidents” brings a layered look to the secrets of light’s rituals and its loose associations with matter, temperature and the senses. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Vincent Grenier “is one of the most rigorous filmmakers of the experimental cinema and one of the most ingenious by the simplicity with which the questions of time and movement are accessed and put into images and sounds. Since his very first films, Grenier focuses his interest on the simple gestures of the everyday. To dissolve the abstraction, to draw one’s attention on the minute details which, when filmed, become very poetic and reveal the individual behind the mechanical and the routine…” (Nicole Gingras).
Material Incidents: A Collection of Digital Videos
-
Dedicated to the Canadian composer Pierre Mercure, the film is based on the continual repetition of very few sequences. The dominant sequence invovles a funeral. Available on DVD on “Charles Gagnon: 4 Films.”
Pierre Mercure 1927-1966
-
“You Are Not From Here” is a record of a rapidly disappearing vernacular landscape. With an oblique narration about the process of gentrification, the film explores the notions of discovery, belonging and the meanings we project on our environment. Shot in Super 8 and narrated by Philip Horowitz. Selected screenings: Mix New York, 2005; Athens International Film Festival, Ohio, USA, 2005; Antimatter Film and Video Festival, Victoria, BC, 2005
You Are Not From Here
-
Available for purchase in the CFMDC Shop: https://www.cfmdc.org/shop. In response to an increasingly technological world, there has been an explosion in the number of “handmade” films – those created by working directly with the material of the film. This compilation showcases recent works that use a range of handmade and artisanal techniques, including photograms, hand-processing, cameraless animation and collage. “Well-crafted and entertaining, this collection is an excellent presentation of short abstract films. Repeated imagery, animation, home movies, playful use of color, photograms, dance, and different light effects provide both fanciful and introspective moments of sheer film appreciation. These films would be a great asset to any film studies or filmmaking class or collection, useful for researchers looking for diversity in non-digital examples of experimental filmmaking styles. An excellent study guide accompanies the DVD. Highly Recommended.” – Debra Mandel, Educational Media Reviews Online 1) Two Eastern Hair Lines by Steven Woloshen (2004 / 35mm / 4 min.) Using bleaching and painting techniques on found footage, “Two Eastern Hair Lines” explores communication, conflict and isolation. 2) Post Mark Lick by Sonia Bridge (2002 / 35mm / 3.5 min.) A love-song to the pre-digital age of postal correspondence and photogram animation. 3) The View Never Changes by John Price (1996 / 16mm / 6 min.) Seething grain and swirling textures of B&W processed in a pail. Film as memory … an elaborate reconstruction perpetually shifting through the course of time. 4) 1:1 by Richard Reeves (2001 / 35mm / 2.5 min.) A cameraless animation about the 1:1 relationship between sound & picture. 5) The Light in Our Lizard Bellies by Sarah Abbott (1999 / 16mm / 8 min.) A hand-processed dance piece featuring dancer Susanna Hood which reflects the intensities that discombobulate us as we go through change. 6) Light Magic by Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof (2001 / 16mm / 3 min.) A lovely film which uses one of the earliest photographic processes: the photogram. This technique combines science and art to record the process of transformation. 7) Girl from Moush by Gariné Torossian (1993 / Super 8 + 16mm / 6 min.) A poetic montage of the artist’s journey through her subconscious Armenia. 8) Minus by Christopher Chong (1999 / 16mm / 3 min.) “Minus” is a hand-processed, uncut, singular stream of movements. To take away: either to leave remnants of light or to leave remnants of rhythms. 9) Handtinting by Joyce Wieland (1967 / 16mm / 5.5 min.) “‘Handtinting’ is full of small movements and actions, gestures begun and never completed… A beautifully realized type of chamber-music film whose sum-total feeling is ritualistic.” – Robert Cowan, Take One 10) Buffalo Lifts by Christina Battle (2004 / 16mm / 3 min.) Awash in sumptuous colour, a herd of buffalo desperately try to hold on as they struggle to cross the film frame. 11) Across by Cara Morton (1997 / 16mm / 3 min.) “’Across’ is about the sometimes difficult journey from one psychic space to another. From a place in the abusive past, to a place called survival.” – Liz Czach 12) Two Pictures by Carl Brown and Rose Lowder (1999 / 16mm / 12 min.) Tactile and textured, luscious and luminescent, “Two Pictures” is a singular statement embodying a powerful dichotomy.
Made By Hand: Experimental Works for Educational Environments
-
Available for purchase in the CFMDC Shop: https://www.cfmdc.org/shop. This compilation brings together challenging and innovative film and video works that explore lesbian/gay/bi/trans culture by both Queer pioneers and emerging makers. It covers a broad range of subject matter including gender and sexual identity, social dynamics, coming out, the impact of AIDS, and Queer youth culture. “Queers on the Verge… is an excellent compilation of short subjects featuring contemporary gay, lesbian, and transgender themes. This DVD is highly recommended and will be a great catalyst for discussion in high school and colleges, not just to gay audiences. It should be accessible in all collections.” – Debra Mandel, Educational Media Reviews Online (http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/emro/emroDetail.asp?Number=2750) 1) Leftovers by Janine Fung (1994 / 16mm / 8 min.) The filmmaker’s wild narration about misunderstandings in her traditional Chinese family plays over images of her mother carving a Thanksgiving turkey. 2) Interviews with My Next Girlfriend by Cassandra Nicolaou (2001 / 35mm / 13 min.) The fight to win the title of next girlfriend is the subject of this hilarious short, in which nine women are questioned by an unknown interviewer to see if they measure up. 3) Listen by Susan Justin (2004 / video / 3 min.) A daughter’s “coming out” to her mother falls on deaf ears. Sometimes people just don’t want to listen. 4) My Powder Blue World by Adam Brown (2004 / 16mm + video / 5 min.) A man recalls his childhood fantasy of attending school dressed like a girl. His story is a whimsical challenge to the institutions that try to regulate the expression of gender and self. Written and performed by David Bateman. 5) Thick Lips Thin Lips by Paul Lee (1994 / 16mm / 6 min.) A musical experimental film about racist and homophobic violence. 6) Christian Porn by Roy Mitchell (2000 / Super 8 / 6 min.) When the Saskatchewan Opposition party whipped Regina into a frenzy over the spending of tax dollars on screening gay porn, all hell broke lose. To overcome the uproar and win the hearts of the Christians, in steps BROTHER LOVE. 7) Since Then by Robert Kennedy (2001 / 16mm / 3 min.) After the love has gone, the mundane routines of everyday become the hope for a brighter tomorrow. 8) My Life in 5 Minutes by Allyson Mitchell (2000 / video / 7 min.) This autobiopic tells a life story with a bittersweet song, animation and family snaps. 9) Between You and Me by Ken Anderlini * (1994 / 16mm / 10 min.) An examination of the internalization of homophobia and the fatalism present in mainstream representations of the AIDS pandemic. *Between You and Me provided by Moving Images Distribution
Queers on the Verge: Experimental Works for Educational Environments
-
Available for purchase in the CFMDC Shop: https://www.cfmdc.org/shop. This collection of works made by women and dedicated to feminist subject matter is political, poetic and provocative. The works explore the complexities of identity and womanhood, addressing often-difficult issues such as domestic violence, body image and poverty, and locating the intersections where language, race, class and gender collide. “Fem Crit, a creative and thought-provoking compilation of seven super 8 and 16mm short films, presents candid and edgy kaleidoscopes of women’s personal experiences and reflections… These films showcase a range of creative narrative and filmmaking styles – useful for class discussion on women from a variety of perspectives. These films can also serve as a springboard for the production of independent film and video projects.” – Debra Mandel, Educational Media Reviews Online 1) Women Are Not Little Men by Lisa Hayes (1998 / 16mm / 15 min.) Contemporary and archival images are contrasted against the text of a 1950’s training manual, exposing and critiquing the widespread belief in the existence of a weaker sex. 2) Dandelions by Dawn Wilkinson (1995 / 16mm / 6 min.) Wilkinson looks at her self – black – and wonders how in the white landscape called Canada she can “enjoy the flowers,” as she cartwheels with great panache through fields of them. 3) Keltie’s Beard by Sara Halprin (1983 / 16mm / 9 min.) Before Keltie came along, the women in her family removed their facial hair and told no one. Keltie is proud of her beard and tells her story to us in this single-take film. 4) Speakbody by Kay Armatage (1980 / 16mm / 8 min.) With a mix of documentary, experimental and narrative techniques, “Speakbody” interweaves the voices of women recounting their experiences of abortion. 5) Sally’s Beauty Spot by Helen Lee (1990 / 16mm / 12 min.) Using Sally’s mole as a metaphor for cultural and sexual difference, this stylish and playful account of racial expectations and role-playing critiques Western stereotypes of Asian femininity. 6) Pustulations by Lisa Morse (2002 / 16mm / 8 min.) Using the painting-on-glass technique, this animation explores one woman’s compulsion to pick at her skin and the purulent, pustular world beneath it. 7) I Make Passes at Girls Who Wear Glasses by Melissa Levin (2002 / Super 8 / 2 min.) What’s more sexy than a dyke caressing the edge of her glass? A bevy of local ladies lining up to take their’s off.
Fem Crit: Experimental Works for Educational Environments
