The enduring romance of lines is explored in this colourful handmade cameraless animation by Montreal animator Steven Woloshen. Dave Brubeck’s classic jazz standard “Take Five” is the starting point of this abstract visual interpretation. In Cinemascope. “I began this film in my usual fashion, which is to say, I hadn’t planned any narratives, characters or sections as starting points for this animation. As I worked and listened to the track – at least twenty times – the line drawing (representing the sound of a saxophone) was leading me either to one side of the frame or the other. The main colours began to dominate, and I was sectioning my parts into choruses, solos and refrains. Although ‘Take Five’ is a jazz standard, I feel that this is structured more as a pop tune.” – Steven Woloshen Awards: Best Non-Narrative Film, I Castelli Animati Festival, Rome, Italy, 2003
Filter Films
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“Final” is a nihilistic glimpse of a future where our time has finally run out. Civilization is in ruins as storms explode over half-demolished buildings. The clock accelerates in anticipation of our encroaching successor.
Final (Toxic 6)
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“Poppa” is about the contradictions of fatherhood. On one hand, a man craves the control and predictability of mathematics. This part of the “job” is presented in the form of layered nursery rhymes, sung in numbers. On the other hand, control will always elude those who seek it. When control is lost, the joy of surprise, the essence of fatherhood, can be found. This is demonstrated in “Poppa” through the image, made up of film of my son William when he was 10 months old. The film is processed by hand in a plastic bucket and then chemically tinted and toned, resulting in effects which I have never accomplished before or since. (GS)
Poppa (Toxic 2)
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“A Filmmaker’s Journey” is a feature-length mockumentary which chronicles Gerald L’Ecuyer’s attempt to shoot the movie of his dreams in New York City. With only Canadian grant money to spend, L’Ecuyer faces everything from a funding board that insists on nudity in every scene, to a crew that threatens mutiny from day one. Featuring Bob Balaban, Christopher Durang, Lothaire Bluteau, Ann Magnuson, Dan Futterman, Mary McLaughlin, and Gerald L’Ecuyer. The film was shot over a three-week period in New York City in May of 2002.
Filmmaker’s Journey, A
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Masturbation is one of life’s sweetest distractions. This experimental film is an homage to the pleasures a girl can experience, all on her own.
Rub
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Shot in black-and-white and sepia tones, “No You Cyant Touch It!” incorporates an understanding of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality as it deals with Black women’s favourite obsession – hair – from an interesting perspective. The film’s creatrix and subject examines the link between her locks, her Black, queer identity, and other people’s understanding/assumptions of who she is and where she “belongs.” The stark tones and political subject matter are mediated by Rhizome Syndrigast Coelacanth Flourishing’s lyrical poetics.
No You Cyant Touch It!
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“An extraordinarily provocative film which draws the viewer in with its strange mesmerizing beauty.” – Brothers Quay The film “Shadowy Encounters” is an homage to the work of the Quay Brothers. The film is a synthesis of collaged moving and still images taken directly from the Quay Brothers’ 35mm films and recontextualized in order to metaphorically and responsively capture and reframe the Quay’s films’ qualities. The resultant richly textured and layered imagery delves the labyrinthine and secret realms of the Quay Brothers’ world. In itself, “Shadowy Encounters” is a complete, compelling, mythic and painstaking transcription of an inner journey. It is a passionate, intimate and graceful dialogue conducted in the medium of film, filmmaker to filmmakers. In essence, “Shadowy Encounters” parallels the films of the Brothers Quay in its willingness to explore the diverse palette of the human psyche, where the emotional self subsumes the gaze.
Shadowy Encounters
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“The Nobb” slaps the face of NFB producers who come to Saskatchewan to teach us here hicks some New Age enlightenment. Colour by Crayola.
Nobb, The
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April light, naked silvery branches, craggy bark, towering in a blue sky. How do you embrace a tree that has given you four years of pleasure? Two weeks before I moved away, I filmed its portrait with my camera, bending its light in passionate strokes.
Caress
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Using home movies, vintage memorabilia, and the straight facts about Saskatchewan, the filmmaker creates an eccentric portrait of the first year of his life, and the province that shaped his identity. “Brian Stockton’s bittersweet tribute to the province he was born in perfectly captures the essence of life in the vast and lonely prairies.” – Nicole Cohen, EYE Weekly “Miss at your peril… Stockton’s grounded, deadpan voice-over, combined with the homely seduction of the images, keeps the tether strong between private myth and real life.” – Cameron Bailey, Now Magazine
Saskatchewan
