“The Red Book” is an elliptical, pictographic animated film that uses flat, painted figures and collage elements in both two and three-dimensional settings to explore the realms of memory, language, and identity from the point of view of a woman amnesiac. “The Red Book” suggests the ways in which language defines us, and reaches back into dismemberment myths about creation of different tongues through the breaking apart of bodies (in this case, the woman’s body). As the film progresses, the submerged images of her stored memory appear and collide with the present world in circular rhythms, and there is a sense of irretrievable loss.
Filter Films
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The fight to win the title of next girlfriend is the subject of this hilarious short by director Cassandra Nicolaou. Starring a cast of Toronto celebrities including Ann-Marie Macdonald, Diane Flacks, Karen Robinson, Shoshana Sperling and Moynan King, nine women are questioned by an unknown interviewer to see if they measure up. Awards: Audience Award & Best Comedy, planetout.com/HBO Short Movie Awards; Audience Favourite, Palm Springs International Short Film Festival; Audience Award, Best Short Film, Inside Out Toronto Gay & Lesbian Film & Video Festival; Best Short Film, Paris Lesbian Film Festival; Audience Award, Best Fiction Film, Bologna International Women’s Film Festival
Interviews with My Next Girlfriend
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A gay man has fallen in love with a woman; she has gone away, and the image of her face haunts him. Desperately, he tries to come up with a way to be close to her again.
Let Me Start by Saying
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Aerial insecticide spraying of forests is the most ignored environmental problem in North America today. In Canada, every province east of Saskatchewan, with the exception of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, sprays annually to control the spruce budworm. New Brunswick forests have been sprayed since 1952, longer than anywhere else in the world. “Budworks” investigates the controversy surrounding the spraying and goes directly to the people who are involved.
Budworks
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Stunning hand-tinted imagery intermingles with a love letter to the artist’s departed dog Mica. Bittersweet as any country song, so familiar you swear you’ve heard it before – but it’s just your heart breaking, worn and sure.
Traces
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Damian sinks into desperation as he realizes that both he and his family have an arduous journey ahead if they are to heal old wounds and come to terms with his dawning sexuality.
Coming to Terms
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This lyrical experimental / narrative film was inspired by the various myths of the Soul Cages. Legend states that the souls of drowned sailors are captured by underwater spirits and held in clay pots at the bottom of the ocean. A mortal man becomes compelled to set the souls free so that they can continue their afterlife journey. The film sets the legend in the present. It is the story about a relationship between a photographer and the man who possesses her film in a one-hour photo lab. I was inspired by the Soul Cages myth to construct a narrative that explores how a subject’s soul can be captured in an image. The notion that photography is a certifier of truth is no longer valid, as photo manipulation provides a second chance, a narcissistic reordering of reality. (PB)
Soul Cages
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“Crusty Tops and Hot Bottoms” Starring Nina Levitt with Guests Megan Richard and Megan Stanton. This time Butch is in the kitchen baking white bread and knitting up a storm!
Baking with Butch, Episode 2
