“Running Fence” depicts the four-year struggle faced by the artist Christo to see his vision realized: a 24-mile fence of white fabric over the hills of California disappearing into the Pacific. After an extensive battle with the state bureaucracy, the fence is finally unfurled, bringing the community together in celebration of its beauty. The three-million-dollar fence was taken down as planned at the end of two weeks, and now exists solely on film.
Filter Films
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A cartoon image of dogs rushing across the screen, then reversing their direction, is looped over and over, to the accompaniment of a sprightly tune played on an organ. The footage is seen on television, then as film, then back on TV, deteriorating and recovering clarity as the repetitions roll on. “Lawder achieves the perfection of all his techniques… in which he uses a few seconds of cartoon dogs chasing a fox. By stop-motion reverse printing and video scanning and other techniques, he creates a totally new and different visual reality that is no longer a silly funny cartoon.” – Jonas Mekas, Village Voice
Runaway
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“Rumours of War” is a playful look, through a jaundiced eye, of the street preachers, Christians and charismatics that populate the streets of downtown Toronto. Through interviews, live action, text and montage, the filmmaker reveals the individuals behind the sermons, allowing their voices to be heard beyond the confines of their sidewalk pulpits. Ignoring foul weather, hecklers and occasional violence, the evangelists tirelessly exhort the faithless to repent before it’s too late.
Rumours of War
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“There is no one named Barbara to be found; a pair of mysterious blind-person’s hands (looking suspiciously like Wieland’s) make only one cameo appearance to ‘read’ us the title; yet these seemingly incongruous elements provide the perfect introduction to the ironic humour of the film itself. The main source of the film seems to be an old grade-school morality-movie on the appreciation of eyesight, starring golden-haired Mary, who finds herself temporarily blind, and a leaden-voiced narrator, who finds himself our unwitting straight-man. The filmmakers re-edited this curiosity and intercut it with other stock footage of disasters, agricultural techniques, and monster movies, to create a very different object lesson on the nature of vision.” – B. Ruby Rich
Barbara’s Blindness
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Filmed frame-by-frame in the camera, the focus of each frame is adjusted so that certain graphic features of items in the street are extracted and inscribed onto the film strip in a way which allows their characteristics to be seen, when projected in succession on the screen, as parts of a spatiotemporal image stretching from a position on a balcony over a canalized river to the road. The film is composed of twelve 2 3/4 minute reels, each of which was filmed on a different day throughout a six-month period. No editing was undertaken other than joining the reels together. This was done in a slightly non-chronological order so as to avoid accentuating the more anecdotal aspects of the scene.
Rue des Teinturiers
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“RSVP” is a lyrical piece which explores the emotions felt by a group of people, some who knew, and some who did not know, a man who has just died. Its approach, however, is unusual: there is almost no dialogue, but rather a central piece of music – “Le Spectre de la Rose” from Berlioz’ Les Nuits d’Eté, performed by Jessye Norman. This piece was requested by the man several weeks before his death; it plays on the radio, ironically, as his lover, Sid, returns home from the funeral. The music forms a link between various people listening to it – some aware of its significance, others not. Through these images and reactions, we learn something of this man’s life, and that he has died of AIDS, although the disease is never mentioned by name. Through the course of the film, the central character, Sid, takes a small step forward in his grieving process. “Rooted in the devastation AIDS has wrought in gay communities, this is a graceful elegy to those the disease has taken….” – Cameron Bailey, Toronto Festival of Festivals, 1991
RSVP
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On the voice over, de Bruyn places himself behind the wheel of a car, an appropriate metaphor for his expatriate driven-reflections on his feelings of exile, distance and loneliness. Necessarily unintelligent memories highlight habitual subjectivity of “walking through a landscape alone,” “gypsy,” “victim.” Images of road signs, cars, billboards, the passing landscape; elegantly simple rotoscope (by rote?) drawings, recopied and texturally manipulated filmic images; the inevitability of the repetition of leader. A tired, yearning, moving film.
Rote Movie
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“Roses Are Blue” is a short dramatic film exploring a woman’s sensual awakening to spiritual and feminist transformation. A blend of sci-fi, mysticism and modern relationship angst, “Roses Are Blue” was broadcast on WTN (Women’s Television Network) and won 2nd Prize at the 1998 Glebe Scenefest in Sydney, Australia. It features music by David Logan, Chip Yarwood and Edie Steiner.
Roses Are Blue
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An experiment in film collage made without the use of a camera. It utilizes food dye and handscratched animation directly on the film surface, intercut with live action found footage starring Hayley Mills. Hacked-up footage from an amateur monster movie is parallel-cut throughout, creating the appearance of a narrative.
Rose, The
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Continuous camera movement over stationary structures on New York rooftops, edited closely to a piece by Benjamin Britten. “Rooftops” reveals an urban landscape devoid of regular city life. “A meditative perusal of rooftops…interesting linear composition with the use of black leader between shots, and great after-images.” – Canyon Cinema
Rooftops
