“Until ‘Rameau’s Nephew…’ no one has exhibited a film that deals so thoroughly with the range of perceptual problems elicited by the sound cinema.” – M. Keller, Chicago Film Centre “…an achievement of the originality and brilliance of ‘Wavelength.’ Snow embraces the problems on intimacy of language and thought with such variety, clarity and invention and high humour that again he seems to have made a film out of which an entire future movement could be mined.” – P. Adams Sitney, Soho Weekly News I started scripting this film in February 1972 and writing, shooting, mixing, editing and continued till September ‘74. Some ideas used in it date from 1966 when I recognized in myself the ambition to make an authentic Talking Picture i.e. true to its description, it moves for its content from the facts of the simultaneities of recorded speech and image; it is built from the true units of a “talking picture” the syllable and the frame. All the possible image/sound relationships centering around people and speech generate the movie-audience relationships: a wide range of emotional possibilities, the experience of seeing/hearing this film. “Speech,” “Language,” “Culture” – their source, their nature…recorded, imaged, prove (?) that in this case a word is worth 1000 pictures. (Michael Snow) Scripted and directed by Michael Snow. Shot primarily in Toronto and New York by himself, Keith Lock, Babette Mangolte, David York and others.
Filter Films
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A hand-painted film which deals with the mind’s visual absorption after the fact of blind rage. (Printed twice on the reel.)
Rage Net
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A mockumentary of memoires of childhood transgression. Former Brownies recall their lives in the organization, and two modern-day recruits – one a good Brownie and one a bad one – demonstrate different reactions to the rules and rituals of the Brownie circle.
Bad Brownies
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“Begun with a softly focused series of close-ups, London artist Greg Curnoe is unfurled in an impressionistic hue that gives way to a cataloguing of his Schwitters-like collages. Chambers proceeds with a strict attention to rhythm, chaining together recycled fragments in a round dance that swings in and out of closing doors, image winking out of darkness, the products of Curnoe’s labour intertwined with his own cooking, combing, taking out the garbage. His montage is not merely content to show an artist at work, but actively mimes the very work it is witness to. “A fragmentary confessional ensues, broken lines attempting to smooth the way of history, even as his speech is subject to an abrupt and interruptive editing. Additional sound is provided by the Nihilist Spasm Band, a jazz/free noise ensemble that included Curnoe, Michael Snow and other London artists. Dissonantly enlightening, they add an industrial flavour to a film resolutely set within the workplace – Curnoe’s Studio. ‘R-34’ ends in a gesture typical of Chambers, with an extended portrait sequence of Curnoe and his child. Both created and creator, the child is suspended between the re-ordered fragments of popular culture that is the stuff Curnoe’s artmaking, and a future that will take these same fragments and apply them to its own ends.” – Mike Hoolboom
R34
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Situated in an environment where nature and social-industrial technology meet, the film attempts a visual dialogue with (and critique of) mainstream society’s concerns. To the extent that it refers to the economy of means involved in relation to what is stated, the work is both a reflection on the possibilities of the medium and an inquiry concerning the implications of the reality filmed.
Quiproquo
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This film tells us the story of four francophones, aged 17 to 19, who have come from the war-torn and hunger-ravaged country of Somalia. Having just arrived in Canada, they are searching for cultural reference points that allow them to reconstruct their universe. But the way they live marginalizes them and they do not always recognize themselves in modernity. How can they reconcile old and new, past and present, myth and reality? It is this quest for remembrance, identity and freedom which the filmmaker seeks to capture.
Quatuor de l’exil, Le
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Animator Marilyn Cherenko continues her exploration of the poetic and spiritual qualities of life. The most lyrical of her films, “Pursuit/Flight” explores a woman’s fascination with a bird and the consequences of trying to “capture” freedom.
Pursuit / Flight
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“Life imitating art” is how comic Deb Filler describes the connection between her real life family and the characters she depicts in her offbeat 36-character solo show “Punch,” which balances humour, love, passion and pathos. Recreating the diverse eclectic experiences of her far-flung family by magically transforming herself into character after character, this is the story of a Holocaust survivor wih a difference. These stories mould themselves into a comic repertoire which is daring and delicate. Her comic talent is best described as Jackie Mason meets Tracey Ullman, with the British comedienne’s flair for mimicry and the Lower East Side social satirist’s acerbic wit , this is black humour at its absolute best.
Punch Me in the Stomach
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“Light Shaft” diagonally crosses the screen with a wedged light formation, usually on the diagonal. Its variations are rendered through arrangements of the tripod while panning the camera. Limiting the viewer’s attention to a smaller screen, a point in space, allows for a certain confusion as to whether the rest of the (dark) screen blends itself into the surrounding blackness or is just a window ino it. This is more apparent when the “wedged light” goes out of the frame. It can be felt as if crossing the room; and it reappears at the opposite end of the frame. Sometimes it just makes a turn and comes back. The form and size of the light are influenced by movements of other objects, thereby shifting the impressionof materiality between itself and its edges. (VG)
Puits de Lumiere, Le / Light Shaft
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Aloha! This gentle portrait of Auntie Irmgard Farden Aluli, one of Hawaii’s best-loved composers, focuses on Hawaiian women’s contributions to family structure, art, music and dance. An intimate glimpse into the real culture of the islands.
Puamana
