White Museum

“‘White Museum’ is a 35-minute audio piece with 33 minutes of clear leader tape. In some hands, that could mean a fatal tour into the land of self-indulgence, but Hoolboom manages to make of his cinema without images an engaging, squatter’s eye view of the critical landscape. Hoolboom’s anecdotal voice-over floats over a soundtrack collage of pop-culture effluvia, television ads and snippets of rock music. His musings on film, the word and the workload of trees often resemble a cerebral stand-up routine.” – Robert Everett-Green, Globe and Mail “What a great idea! Makes Jim Jarmusch look like Cecil B. DeMille.” – John Harkness, NOW “Hoolboom pushes the irony to an opposite limit with his fascinating proposal for a ‘cinema without images.’” – Michael Dorland, Cinema Canada “One outstanding short film is Mike Hoolboom’s ‘White Museum.’ By no means generous with his images, Hoolboom is far from minimalist. Drawing on (uncredited) sources from Warhol to Derrida, the voice-over monologue is an entertaining and thoughtful commentary on the aural component of cinema, on language, movie-watching and production economics. The visual poverty of ‘White Museum’ is, paradoxically, the means by which Hoolboom creates a powerful analysis of the cinematic image.” – Katie Russell, NOW Voted one of the ten all-time worst films by American critic Fred Camper. Collections: National Gallery of Canada; Queens University