Introduced by Lauren Howes
Lauren Howes is the executive director of the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC).
Spanning four decades of Canadian experimental cinema, tonight’s program comprises work that is visually and viscerally engaged with the natural world. Made by artists from or living in Canada, these films and videos employ an array of aesthetic strategies and image technologies to depict nature while simultaneously exploring the nature of the cinematic image. They include photograms of natural objects as well as a reprise of the first filmed images ever shot in Canada, and range from quiet and slow contemplations to multilayered and optically printed frenzies. While some investigate Canadian landscapes with intensity and proximity, others explore the animal or the animated with ironic distance. With passion, intensity, and humor, f ilm artists David Rimmer, Ellie Epp, Richard Kerr, John Price, Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof, Daichi Saito, and Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby offer us provocative visions of this land they call home.—Irina Leimbacher
Light Magic (Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof, 2001, 3 mins, Color, 16mm). Migration (David Rimmer, 1969, 11 mins, B&W, 16mm). Notes in Origin (Ellie Epp, 1987, 15 mins, Silent, Color, 16mm). En Plein Air (Richard Kerr, 1991, 20 mins, Color, 16mm). View of the Falls from the Canadian Side (John Price, 2006, 7 mins, Silent, Color/B&W, ‘Scope, 35mm). Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (Daichi Saito, 2009, 10 mins, Color, 35mm). Beauty Plus Pity (Emily Vey Duke, Cooper Battersby, 2009, 14 mins, Color, Digital video)
• (Total running time: 80 mins, From CFMDC)
