Film Categories: art & artists

  • Maple Flavour Films

    In April 2006, the creators of “Sidekick” traveled across Canada in an effort to generate enough positive word-of-mouth to lure a Canadian theatrical distributor to release their award-winning feature film in theatres. While chronicling the ups-and-downs of their coast-to-coast adventure, they also took to the streets to interview everyday Canadians and film industry professionals about their thoughts on Canadian films and the Canadian film industry. Honest, frank and often humourous, “Maple Flavour Films” is a documentary not to be missed! “This documentary starts off as an amusing little road movie about a film scriptwriter/producer taking the only 35mm print of…

  • General Idea: Art, AIDS and the Fin de siècle

    “General Idea: Art, AIDS and the fin de siècle” is a humorous, informative and ultimately poignant documentary about the internationally acclaimed Canadian artists’ collective General Idea. Formed in 1969, they produced art that targeted and mimicked media, consumerism and celebrity, creating a revolutionary new spirit of art making. Interviews with AA Bronson, the sole survivor of the trio, lends personal relevancy to this poignant story of art and sexual politics. “GENERAL IDEA: Art, AIDS and the fin de siècle” is a tale of love, fame, overwhelming loss and, ultimately, renewal. Selected screenings: Canadian Art Reel Artists Film Festival, 2009; Hot…

  • Broken Telephone

    A surreal short film in which a young woman ponders the relationship she has with her own identity.

  • Faces West

    “Faces West” is a hand-processed dance film that explores the conflict between desire and inhibition, intimacy and distance. Created in collaboration between Rebecca Gruihn (Director) and Niomi Cherney (Choreographer/Performer), it takes the viewer to three city spaces that can be considered both public and private. The tensions of Cherney’s unique movement style are captured by Gruihn’s 16mm camera.

  • XY

    “XY” is a close up on souls behind bodies. How does one live and accept their differences in a world of chaos, where discrimination is still a fact and being LGBT is still a crime? A young man is having sex with a stranger, and other men, and will slowly lose all control of himself, submerged by the pleasure… The men’s hands navigate through the young man’s body in a sensual dance until they both reach a strong climax trans! Later, under the shower, the young men will be haunted by that sexual experience. This film is a quest for…

  • King County

    “King County” follows Camile Schwartzbaum as she leads her community theatre company in a frantic search for a bad 80s movie to turn into the next Broadway Smash ala XANADU.

  • 16mm Postcard

    A diaristic film in which the filmmaker comes to terms with her new life in Vancouver, “16mm Postcard” is a bittersweet letter back home to the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative in Halifax. Like in any letter, it becomes painfully obvious that one can never fully communicate, and the result is a series of random tidbits that point to a larger experience.

  • Mean

    “Mean” is a diptych made from Super 8 film and old video footage. The pun of the title comes from the extra levels of “meaning” we attach to nation, religion, sports teams, and even to art genres like film and video. The hockey players were shot in Super 8 off a TV set and then subjected to cheap and crude “toy-like” effects – the result seems to capture the tragicomic nature of hockey fights (and of artists arguing). With the fans, the favourite kind of hockey fight results in 100% domination, with the complete humiliation and psychological disintegration of the…

  • Dialogue with Vision: The Art of Spring Hurlburt and Judith Schwarz, A

    An innovative half-hour film featuring two contemporary Canadian women artists at work. Spring Hurlbut and Judith Schwarz have exhibited their large site-specific sculptures throughout the world. The film gives the viewer a unique opportunity to examine the often intangible creative process which an artist explores on the way to completing a work of art. No ordinary documentary, compelling visuals and a haunting soundtrack make “A Dialogue with Vision” a pleasure for all.

  • Accidental, The

    This film is about inappropriate attention to sensory experiences other than the visual while driving and in response to an accident. Sound, touch and taste may disrupt safety to others and might threaten public order when not kept in check by the dominion of the visual. Dogs know all about this.