Film Categories: art & artists

  • Nelligan

    “An Artist’s Dream,” by renowned French-Canadian poet Emile Nelligan, serves as the basis for this dance film. Choreographed by Ann Ditchburn (known for her work with the National Ballet of Canada) and set to music by Andre Gagnon, the piece is performed by two of Canada’s outstanding dance artists, Robert Desrosiers and Claudia Moore.

  • Neurosis

    “Neurosis” makes a powerful anti-war statement through its use of animated still photos as well as live-action footage of a political demonstration. At points the animation of still photos is so dynamic as to create a sense of live-action footage, while at other points it is the very stasis of the imagery that is so effective.

  • New Improved Institutional Quality…

    An attempt is made to escape from the oppressive environment of a test – a test containing meaningless, contradictory, and impossible-to-follow directions – by entering into the imagination. In this case it is specifically the imagination of the filmmaker, in which the test-taker encounters images from previous Land films.

  • New York Eye and Ear Control

    “One of the major achievements of the sixties. Mike Snow postulates an eye that stares at surfaces with such intensity… The image itself seems to quiver, finally gives way under the pressure. A deceptive beginning – silent: a flat white form sharply cut to the silhouette of a walking woman…More human images, love-making – a human epic now still ruled by the after image of the Walking Woman. As in no other film yet seen, its alternately soft and granite images lift us toward the year 2000; capturing not events, not objects, but again and again registering a ‘placement’ of…

  • 1933

    “1933. The year? the number? the title? Was it (the film) made then? It’s a memory! (i.e. a Film.) No, it’s many memories. It’s so sad and funny: the departed, departing people, cars, streets! It hurries, it’s gone, it’s back! the film (of 1933?) was made in 1967. You find out, if you don’t already know, how naming tints pure vision.” – Michael Snow “The repeated images are such that they appear to be different each time; to be expanding. ‘1933’ has a machine-mechanical doll rhythmic-like structure.” – Robert Cowan, Take One

  • Non-Zymase Pentathlon

    “Non-Zymase Pentathlon” makes use of the commercial imagery of post-war North America, culled from the pages of Life, Maclean’s, National Geographic, and their ilk, animating these pictures in absurd and arbitrary juxtapositions. Animals, people, consumer goods, military equipment, and other detritus float across different planes in an ambiguous film-space. The film is structured into five “events,” preceded by a brief introduction.

  • Northbound Cairo

    “It’s no bag of pretzels!” Little does Max realize that it is a bag of pretzels, and much, much more. His planned trip to Georgian Bay to document a self-absorbed artist’s work is turned into a personal nightmare by the artist’s doting wife, indifferent children, and Mara, a young woman who has appeared out of an Egyptian dream to taunt him and to confront his neo-macho self-image. An idyllic drive into cottage country is transformed into a metaphorical journey through unfamiliar territory and cinematic absurdity. “Northbound Cairo” is a half-hour experimental comedy. Mara, a vivacious, young woman, has an inexplicable…

  • Notes on the Circus

    It’s the Ringling Brothers – but really it’s the circus of my childhood, with all the phantastic things going on, and colours, and mystery, and the exotic, and dreams and amazement. (JM)

  • Now, Yours

    “Once he has focused our concentration on the screen ahead, Hoolboom’s disembodied voice questions who has access to the privilege of a filmic voice and, once granted, the extent to which this authority is unquestioned by both the filmmaker and the viewing audience. ‘Now, Yours’ investigates this power of control through footage from 1950’s tourism and customer appreciation films/advertisements.” – Pleasure Dome, Toronto

  • October Stranger

    “October Stranger” is a highly acclaimed drama about a young Ojibway Indian who must leave his youth behind on the reserve in Northern Ontario in order to pursue his writing career. It is a thoughful and gentle love story, full of fine poetry. Beautifully photographed on location near Sioux Lookout, it reveals modern life on the reserve with a rare depth and respect, as the old ways and the new come to terms with one another. It is the story of an artist finding his voice, and of a native gathering the courage to go “south” to the city.