Film Categories: film studies

  • Films of Su Friedrich, The: Volume 2 – Damned If You Don’t

    “Damned If You Don’t” is Friedrich’s subversive and ecstatic response to her Catholic upbringing. Blending conventional narrative technique with impressionistic camerawork, symbols and voice-overs, this film creates an intimate study of sexual expression and repression. Featuring Peggy Healey as a young nun tormented by her desire for the sultry irresistible Ela Troyano. Languages: English, German PLUS BONUS FILMS: RULES OF THE ROAD 31 minutes, Color, USA, 1993, 16mm RULES OF THE ROAD is the story of a love affair and its demise through one of the objects shared by the couple: an old beige station wagon with fake wood paneling.…

  • Films of Su Friedrich, The: Volume 3 – Sink or Swim

    A contemporary classic and a landmark in autobiographical filmmaking, “Sink or Swim” is an unflinching account of the highly charged relationship between a daughter and her father. Through a series of twenty-six short stories, a young girl chronicles the childhood events that shaped her ideas about fatherhood, family relations, work and play. As the stories unfold, a dual portrait emerges: that of a father who cared more for his career than for his family, and of a daughter who was deeply affected by his behavior. Working in counterpoint to the forceful text are sensual black and white images that depict…

  • Films of Su Friedrich, The: Volume 4 – Hide and Seek

    “Hide and Seek” tells the story of Lou, a twelve-year-old girl coming to terms with her budding sexuality in the mid 1960s. Her bittersweet tale is skillfully interwoven with clips from a wide array of scientific and educational films, as well as interviews with adult lesbians who recount their adolescent attractions to girls, how they felt when they first heard the word lesbian, where they fit in the butch/femme continuum, and their thoughts about how they became baby dykes. “Hide and Seek” is for every woman who’s been to a slumber party and every man who wonders what went on…

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Simultaneous Contrast

    The striped pattern of the municipal bus shelters in San Francisco becomes a fixed foreground behind which the city passes. Spatial oscillations provide a constantly permutating play of figure, ground and space, imaging the possibility of being two places at once.

  • 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.

  • 8 by Richard Kerr: Made in Quebec 2000-2009

    Contains: Pictures of Sound (11:30 min. 1998) i was a strong man until i left home (27:30 min. 2000) Collage d’Hollywood (8:30 min. 2003) Décollage d’Hollywood (9 min. 2004) Le bombardement du port des perlesn(9 min. 2004) A Universe of Broken Parts (11 min. 2007) Action: study (5 min. 2008) De mouvement (6 min. 2009)