Film Categories: Performance

  • Ball in California, A

    I took along a beach ball on my trip to California; it is bounced, rolled, tossed, kicked and carried by a motley collection of complete strangers who express a great range of attitudes towards the camera, the ball and me. This film incorporates an unusual improvised soundtrack for solo bassoon.

  • Snow Search

    “Snow Search” finds four performers searching for each other, each carrying one quarter of a photographic portrait of Michael Snow. A lyrical exploration through the city and an homage to Michael Snow.

  • UR Lucky

    I placed a medallion on the sidewalk and filmed whoever happened along to pick it up. The film is about not being able to have control over the event, and the acceptance of this fact. This is the first film in my Performance Trilogy, a series of films which also include “Snow Search” and “Making a Scene.” (MD)

  • Man That Got Away, The

    A musical documentary that tells the true life story of Trevor’s great-uncle Jimmy in six original songs.

  • My Best Dress

    The title “My Best Dress” is interpreted in two divergent yet related directions: the attire one would wear out to a club, or alternatively, to a funeral. In this context, the music video represents both a celebration of youth culture, particularly with finding acceptance, expression and love within queer youth ball culture, and conversely, the inherent dangers associated with the reckless, uninformed and unprepared dark-side of underground culture. Music by MURR, featuring Rosina.

  • Walking Away 2

    Scarborough Bluffs (1974): a woman walks away from us, through a field of grass. Approaching a treeline, she turns and crosses the frame. Instead of panning to accommodate her, the camera zooms wider – the woman continues to diminish as if still walking away and the landscape is fully revealed. The shot partially repeats: a wipe transition replaces the grass with water, and a ‘shipscape’ from Toronto’s Port Lands (2011) is revealed. Poetically, light reflected from downtown office towers catches the sail of a boat crossing the frame. Then amusingly, a split-screen sequence underlines the correspondence between woman and sailboat.

  • Shamans, the Cunning

    Referencing mythology and gothic fiction, Shamans, the Cunning is about surviving in evil times. Here, human identity turns fluid and the borderline between human and animal evaporates. Shamans evokes its themes via drama and choreographed movement.

  • BROKEN ANGEL (GEBROCHENGEL)

    In Frankfurt near St. Peter’s church on Klaus-Mann-Platz, there is a memorial with an angel sculpture (aka Frankfurter Engel) for the homosexual men and women persecuted and murdered during the Third Reich. 2013 was a tumultuous year for LGBT rights like the spike in hate crimes in the U.S. post-DOMA, and passing of anti-gay legislation worldwide (most notably Russia and India). On 6 May 2013, the anniversary of Marlene Dietrich’s death and 80th year past the Third Reich, Stephen explores the historical and ongoing queer struggle and gilded apology of monuments in a guerilla performance by colliding the Frankfurter Engel…

  • Patterns: For some reason, it really tickled me.

    An experimental new media performance that travels through the magical places of memory and mind to find a new consciousness of love. Amot, a widowed butcher’s daughter, tries to find the logic of her own love story. She pieces together different memories and observes the magical patterns of love in life. With the help of other personalities, Amot will remember her teenage love, play with her first pet dog, and feel the force of a romantic relationship. She will travel through her own life, from remembering her parents’ death to finding the love of a lifetime, from being tickled by…

  • Tiny Mirrors

    An ancient goddess probes the concrete jungle that stands between her and a rising metropolis. Her primal movements shudder like haunting melodies as she seeks to discover truth.  Two teenagers descend into the city’s entrails to grow graffiti gardens and find a space to dream.  A young woman searches for wisdom with the uneasy feeling that something inside of her is shifting.  All their stories intertwine as they build bridges to the other side. Tiny Mirrors, is a music video collaboration between lal and Wandering Eye that seeks to re-imagine our perceptions of ritual, rebellion and change in a time of…