Film Categories: Sound Art + Music

  • Ditty Dot Comma

    “Ditty Dot Comma” is the first motion picture musical salute to visual punctuation. Set to the cool jazz styling of drummers Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa, and including the pulsating piano rhythms of Oscar Peterson, we make this musical leap into this abstract animated film. Using animated shapes, drawn directly onto the film’s emulsion, Woloshen opens the door into the abstract world, and propels the audience into a pure widescreen experience. Liberated from plotlines, language and recognizable forms, a universal film experience emerges, suitable for all ages and nationalities.

  • Brothers in Music

    John T. Davis (pianist/organist/vocalist) and Jim Heineman (saxophonist) are two Canadian jazzmen who have had to wage the war between the compulsion and the passion that they feel towards their music and the struggle that is involved with trying to make a living in the field of jazz music in Canada. John T. Davis is a Black musician from a poor rural environment. Jim Heineman is a white musician from a white middle-class urban environment. “Brothers in Music” begins by exploring the personalities, experiences and inspirations of these two very talented and different musicians and then moves on to examine…

  • Get Happy

    “Get Happy”, as the title suggests, is a joyous carefree romp through the swinging world of Benny Goodman and his orchestra. This richly textured “cameraless” animation propels the audience through the highs, lows, and refrains of a big-band classic. With a new sound synchronization formula, “Get Happy” delivers an unabashed stream-of-consciousness, fluid with several well-delivered visual punches and crescendos. In Cinemascope.

  • 1:1

    This cameraless animation is about the 1:1 relationship between sound & picture: the 1:1 concept became the structure for the entire piece and spawns further thought about relationships between elements in cinema (artist to medium, viewer to screen, projector to film).

  • Babies on the Sun

    “Babies on the Sun” offers nostalgic, weathered images of “childhood” inspired by the song of the same name by the band Sparklehorse. The textured and layered style of the film gives the impression of blurred memories floating in the subconscious mind. The images, half visible, are abstracted through a process of visual degradation, suggesting the effect of time on memory, and mystified through collage, revealing the non-linear configurations of memory where images dwell in interesting and emotionally cumulative juxtapositions.

  • Babble on Palms, The

    The “Babble on Palms” is a lush and vibrant cameraless animation, combining found footage, scratch and inking techniques with the universal language of music. Individuality, censorship, shared experiences, and unseen auras are just some of the topics examined in this short experimental animation by Canadian filmmaker, Steven Woloshen. Perhaps, when our ears cease to listen, the “Babble on” palms, speak. Made on September 12th, 2001 in response to the previous day’s event. Suitable for all ages and audiences.

  • Miracle & The Making of a Miracle, A

    “A Miracle” is the first-ever music video featuring Toronto-based “Gay Folk Church Music” ensemble The Hidden Cameras. “The Making of a Miracle”, shot simultaneously on video and Super 8, is a companion piece featuring behind-the-scenes hijinks during the production.

  • Miracle, A

    “A Miracle” is the music movie for the song “A Miracle” by the Hidden Cameras, written by Joel Gibb.

  • I Believe (In the Good Life)

    “I Believe” is made of Super 8 stills of people in my community, shot one frame at a time, and gay folk church music by local musician Joel Gibb and his band the Hidden Cameras. Up to 3,600 portraits can fit onto one roll of Super 8. Many are shot at night with a flash. I set out to capture a social atmosphere on film. The experiment proved to me that despite our many flaws, I do believe in the good of life. (LH)

  • Beat Truths: A Portrait of Graeme Kirkland

    Based on autobiographical writings, “Beat Truths: A Portrait of Graeme Kirkland” is a 3-minute film that aims to capture the dynamics of the artist’s street performance. It is a marriage of spoken word, street samples and drumming to cinema verite-style filming, creating a collage of sound and vision which builds to a cacophony that captures the essence and honesty of the artist and his art. Never subtle nor sugar-coated, and always in your face.