Film Format: 16mm

  • Lapse Lose All

    “Lapse Lose All” both documents and obscures the collage painting process of Toronto artist Kathryn MacKay. Time-lapse photography seems to speed up the activity of painting by concentrating the work of several weeks into a few minutes, concealing more than it reveals. The title of the documented work is “Hammett’s Eclipse,” and it is indeed eclipsed in this film – first by the body of the painter at work and finally by the reversal of time itself. Layered sounds, recorded live in MacKay’s studio, offer an ambient audio echo of the visual complexity of the painted work. This work can…

  • Covert Action

    “Covert Action” examines the seduction behind social interaction, remaking these gestures into a dance through the use of looped movies. I wanted to foreground the multiple fictions, the “facts” forever obscured in the fragments of memory. The result is an ambiguous narrative developed by its periphery, impossible to trace, disturbing, explosive. (Abigail Child) “Here rupture and repetition comprise the structuring principle. The film explodes in your face; it drives on until its final image, a summation of its prehistory, history and future – a tree being uprooted. What could be a more apt metaphor for the contemporary crisis in narrativity…

  • Can You Love Me?

    Adam Garnet Jones and Sarah Kolasky combine film, video, and experimental animation to create a painfully intimate documentary about Toronto artist Morgan Mavis. ‘Can You Love Me?’ is a seductive exploration of the artist’s narcissism and insatiable need for love. The film begins by describing a poster campaign, which was launched by Morgan Mavis as her thesis project for the Ontario College of Art and Design. She posted a self-portrait around the city of Toronto on every available surface, with text that read, “Can You Love Me?” and listed a phone number. In the photo, Morgan’s pierced tongue sticks out…

  • sisyphus

    ‘Sisyphus’ is a silent 16mm film shot on a Bolex exploring a journey that never ends. I made this film at renowned experimental filmmaker Phil Hoffman’s Film Farm workshop in Mount Forest, Ontario. Originally, I wanted to create a simple statement about overcoming depression. The ultra short narrative in ‘Sisyphus’ uses heartbreak as a metaphor for depression, since depression is just that – being heartbroken about life. The creative process and the practice of handmaking films speaks to treating life as a work in progress, thereby positively embracing the permanence of Sisyphus in my life. The lush, organic imagery in…

  • fugitive l(i)ght

    This film explores the morph-like quality of the Serpentine Dance and its intricate play on the visible and the invisible, which extends to the larger context and legacy its originator, the American born Loïe Fuller. “fugitive l(i)ght” is composed of elaborately reworked found footage, originally captured by Thomas Edison and the Lumiere brothers, of various renditions and imitations of Fuller’s Serpentine performances, where glimmers of her presence slip into the film by means of the artist’s absence; both Fuller’s and my momentary suspensions through my use of chance operation. These found films are woven into intricately reworked sequences using several…

  • Tortured by Sidewalks

    “Tortured by Sidewalks” is a very simple film about portraiture. It is the first part in a series of North American landscape films that I have been shooting for the past few years. The central aim of the film is to make a filmic “sketch” of one of the most photographed landscapes on earth – Peggy’s Cove. The film was shot on Super 8 and Pxlvision in order to convey my reaction to this striking landscape.

  • Arc Light

    “Arc Light” is a film essentially about travel. It is the second part in a series of North American landscape films that I have been shooting for the past few years. The central aim of the film is to formally examine two of the most photographed landscapes on earth. Simple formal devices are utilized in creating this simple portrait of Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon.

  • Shoulders on a Map

    “Shoulders on a Map” is a film about travel, form, and essentially my thoughts at the time towards Canada as a nation. It is the third part in a series of North American landscape films that I have been shooting for the past few years. The central aim of the film is to formally examine the Rocky Mountains on Super 8 film. Simple formal devices are utilized in creating this portrait. “An endless inventory of trees, snow, rocks and water rolls by onscreen in this experimental travelogue. Shoulders on a Map is a Super 8 homage to transportation, motion and…

  • Cowboys Don’t Cry

    Garney Willis is an 88-year-old cowboy who lives in the “Wild West.” His granddaughter is a filmmaker who lives in the “big city.” When she visits his ranch to make “Cowboys Don’t Cry,” they haven’t been together in 20 years. She sees him as a hero in a Western movie. He sees her as the little girl he had given a pony for Christmas. This intimate documentary portrait traces their efforts to communicate with each other. More importantly, it reveals an old man’s undying idealism and his joy in day-to-day living.

  • Negation

    “Negation” is an attempt to create an abstract document of where I live, Regina, Canada. During production there was one restriction while shooting – everything had to be shot in a 10-block radius from my house. The use of negative B/W imagery was utilized in an attempt to “look” at my familiar surroundings from a different perspective, and I felt that this formal choice would provide a more accurate representation of the location being documented.