Innis College – Town Hall

9 – 11 p.m.

 

This program involves filmmakers taking risks with conventional film genres. In most cases style, substance and form are skewered until the obvious seems remote and the bizarre becomes familiar.

 

Devil in the Eyes, Self Portraits and Other Myths

(Television)           1999       2:00

Ximena Cuevas 

A campy look into what happens when a common vacuum decides to take vengence on a human being.   Shot using a hand-held 16 mm camera this experimental film by Spanish director Ximena Cuevas is a genre the director has totally carved out for himself. It’s abstract art come to life.

Ximena Cuevas

 

I Dollar'd it!

2000       12:00

Darryl S. Bird 

Based on a poem by director Darryl S. Bird, the video is a statement of how society prostitutes itself by glorifying violence, alcohol, sex and the almighty dollar while it sucks the spirit from the everyday pedestrian.

Bird focuses on one man’s quest for enlightenment amongst the stench and media violence of a society gone mad. The quick edits, powerful music and the use of Christian symbols overlapping with urban decay makes for a strong film that makes us all wonder where our future is headed.

V tape

 

Postcards from the other side of the Apocalypse

2000       7:00       

Gilbert Baldhead,Tim Tyler 

An animation short that takes place sometime in the future in an unknown land where a mechanical woman stumbles upon a sacred land that is guarded by a tribal warrior who takes her captive. The short evokes images of super hero comic books in a old-style of animation that is simple but refined. The story is short but the legend everlasting.

Cheshire Smile Animation Inc.

 

Retrace

2001       5:10

Darlene Naponse 

Narrated by an elder, this experimental short explores the beauty of a simple life in a modest home full of warmth and love. An elder asks why things change and wonders why the young people disappear to the cities while he lives a structured simple life without the complexities of the modern age. Playing guitar and drinking tea with a young couple, the elder exudes a calm in a world of uncertainty just outside his door.

V-Tape

 

Sugared Up: A Waffle Garden 

2000       5:45       

Nora Naranjo-Morse           

The director explores the Pueblo Indian way of farming that uses divided square sections of a larger square to grow different crops. Europeans saw this method and noticed the square made up a pattern that resembled a waffle, hence waffle gardens. Coincidentally, the director also informs us of the one poison the Europeans brought with them that has slowly been contributing to the poor health and short life span of the Pueblo - sugar.

V tape

 

The People Dance

2001       23:51     

Dana Claxton        

A surreal story about spirituality and infinity that blends Lakota worldview with media art. Together a man and woman take a poetic journey into a deeper understanding of spirituality while they sit on a leather sofa and speak of their quest and its many questions. The images often convey an optimism where the characters celebrate through words and dance secure in the knowledge of the elders and the future of our children.
V tape

 

X - Patriotism 

2001           6:00       

Stephen Foster, Deron Mitchel

The title is meant to refer to the two films by Joyce Weiland (Patriotism and Patriotism 2). The deep ramifications and the imagery of these two films is what inspired the creation of this video. The work takes as its starting point the military appropriation of the names of First Nations for the Canadian Navy’s Second World War Tribal Class warships. This has a disturbing irony in that these names (i.e. HMCS Haida) have been appropriated in order to help establish a national identity for Canada, while the Canadian government has historically attempted to eliminate those cultures from which the names were taken.

V tape

 

Home

2000           2:45

Colleen Simard

Home deals with the conflicting worlds of Aboriginal people, the view of the urban Aboriginal and the view of the rural Aboriginal. Often the urban side is seen as very negative while the rural or on-reserve native’s life is full of spirituality and calm. Which is a better life? Rural or urban? The film explores the resurgence of strength within our traditional culture, our artists and our children and whether we’re in the city or on the reserve , the film reminds us that our strength is within us.

Video Pool