The Transformable Moment: The Films of Stephen Broomer, In Person

Friday, October 14, Doors 7:30pm / Screening 8pm
@ Cinecycle, 129 Spadina Avenue

Part of Fall 2016


Pleasure Dome is pleased to present for the first time in Toronto a survey of the work of Canadian filmmaker, scholar and preservationist, Stephen Broomer. Broomer’s unique, hybrid moving-image works combine curious, historic investigations of place with a dazzling collapsing of format. His densely-layered, poetic approach renovates the rare and under-excavated to generate new, otherworldly landscapes.

In less than a decade, Broomer has emerged as a powerful voice in moving-image arts, having completed over forty experimental films, participated in hundreds of international screenings, curated over a dozen film programs, and tirelessly restored many rare Canadian underground and experimental films of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s (including Peter Rowe’s Buffalo Airport Visions, Bruce Elder’s three-part, twenty-film cycle The Book of All the Dead, and the otherwise lost Palace of Pleasure by John Hofsess). Earlier in 2016, University of Toronto Press published Broomer’s first book, Hamilton Babylon: a History of the McMaster Film Board.

This premiere Toronto survey of Stephen Broomer’s work will be presented entirely on 16mm and Super 8 film. The artist will be in attendance.

Programme:

The Transformable Moment
Reel 1:
Queen’s Quay (2012, 16mm, sound, 1.5 mins)
Bridge 1A (2015, 16mm, silent, 2.5 mins)
Balinese Rebar (2011, 16mm, sound, 3.5 mins)
Memory Worked by Mirrors (2011, 16mm, silent, 2 mins)
Wastewater (2014, 16mm, sound, 1 min)
Bridge 1B (2015, 16mm, silent, 1.5 mins)
Conservatory (2013, 16mm, silent, 3.5 mins)
Serena Gundy (2014, 16mm, silent, 3.5 mins)
Snakegrass (2012, 16mm, sound, 1 min)
Wild Currents (2015, 16mm, sound, 6.5 mins)
Bridge 1C (2015, 16mm, silent, 1 min)
Gulls at Gibraltar (2015, 16mm, silent, 3.5 mins)
Landform 1 (2015, 16mm, silent, 2.5 mins)
Length: 33.5 minutes

Intermission Reel:
Zerah’s Gift (2013, Super 8, silent, 7.5 mins)

Reel 2:
Christ Church — Saint James (2011, 16mm, sound, 7 mins)
Brébeuf (2012, 16mm, sound, 10 mins)
Spirits in Season (2013, 16mm, sound, 12.5 mins)
Length: 29.5 minutes

Total 70.5 minutes


Collaborating on a Mystery: an interview with Stephen Broomer by Mike Hoolboom (2016)

Brébeuf

Balinese Rebar

Balinese Rebar

Conservatory

Conservatory

Conservatory

Conservatory

Serena Gundy

Serena Gundy

Serena Gundy

Serena Gundy

Spirits in Season

Spirits in Season

Spirits in Season

Spirits in Season

Spirits in Season

Spirits in Season

Brébeuf

Brébeuf

At St. Marie-au-pays-des-Hurons Photo by Emmalyne Laurin

At St. Marie-au-pays-des-Hurons Photo by Emmalyne Laurin