Part of Fall 2000
Guest-curated by Jeremy Rigsby (In Person)
Mimicking the plot device of countless horror flicks, the toxic environment of Windsor, Ontario has spawned an unlikely monster &lrquo;” Media City. This upstart experimental film and video festival presented every February by Artcite Inc. and House of Toast, has lately been ravaging the globe with an insatiable appetite for projectable matter, no matter how far underground it may be hiding. Super 8 films are one of the festival’s favourite delicacies: this selection, curated by House of Toast co-director Jeremy Rigsby, features 10 new small-gauge films from around the world. Representing seven nations including France, The Philippines, The Netherlands, Japan and even some exotic locales like Iowa, these smart and often technically sophisticated films are literally a world apart from the Super 8 home-movie heritage, and an accurate sample of Media City’s typically wanton internationalism: Irish cowboys mingle with a German carnival, forsaken lovers drift through Tokyo subways and slash their wrists in an Amsterdam bathtub, homesick sailors send greetings from 60s-era Hong Kong and are told to fuck off by post-millennial Parisians. All films are Toronto premieres. See more on Media City at www.netcore.ca/~hot.
Programme:
Level Blue, Mie Kurihara, Tokyo, 13:00 min., mag. sound, colour, 1999
“A girl waits for her lover in the rain. That night she sees nothing but blue in her dreams. In the darkness, blue ripples spread out silently.” (Mie Kurihara)
Six Astronauts, Dagmar Brundert, Berlin, 6:00 min,, mag. sound, colour, 1989 (this version 1992)
One, two, three, four, five, six, poor little twentieth century.
12-IV 1961, Pekka Sassi, Helsinki, 1:40 min., sound, colour, 1999 (screened on VHS PAL)
An alternate interpretation of a momentous historical event.
Siege, Yves-Marie Mahe and Séverine Bellini, Paris, 4:00 min., CD sound, colour, 1999
“A history of civilization.” (Yves-Marie Mahe)
The Two Boys, Jason Livingston, Iowa City, 10:00 min., sound, colour/b&w, 1999 (screened on VHS NTSC)
“Sailors and Greek goddesses commune in the colonial tropics. Will the Super 8 child ever go home?” (Jason Livingston)
Dance of the Primates, Dominik Lange, Paris, 3:00 min., silent, colour, 1999
Charming beasts cavort in the zoological jardin.
Still, Shiho Kano, Tokyo, 15:00 min., sound, colour/b&w, 1999 (screened on VHS NTSC)
A film like a painting, a nearly motionless motion picture; static compositions modulated by subtle changes of light alternate with optically-printed freeze frames emphasizing the textural eddies of the film grain.
Snowy Day, Vincent Deville, Paris, 3:00 min., silent, colour, 2000
Mimics what one’s memory of the filmed events might be- bursts of image in a sea of black. Pictures like snowflakes: no sooner do they land on the retina than they melt into the brain.
Last Night Meant Nothing, Paul Tarragó, London, 20:00 min., sound, colour/b&w, 1998 (screened on VHS PAL)
A “journey through the good and bad dreams of an otherwise indifferent night.” (Paul Tarragó)
Schick, Fred Pelon, Amsterdam, 3:00 min., mag. sound, colour, 1999
“A film about you, me and blades.” (Fred Pelon)
Genealogy of Plants, Bibi Calderaro, Buenos Aires, 3:30 min., CD sound, colour, 2000