The
Ontario Cinematheque is a wonderous
screening facility in
Philip
Hoffman Carte Blanche
Films
alone most often do not deeply touch me. But spending time with the maker(s),
breathing their practice - this is the space in which I find real growth and
sharing. In this light, I present a program that expresses an
archaeology of vital meetings for me in film and life.
At the
fiery 1984 Grierson Seminar, I met Peter Greenaway and his 'anti-docu-
mentaries'
THE FALLS (1980) and its formal reverse, ACT OF GOD (1981). Where THE
FALLS stages interviews, ACT OF GOD evolves through a series of `real'
interviews. Meeting Peter and seeing these two works swept away whatever
realist tendencies I still had left in my work, the effect of far too many
documentaries purporting objectivity, order, truth, in contemporary times of
raging chaos. My response,
following a sojourn to the set of Greenaway's
feature A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS, was ?O,ZOO! (1986), a
testament to making `the real' disappear.
In 1978
the Art Gallery of Ontario hosted `Autobiography: Film/Video/ Photo', another
event that helped bring to light elements of a practice and vision which were
beginning to shape my own. Jonas Mekas stood spot
lit, Bolex in shopping bag beside him, DIARIES, NOTES
AND SKETCHES on the screen - a passion for collecting images of the
`everyday', every day, and a process for
`living cinema.' CASSIS (1966) by Mekas is a quiet
cine-poem, a haiku of a small port in the south of
Maya Deren's work turns the program inward,
her enchanted landscapes speak to the ineffable qualities of dream and trance.
In AT LAND (1944), Deren finds new temporal
structures through repetition, and an advanced narrative form using
'dream-time-space' as
a beginning.
There
isn’t time to have some films in this program, for example my favourite film, Chris Marker's SANS SOLEIL, is a regular at
the Cinematheque and is again this season in the
Marker retrospective. Besides that there are many more works and makers that
have touched me. Like MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA, NUIT ET BROUILLARD, WAVELENGTH,
THRILLER, THE ANGELIC CONVERSATION, NURSING HISTORY, HIGHWAY 61, Melies, Lefebvre, Jarman, Epp, Kerr, Sternberg, Watkins, Popovich,
Chambers, INSIDE SILENCE, HAMMU, HART OF LONDON, STEPS TO THE HARBOUR, McMahon,
Snow, Lipsett, Lock, Cook, CHRONIQUE DE LA VIE
QUOTIDIENNE, Egoyan, Cartmell,
Frenkel, McGowan, SIFTED EVIDENCE, 11 X 14, NIGHT MAIL,
ELEGY, THE JOURNEY, FAMILY VIEWING, THIGH LINE LYRE TRIANGULAR, MATERNAL
FILIGREE, RESONANCE, THE GARDEN, GHOSTS BEFORE BREAKFAST, 1857 (FOOLS GOLD),
HAWKESVILLE TO WALLEN
STEIN,
CITY OF GOLD, ART OF WORLDLY WISDOM, OL' YELLER, Hoolboom,
Thorne, Rimmer, Razutis,
Brown, RE: ENTRY, YOU TAKE CARE NOW, Porter, Mettler,
Gronau, Leduc, Lebeau, Sanguedolce, CANAL, WILD SYNC, THE BOYS, Soul, Brakhage, Godard, Camus, Kerouac, Stein, Basho,
Cage, TECHNOLOGY OF TEARS, Frank, Dewdney, Shikatani,
Glass, AT PRESENT, WORK BIKE AND EAST..."
Program:
?O,ZOO! (THE MAKING OF A FICTION FILM)
Director:
Philip Hoffman
ACT OF
GOD: LIGHTNING
Director:
Peter Greenaway
CASSIS
Director:
Jonas Mekas
AT LAND
Director: Maya Deren
Canadian
Premiere!
OPENING
SERIES
Director:
Philip Hoffman
Director:
Stephen Butson
PLEASE
DON'T STOP
Director:
Stephanie Maxwell