As well as being a teacher, publisher of great Canadian experimental films, producer of video essays and numerous other talents, Stephen Broomer is a prolific writer and editor. Here, we discuss two of his major book publications (one as author and one as co-editor) with a third due to be published soon.
The first of these books is Imprints: The Films of Louise Bourque, which he co-edited with Clint Enns and which collates a host of essays and supplementary material about Bourque's films. Louise has appeared previously on this show and the book was an invaluable resource for this episode, as well as a great starting point for any viewers interested to learn about her work.
Buy this title here: https://www.blackzero.ca/products/imprints-the-films-of-louise-bourque
The other title authored by Broomer is Codes for North: Foundations of the Canadian Avant-Garde Film, which charts the development of Canada's distinctive experimental film cultures including the work of artists like Jack Chambers, Michael Snow and Joyce Wieland.
Buy this title here: https://www.blackzero.ca/products/codes-for-north-foundations-of-the-canadian-avant-garde-film
In the final of our brief surveys of the work of three significant Canadian experimental filmmakers, Stephen Broomer (responsible for the publishing of works by the three artists discussed recently) returns to the show to discuss the work of Josephine Massarella (1957-2018).
Massarella's career spans works involving various formally radical approaches to filmmaking. From durational works like One Woman Waiting and Interference to more restless works using flicker such as Light Study and No End, the central concerns of her work remain consistent, including feminist and ecological concerns as well as a strong sense of kinship and shared humanity.
Broomer has published her entire filmography on a blu ray disc now available from Black Zero. In this episode, Stephen discusses Massarella's work, his friendship with the filmmaker and reflects on various personal responses to her work.
Buy the blu ray here:
https://www.blackzero.ca/products/green-dreams
View Stephen's video essay on Massarella's work here:
https://www.artandtrash.ca/episodes/one-woman-walking
Richard Kerr is a giant in Canadian experimental film. His works span from early personal projects such as On Land, Over Water: Six Stories to his fiercely urgent trilogy of films with a focus across the border to the United States: The Last Days of Contrition (1986), Cruel Rhythm (1991) and Field Trip (2021). His output also includes formally radical works of "accelerated cinema" featuring, as you'll hear, Richard's theory of "Total Movement" in films such as Plein Air and House Arrest.
An all-round artist, Richard's work also includes photography, painting and "film weavings", many of which you can view online. This episode takes a broad look at Richard's career, with a particular focus on the "American" trilogy, which has been released on Blu-Ray along with a short film and a host of extra features by Stephen Broomer at Black Zero.
View some of Richard's films online here:
https://vimeo.com/richardkerr
View Stephen Broomer's video essay on his American films here:
https://vimeo.com/groups/essay/videos/706234266
Buy the Blu Ray here:
https://www.blackzero.ca/products/field-trips
Please be advised that this episode contains discussion of subjects that some listeners may find troubling.
R. Bruce Elder is one of the most prolific and acclaimed artist filmmakers currently working in Canada. In this episode we discuss Bruce's journey toward his personal filmmaking practice and focus particularly on the first two films in his epic "Book of Praise" cycle: A Man Whose Life Was Full of Woe Has Been Surprised by Joy and its emotionally devastating follow up Crack, Brutal Grief. Both of these films have been recently released on the Canadian home video label Black Zero by filmmaker, writer and historian Stephen Broomer. Both blu-ray editions are jam packed with special features to help you better get to know these complex and fascinating works.
Learn more about Bruce's films at:
https://rbruceelder.com
Buy the Blu Rays here:
https://www.blackzero.ca
Filmmaker, video artist and current president of the Paris Films Co-Op Dominique Willoughby returns to the show to discuss his own film and video works.
Fascinated by the hypnotic power of cinema, his films and videos are simultaneously mesmerising and energetic experiences. In this episode, Dominique discusses his career from his earliest experimental works, (inspired variously by CinéDoc founders Guy Fihman and Claudine Eizykman as well as international artists Len Lye and Michael Snow) as he forged his own path to create a unique body of work. Also fascinated by pre-cinema artefacts, particularly Phenakistiscope stroboscopic discs, Dominique's films explore the viewer's capacity for perception in a manner quite unlike any other filmmaker.
This episode features music from Parazite Système Sonore: Spot Phelizon & Joëlle Colombeau as well as music by Kaumwald.
Dominique's book Cinéma Graphique (in French) is available to buy from Amazon.
View many of Dominique's films via his Vimeo page:
https://vimeo.com/domwilloughby
For more info about Cinédoc, visit
A special episode to coincide with the start of the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Paris Films Co-op CinéDoc. A series of special screenings are taking place in Paris from the 20th to the 30th of November and the programme will appear online shortly after.
This episode features music from Parazite Système Sonore: Spot Phelizon & Joëlle Colombeau
Filmmaker Dominique Willoughby is the current president of the Paris Films Co-op. In this episode, Dominique traces the journey of the Co-op from its inception in 1974, thanks to two key filmmakers: Claudine Eizykman and Guy Fihman. Heavily influenced by the thinking of philosopher Jean-François Lyotard, their films brought a radical new approach to film in France at the time, with a great emphasis on the experiential aspects of film.
The filmmakers included in the celebratory screenings are:
Adolpho Arrietta
Edouard Beux
Yaa Bôé
Robert Cahen
Jenny E. Davidson
Claudine Eizykman
Guy Fihman
Catherine Le Gallou
Barbara Glowczewska (Also sometimes credited as Glowczewski)
Jacques Monory
Georges Rey
Hans Richter
Pierre Rovere
Jean-Pierre Valladeau
Unglee
Due to time constraints, we have been unable to discuss everyone's films in this episode, so please accept our apologies for any names and films we have missed in the discussion!
Please visit cinedoc.org for more info.
Inter-disciplinary artist Sapphire Goss joins the show to discuss her varied work, involving art objects, installation work, still photography and our particular focus here: film and video work. In a hybrid practice, bringing together celluloid film, digital video and pre-cinema artefacts, (particularly stereoscopic photography) these are haunting works in the truest sense: the screen is haunted by otherworldly decayed and decaying images and the viewer is haunted in turn by the works’ mesmerising presence.
To learn more about Sapphire's work
Visit: sapphiregoss.com
Vivian Ostrovsky is a truly international filmmaker (as well as curator). Born in New York to a Belarusian father and Ukrainian mother, Vivian has been somewhat nomadic all of her life, regularly finding herself in Rio, Paris, New York and Tel Aviv. “Home”, she writes “is wherever I feel at home – and that might be in a hotel or on a plane or on my way to an unknown destination with a camera and recorder in my bag”.
Her works freely combine footage she has shot herself with an array of found footage, featuring both heartfelt affection and laugh-out-loud humour. Starting as an exclusively Super-8 based filmmaker, she now favours her mobile phone as the primary instrument for her work.
Here we discuss her filmmaking practice ranging from her first experiments to her current work-in-progress (a film about the poet Elizabeth Bishop) as well as some of Vivian's own favourite films.
Information about her films as well as excerpts can be found at http://vivianostrovsky.com
Two DVDs featuring her films are available from Re:Voir
https://re-voir.com/shop/en/frederique-devaux-michel-armager-cineperimentaux/78-rousset-rey-ostrovsky-chodorov-cineperimentaux-1-4-.html
and
https://re-voir.com/shop/en/vivian-ostrovsky/1026-vivian-ostrovsky-plunge.html
The latter of which is also available to stream from Re:Voir's video on demand page.
A continuation of our discussion of the films of Louise Bourque. In this episode, we take a closer look at a handful of Louise's films (including her latest film "Bye Bye Now"), focusing in particular on the images of houses that recur regularly in her filmography. Additionally, we discuss some of the formal concerns informing her work, including both the physical interventions with the film strip itself and the methods by which the results are presented to the viewer.
Here are a few links to her films that are viewable online:
From Light Cone
Fissures
https://lightcone.org/en/film-3475-fissures
Going Back Home
https://lightcone.org/en/film-3512-going-back-home
From Massachussetts Cultural Council
Self Portrait Post Mortem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr4-LaUy1tk
From Vidéographe
Bye Bye Now – Trailer
https://vimeo.com/808805153
A video essay on her work by Stephen Broomer can be found here:
Broomer and Clint Enns co-edited the book Imprints: The Films of Louise Bourque which can be purchased on Amazon as well as Lightcone and various other sources. This book is quoted from throughout these episodes.
This interview was facilitated through the help of Dave Beaumler. With sincerest thanks for his help.
Louise Bourque is one of the most distinguished film artists currently working in Canada. She was born in Edmundston New Brunswick and has been making films since the late 1980s. Her body of work, by her own admission, is not vast, but it reveals a filmmaker of incredible focus and determination when it comes to producing the work she desires.
Hers are not films that always give themselves over to analysis very easily. Instead, they are instantly gripping, compelling the audience’s full attention from start to finish, often using intense visual and auditory means to bring the viewer to a point of cathartic release, upon which we reflect afterwards.
Here are a few links to her films that are viewable online:
From Light Cone
Fissures
https://lightcone.org/en/film-3475-fissures
Going Back Home
https://lightcone.org/en/film-3512-going-back-home
From Massachussetts Cultural Council
Self Portrait Post Mortem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr4-LaUy1tk
From Vidéographe
Bye Bye Now – Trailer
A video essay on her work by Stephen Broomer can be found here:
https://vimeo.com/533753926
Broomer and Clint Enns co-edited the book Imprints: The Films of Louise Bourque which can be purchased on Amazon as well as Lightcone and various other sources. This book is quoted from throughout these episodes.
This interview was facilitated through the help of Dave Beaumler. With sincerest thanks for his help.
Helga Fanderl returns to discuss her work, focusing on some specific films that can now be seen on a new DVD from Re:Voir, as well as conversations about how she programmes her work. We discuss both how she assembles programmes of her short films as well as the long process of selecting the films for inclusion on this disc. In addition, Helga shares a number of stories giving background for several of her films in this in depth and occasionally emotional discussion about the making of Helga’s films.
https://re-voir.com/shop/en/helga-fanderl/1564-helga-fanderl-constellations.html
Her book Constellations (De: Konstellationen) is available in multi-lingual editions from Re:Voir as well as Amazon.
Born in Ingolstadt in Germany, Helga Fanderl studied German, Italian and French languages and literature in Munich, Paris and Frankfurt, with an interest in becoming a poet herself. However, quite by chance, she was introduced to super-8 filmmaking via a friend and would soon find herself in the classes of Peter Kubelka.
Since then, Helga has carved a unique career as a film artist, discovering an intensely visual engagement with the world around her. Consistently working with the Super 8 medium, she produces films by in-camera editing, meaning that most of her films are the length of a single reel of film (3-4 minutes) and has now produced over a thousand of these stunning miniature works.
In this episode, Helga discusses her discovery of film as an artistic medium, her first realisations that she could make a "visual poem" and the various fascinations that prompt her to make a film.
At the time of recording, Re:Voir in Paris were about to release a DVD featuring 50 of her films which can now be purchased here:
https://re-voir.com/shop/en/helga-fanderl/1564-helga-fanderl-constellations.html
Her book Constellations (De: Konstellationen) is available in multi-lingual editions from Re:Voir as well as Amazon.
UK based film and video maker Ruth Novaczek has developed a distinctive style of montage, in which she freely combines material she photographs herself with an array of found footage from near innumerable sources. The style, which she describes as "Bricolage" has come to characterise much of her mature work. Photographing material on super-8, lo-res video, camera phones etc. and editing on free software, particularly iMovie, Ruth's work emphasises the accessibility of media tools to an ever increasing number of people, while acknowledging our existence in a multimedia society.
Her methods are combined with regular themes: explorations of feminist perspectives on culture and history, references to lesbian romantic relationships, a diasporic, (rootless) cosmopolitan sense of self, and a strong thread of international Jewish heritage.
Described by Chris Kraus and Denah Johnston as "The Patti Smith of Film", these are works that interpret and reinterpret media fragments to deepen (and question) our understanding of the cultural artefacts that surround us.
For more about Ruth and her films, visit:
https://www.ruthnovaczek.com/home
View a selection of her films here:
https://vimeo.com/ruthnovaczek
For DVDs of Ruth's films visit:
https://shop.bfi.org.uk/radio-dvd.html
or
https://luxmovingimage.square.site/product/ruth-novaczeck-the-new-world/48?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=true
Filmmakers Peter Tscherkassky and Eve Heller return to the show to discuss their most recent films: Train Again and Singing In Oblivion respectively. These are two truly masterful films, capable of thrilling and moving in equal measure. Whether in Peter's visceral exploration of locomotive and cinema history Train Again or Eve's searching investigation of personal and cultural heritage in Singing in Oblivion, these are both captivating works that deploy found footage to strikingly different effect.
Eve’s films are frequently programmed worldwide, but you can find information about her work and film links on request from Sixpack film:
https://www.sixpackfilm.com/en/catalogue/filmmaker/4196/
Peter’s films are available on 3 DVDs from Sixpack, as well as being included on Noel Lawrence’s curated Experiments in Terror collections (produced by Craig Baldwin’s Other Cinema company) and on a recent blu-ray produced by Found Footage Magazine. Many of his films are also available to download from Sixpack. Visit his site here:
http://www.tscherkassky.at
This episode was facilitated by filmmaker and fan of the show Dave Beaumler. Sincerest gratitude for his help.
In a first for this show, two filmmakers join appear together in conversation. Partners Eve Heller and Peter Tscherkassky join the show to discuss their practices. Together they produced the book Film Unframed: A History of Austrian Avant-Garde Cinema, but their practices, whilst both deploying found footage are very distinct.
Eve Heller's films include found footage and photographed footage, produced exclusively on celluloid film and marked by particular engagement with the ideas of time, duration and memory.
Peter Tscherkassky has achieved worldwide renown for his films, which are frequently highly kinetic, visceral experiences, prompting the viewer to become aware of film as a fundamentally 3 dimensional medium. Also often working with found footage, Peter often deploys a method of contact printing (placing frames onto unexposed film and exposing the sections he wishes to reproduce by exposing them to a light source eg. a laser pointer).
Eve's films are frequently programmed worldwide, but you can find information about her work and film links on request from Sixpack film:
https://www.sixpackfilm.com/en/catalogue/filmmaker/4196/
Peter's films are available on 3 DVDs from Sixpack, as well as being included on Noel Lawrence's curated Experiments in Terror collections (produced by Craig Baldwin's Other Cinema company) and on a recent blu-ray produced by Found Footage Magazine. Many of his films are also available to download from Sixpack. Visit his site here:
http://www.tscherkassky.at
This episode was facilitated by filmmaker and fan of the show Dave Beaumler. Sincerest gratitude for his help.
Born in 1939, Barbara Meter is one of the most distinguished experimental filmmakers currently working in The Netherlands. Barbara's films are highly personal, but with universal appeal, addressing themes of love, friendship, loss and memory. In a career spanning from the late 60s to the present day, her work incorporates experimental, narrative and documentary works. In this episode, Barbara discusses her experimental and documentary films, from her first experimental film in 1970 From the Exterior to her most recent works Nachtlicht and I Know Where You Live, but Not Where You Went.
For a DVD featuring 11 of Barbara's films, visit Re:Voir's site:
https://re-voir.com/shop/en/babara-meter/821-barbara-meter-zuiver-film-9789059390270.html?search_query=Barbara+meter&results=60
For a DVD featuring her film Departure on Arrival, click here:
https://re-voir.com/shop/en/film-revoir-experiemental-film-dvd/762-studio-een-experimental-films-from-the-lowlands.html?search_query=lowlands&results=2
See a selection of Barbara's films on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/user11331228
Visit:
https://www.barbarameter.com
On Thursday, 10 new episodes will begin to appear in your podcast feeds.
In this clip package, you will hear the voices of the guests for the coming season (in order of appearance):
Barbara Meter
Eve Heller
Peter Tscherkassky
Ruth Novaczek
Helga Fanderl
Louise Bourque
Sapphire Goss
Vivian Ostrovsky
For our first ever "EXTRA" episode, we are joined once again by R. Bruce Elder, once described by Jonas Mekas as "the most important North American avant-garde filmmaker to emerge during the 1980s".
Bruce has supplied an additional essay discussing the Gerrard St. Village / Isaacs artists scene at the time that Michael Snow was a young man, offering some insights into artists and styles that may have contributed to Snow's own work.
A special extended episode in tribute to filmmaker Michael Snow (1928-2023), focusing on four major works: Rameau's Nephew by Diderot Thanx to Denis Young by Wilma Schoen, So Is This, La Region Centrale and the iconic Wavelength.
Featuring interviews and analyses from:
R. Bruce Elder
Nicky Hamlyn
Chris Meigh-Andrews
Jim Shedden
Steven Woloshen
as well as archive interviews with Michael Snow himself and Jonas Mekas.
Mekas appears courtesy of Jim Shedden, as part of his film "Michael Snow Up Close".
The most recent featured interview with Michael Snow was conducted by R. Bruce Elder for the Brakhage Center at CU Boulder.
Archive interviews with Michael Snow were carried out by Jim Shedden for the TV show "Independent Visions" and his film "Michael Snow Up Close".
View Jim's film here: https://vimeo.com/24502091
View Jim's series here: https://vimeo.com/41290742
Find films of Michael Snow on DVD here: https://re-voir.com/shop/en/
And some filmmaker-approved uploads of Snow's films here: https://ubu.com/film/snow.html
An in depth conversation with artist, preservationist, educator and writer Stephen Broomer about his new home video label Black Zero. With the first three titles now available, Stephen discusses all three titles in detail as well as their restoration processes for home media releases and a broader discussion about viewing experimental cinema in your own home. There is a lot of variety in the releases so far, from the psychedelic influenced social commentary conceived as "cinema therapy" in Palace of Pleasure by John Hofsess, the diaristic, structural explorations of Keith Lock's Everything, Everywhere, Again, Alive to the madcap caper of Arthur Lipsett's Strange Codes (an unusual film by the artist that does not use found footage), there is perhaps already something for everyone here.
The films released and discussed so far are:
Palace of Pleasure by John Hofsess
Everything, Everywhere, Again, Alive by Keith Lock
Strange Codes by Arthur Lipsett
View video essays about one of these titles and other classics of genre and experimental film at:
https://vimeo.com/artandtrash?embedded=false&source=owner_name&owner=48630378
Purchase the new Blu Rays from Stephen's Black Zero at: