Filmpool Premiere Screening

This evening was the first of two Filmpool premiere screening events, held at the Artesian. I'd seen a few of the films before but there were a number of great surprises. Jason Britski's film "Witchcraft" was excellent, featuring x-rays, very old home movies, and the sound of an optical printer. Ian Campbell presented a video called "Warm Iced Tea" which was short in a very fluid fashion, partially through a drinking glass, with every frame being a bold and dynamic compositional masterpiece.  The Art of Fire Showcase by Rob White laugh out loud funny. I had lengthy conversations with Rob Miller, Jason Shabatoski, Stephen Onda, Rob Hillstead, Janine Windolph, Chrystene Ells, and Jason Britski. I went alone, Margaret having a commitment at OSAC and this show being severely inappropriate for William who stayed home to watch the three hour Terry Pratchett film "Going Postal" for a third time this week.

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I returned to the eye doctor yesterday and found out that my eye has healed and I'm fine now.
William was at the Science Centre a few days ago and got to participate that large chrome ball that steals electrons from you and makes your hair stand up. Upon a few days contemplation last night he concluded that electrons are gravity. I missed our department Christmas lunch today due to a combination of scheduling conflicts and my persistent cold that is making me moody and depressed.
I started wearing my contacts again, or actually just my contact. I have hard contacts due to my Keratoconus and my left eye seems to be almost as strong without the lens as with it. With the lens in, the left eye has a lot of vignetting, which is generally more annoying that the loss of a bit of focus without it. I've taken to just putting in the right lens, which takes some getting used to since, as we know from optics, the refocusing of light will change the size of the image so I am seeing the world larger in one eye than the other. It takes about an hour for my brain to make sense of it, but of course it can. Brains are so cool.
I wrote the first 700 words or so of the Splice Magazine article on Jason Britski. For someone who doesn't like to talk about his films, he writes about them eloquently. He gave me notes and answers to some of my questions that made me feel like I should do an interview rather than a critique.

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This morning I shot my One Take Super-8 film, or at least most of it. I'll have to conclude it tomorrow morning when I have some fresh cream and good light. I'm still looking for the perfect counter point soundtrack, have a week to put that together.

I finished watching Jason Britski's films today. The last two were both screened at the 50-104 festival but the second viewing brought an entirely different tone to them. When I first saw them a few weeks ago I thought they were entirely formal, I thought that he was distancing himself from content. One is primarily about China Girls, the momentary flash of an image of a woman that is put onto the opening leader of movie film to assist in colour correction. The second was about power lines. This time watching them I think they are highly sentimental, being about his long time passions for film and for looking up at the sky. What will a third viewing bring...?

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A restful day, actually took a nap while Margaret and William were out. I've been re-watching Jason Britski's films (local experimental filmmaker) with the intention of writing something about them, they are quite amazing. I've decided I will have to draw a map of the connections between them, like a web of themes, motifs, and subject matter. I'm watching just one or two of his films per day so I can spend time thinking about them, rather than letting them run together.

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Got a haircut today, Margaret thinks its shorter than usual but since I only get around to it very 9 months, one must be extreme.
The 50-104 Festival began, I screened three films from my "Mr. Saul's Utopia" series to a small crowd at the Museum. They repeat tomorrow at 9pm. Other films I saw tonight that impressed me included Jason Britski's even more formal than usual two new pieces, and a really wonderful silent film of the Niagara Falls by John Price "View of the Falls from the Canadian Side". It was a generally odd bunch of films, perhaps because of the high number of works from artists or at least from people coming out of visual arts and/or design background/training. 4.5 hours was a bit of a stretch, but enjoyable. The only food available was popcorn however, and as I can no longer eat that, it's lucky I snuck in a peanut butter cup.