Michele Sereda memorial

 We attended a afternoon long memorial for Michele at the MacKenzie Art Gallery today. There were many speakers who had beautiful, funny, charming things to say. The diversity of presenters was amazing with First Nations, Ukrainian, Nigerian song and dance. Robin closed the event with a silk dance that Michele had once (jokingly?) said she'd like for her own funeral. Afterwards (in an unfortunately short amount of time remaining) a series of costumes and videos were being displayed in the reception salon upstairs.

Michele Sereda

Dear Michele, you were always so full of life. We spoke just a few days ago. You were amazing. You always had such insights into people and you saw the strengths in those around you and found ways to look beyond our weaknesses. I was honoured when you asked me to work on animation for your Alice in Wonderland many years ago; it was a thrill to be in the middle of the energy of your production. Your visits to my classroom and your work with my students was always so generous and enlightening, I valued every moment. I can't believe we were watching you and Paul on the screen just last night at the Filmpool to remember him. As I sat there, I wished you were there because I wanted to ask you so many things, Questions that will remain unanswered. I'm so glad we had a few chances to work together and wish we had many, many more. We are all devastated by this accident, you and the others, all gone in one collision.

One plus One

This evening I went to Neutral Ground and saw a short performance piece by Michele Sereda and Elwood Jimmy called "One Plus One", a response to Jean-Luc Godard. I'm looking at the images on the back of the camera and am amazed at how lurid they seem. It was a very verbal piece really, with Elwood acting as the interviewer asking a long string of questions about politics, morality, ethics, etc, to which Michele would respond to each with the same answer, "Yes". Then she lay down on the desk and was covered with multiple family size bottles of ketchup. Then there was washing and guns and so on. However, with the crowd of people and the closeness of the space, I felt overwhelmed by the smell of the ketchup and didn't see the sight as I see it now in my photos. Curious how this happens. I guess that's cinema for you.

Michele Sereda

Michele Sereda came to my class today to talk to the students about acting and directing actors. As with last year, we structured it so that she simply asked each of them to describe something about what they were doing or to ask a question and from that, 2 hours of discussion were filled. Intense and worthwhile I didn't take any pictures.This evening while William and I shopped at Superstore (which changed its sign to blue), Margaret did a trading card session where Sylvia was workshopping the creation of miniature purses .

Maurice Fortier

This morning we went to a wake/celebration for Mo Fortier, husband of my friend and colleague Michele Sereda. I didn't know Moe as well as I'd liked. He was only 63, overcome with cancer very quickly and suddenly. The celebration today was at the Artisan on 13th and was filled beyond expectations with over 200 of his friends. His band, the Gotham City Blues, performed as did other singers. Robin Poitras did a silk dance, Wayne Tunneson and the Regina bell ringers rang bells, and there were so many amazing and funny and touching stories, it was truly moving.

good news and bad news

The good news is that my guest in class today, Michele Sereda, was really interesting and talked a lot about how a director can prepare with a script to be more able to communicate with actors. Other good news was that William went to a science fair and had a great day too. I also joined Paved by mail and sent in a Professor Delusia video for their Halloween screening. I also recorded and edited the soundtrack for my one take super 8 film "Memories of Uncle's House". The bad news is that the toilet is leaking again.

last day of William's birthweek

Saturday, today we had the big kids party for William, went to the park, had a bug hunt, played, had cupcakes that I baked yesterday and Margaret decorated this morning, broke the wasp-shaped pinata that Margaret made over the past couple of days (the secret is to make it out of tissue paper, not newspaper, so it is possible for a kid to break). Supper at my parents house, then attending "The Extras" theatrical performance from Curtain Razors in front of city hall, then home to make the people and sharks with frickin' laser beans on their heads out of Lego. Oof. I need a day of just going to work, the social calendar is killing me.

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Ice and Fire Festival was today. Margaret worked really hard to get the kids area working, the weather was perfect and even warm enough for the snow to get sticky for snowmen. Chrystene Ells did a terrific snow bear. This evening William dressed as Darth Vader with glow sticks taped to his light saber and we all went out for the evening procession. My video played while Michele Sereda danced. From this vantage point, I shot so you can see the dance and animation, but due to the shape of the surface (a snow rock) the walrus animated character isn't as visible.

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I worked on my website for another few hours today, finally getting all of the descriptions for my films written with a page and maybe photos or a clip for each. The pages are there, although over half the clips are still missing (there will be a total of 80 or so films listed). Next I'll have to design the page to tie the films together. I told Margaret's dad what I've been working on and he asked what order the articles (and thus also the films) will be listed? I now have a quandary, do I list the films chronologically? By genre (drama, animation, experimental)? Alphabetically? I suppose I could offer all options with links to each, how long could that take?
That was my main obsession, then I got thinking about the Walrus and the Carpenter film that I just made a dvd of, the one I shot 10 years ago and that Michele Sereda wants to perform in front of tomorrow night. Well the dvd looks like crap, I think the transfer to video that I did was a bit soft and I'm deeply unhappy with it. It may be passable as most people won't be looking at the projection that much or that closely, but I feel I'd be letting them down. So this evening after watching the new superfriends dvd with William (Galactic Guardian: The Super Powers Team, 2dvd set, Adam West as Batman), I took the only image I have handy of the Walrus and the Carpenter (if I still have the original artwork, it must be at my office) and brought it into photoshop, cut the pieces apart and painted the gaps where the cuts appeared, and reanimated the scene in after effects. It will now be bright and sharp and 6 minutes long, rather than the original one.
Speaking of Batman, I started rereading the Frank Miller Dark Night comics from the 80s. They hold up so well, I'm amazed all over again. I have the originals up in the attic somewhere, but only the first series. He did a second series in 2001. The whole set is published in whappingly thick hardcover book that I just borrowed from the almighty library.

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I spent about half my day working on my website. I finally have the hang of it, making really simple single pages for each of my films and linking them together and connecting photos and videos and other junk to them. I've got about 45 films written up (admittedly mostly cut and pasted from previous writing from the old website and from the dvd material I put together last year). I've got about 20 more films to write up and then get all the articles and curation statements put together. I did put the writing together, but the layout is a disaster so I need to fix it. It looks like I need to capture some more video clips, probably about 20, so that will put a delay in it all. I guess I don't have a deadline, perhaps summer, so I'm probably ahead.

This afternoon we went as a family to the park and looked at how the sculptures are coming along for the Ice and Fire fest this weekend. Margaret is working hard getting workshops and stuff together. I'll be replaying a film clip I made 10 years ago of the walrus and the carpenter for a new performance by Michele Sereda. Its about 30 seconds long. I ran past the office and managed to find a video copy I made from the 16mm, so half my work is done.

Watched "Rise: Blood Hunter", a vampire movie with Lucy Liu this evening. I rather enjoyed it. They never say "vampire" and it avoided clichés. What I liked was that pain was pain, people who were hurt or scared were quite overcome by it, so it seemed real and was never (very) gratuitous.

double double

The rain and hail yesterday turned into a heck of a humidex today, which made even videotaping dancers a chore, let alone the actual excretion it takes to dance. Ron Stewart did some incredible performances which were highly physical with a verbal, partially improvised performance aspect to them. These were a highlight for me, his work was fresh, exciting, and funny. Another delight was the return of Michele Sereda's "Moss Lady" performance which I'd not seen since the Secret Garden Tour in 2000. At that original show, I was also videotaping but was also shooting hundreds of feet of 16mm film which was part of the initial research and filming for my "Toxic" films. I have a two second clip of the moss lady on colour, hand-processed film. It was at that secret garden that I first met Dr. Tanya Dahms, a biochemist at the University of Regina who I thought was just a dancer with an interest in photography until she contacted me a few months later to see if she could see the footage. We hit it off and have collaborated in the laboratory and on the dance floor a number of times since then (no, I have not been dancing).
Pictured below, a voyeuristic moment with Michele Sereda and Ron Stewart.