[Nettime-nl] THINGS TO COME # 20: MAGNETIC NORTH

[Eric Kluitenberg <epk@xs4all.nl>]

A A N K O N D I G I N G

Experimentele onafhankelijke video uit Canada te zien bij Cinema De Balie
van donderdag 31 mei tot en met zaterdag 2 juni, in het kader van de reeks
Things to Come.

Reserveringen:
020  - 553 51 00

CINEMA DE BALIE PRESENTS:
From Thursday Mai 31 till Saturday June 2, 2001
THINGS TO COME # 20: MAGNETIC NORTH

A six-part showcase of Canadian independent video. 40 tapes ranging from
innovative documentary to conceptual art, experimental narrative to
performance video. More info in the Magnetic North brochure.

do 31 	20.00 	TTC # 20: Magnetic North
Seen on the body
do 31 	22.00	TTC # 20:Magnetic North
Performing a self
vr 1 	20.00	TTC # 20: Magnetic North
In the flesh
vr 1 	22.00	TTC # 20: Magnetic North
Subject/Object
za 2 	20.00	TTC # 20: Magnetic North
Making Strange, Making familiar
za 2 	22.00	TTC # 20: Magnetic North
The medium isŠ

CINEMA DE BALIE
Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10
1017 RR  AMSTERDAM
the Netherlands
reservations: # 31 20 55 35 100

scroll down for video-descriptions


Magnetic North: Canadian Experimental Video

Seen on the Body
These intimate and complex works reveal and explore the frailties and
conditions of the corporeal. Individual history and unexpected events
imprint the body, gesture and activity make visible the realities of the
physical, and imagined bodies provide a rich field for social critique and
play. Here, experience and the passage of time are written on the skin, and
desire, contradiction, repulsion, pleasure, incoherence, and irony all
reside. Program length 87 minutes.

Birthday Suit-with scars and defects
Directed by Lisa Steele
A classic early feminist work that evocatively traces the accumulation of
scars on the maker's body to mark the occasion of her twenty-sixth
birthday. 1974, Ontario, 12:00.

What Food Did
Directed by Toni-Lynn Frederick
A visually complex and emotionally loaded hybrid video-film recounting,
among other things, the overeating and illness of the narrator's father and
her own anorexia. 1996, British Columbia, 10:00.

The Better Me
Directed by Cathy Sisler
An extremely personal tape that lampoons the self-help industry and
poignantly explores individual subjectivity-molded, fractured, resistant,
under duress. 1995, Québec, 20:00.

60 Unit; Bruise
Directed by Kenneth Fletcher/Paul Wong
Both erotic and foreboding, this early performance video depicts an
exchange between two young men and the resulting bruise.  1976, British
Columbia, 4:41.

The Hundred Videos
Directed by Steve Reinke
Excerpts from a deeply ironic series of one hundred short videos, which
take on such practices as science, pornography, psychoanalysis, and cinema
with great intelligence, precision, and wit. 1990-1996, Ontario, excerpts,
41:42 of 4:44:00.

Performing a Self
A collection of works displaying a variety of approaches to identity, self,
and cultural translation. Performance, in many guises-the acting of
character, confessional self-revelation, historical reenactment, gestural
or conceptual activities-is foregrounded, and the process of generating an
(often mutable) self is made visible as an ongoing and performative
undertaking. Program length 86 minutes.

Hollywood and Vine
Directed by Colin Campbell
A classic early drag performance tape, featuring the extraordinary Woman
from Malibu, who recounts nearly running down Liza Minelli, and other
adventures. 1976, U.S./Ontario, 18:18.

Emporium
Directed by Natalie Bujold
Excerpts from a series of short performance sketches, whose explorations
range from the sculptural possibilities of Wonder Bread to what can happen
when you take the phrase "walking on eggshells" literally. 1999, Québec,
excerpts, interspersed, 2:38.

Maigre Dog
Directed by Donna James
A celebration of Jamaican-Canadian vernacular speech and strong family ties
through a formally minimal exploration of cultural translation, identity,
and the possible roles of oral history. 1990, Nova Scotia, 7:30.

Le voleur vit en enfer
Directed by Robert Morin/Lorraine Dufour
Set in a working-class Montréal neighborhood, the richness of Québécois
language and the exigencies of poverty are exposed in this haunting and
humorous fiction about a confused and voyeuristic Super 8 filmmaker. 1984,
Québec, 20:00

Untouchable
Directed by Thirza Cuthand
A self-reflexive, explicit, and confrontational approach to the
controversial subject of under-age sexuality, as told by a queer teenager
armed with a video camera. 1998, Saskatchewan, 4:15

Interrupted Attempt
Directed by Grant Poier
The fractured attempts of a man to explain-although to explain what, we're
not sure-are cut together in this repetitive, gestural, and strangely
poignant performance tape. 1986, Alberta, 4:00.

Nunuvut (Our Land), episode 8: Avamuktalik (Fish Swimming Back and Forth)
Directed by Zacharias Kunuk
An episode of an Inuit historical serial drama that portrays traditional
life above the Arctic Circle, circa 1945. Made and acted by residents of
the newly self-governing territory of Nunuvut, the series functions as art,
entertainment, cultural preservation, and radical form of ethnography.
1995, Nunavut, 28:50.

In the Flesh
Contrary to the notion that the body mirrors an internal self, these works
reflect the body as inscribed largely by culture, by the external
constructions and conditions one inhabits and encounters-ethnic conflict,
suburbia, old movies, disease, age. The program provides unflinching
witness to the often poignant, occasionally humorous or absurd conflicts
that are acted out on, and by, the feeling, physicalized body. Program
length 89 minutes.

Awakening of Desire
Directed by Simon Hughes
Pondering the possibility of nuclear holocaust, toy animals converse about
the existential dilemmas of modern life, and voyeurism takes on a new twist
in this suburban fable of phallic power and bodily fluids. 1997, Manitoba,
3:50.

Continuons le combat (Don't Give Up the Fight)
Directed by Pierre Falardeau
Made at the time of the so-called Quiet Revolution in Québec, this
politically subversive tape ironically examines the role of ritual in
culture, looking at pro wrestling and its metaphorical and actual potential
for expanding working-class consciousness and militancy. 1971, Québec,
30:00.

Positiv
Directed by Mike Hoolboom
Set against the backdrop of science movies, old horror films, and Michael
Jackson videos, this moving and beautifully crafted semi-autobiographical
tape addresses mourning, isolation, separations of body and mind, and the
finiteness of individual experience. 1997, Ontario, 10:00.

Condition
Directed by Jana Sterbak/Ana Torfs
Working between sculpture and video, this suspended and subtle tape
metaphorically explores human experience through a reconsidering of the
body in an exercise of duration and movement. 1995, Belgium/Québec, 7:00.

In my end is my beginning, Part Two: Lucy Brown
Directed by Norman Cohn
This verité portrait of an elderly woman in a nursing home reveals her
everyday activities and difficulties, demanding that we witness the ways in
which both the body and exterior culture eventually betray us. 1983, Prince
Edward Island, 38:00.

Subject/Object
These works interrogate the complex and delicate issues surrounding
representation and imaging-exploring self-disclosure, surveillance,
objectification, subjectivity, and individual agency.  Ranging from
subversive documentary to explicit performance, they explore the
possibilities and limits of representing both self and other, often overtly
implicating both maker and viewer in the act of imaging. Program length 96
minutes.

Delicate Issue
Directed by Kate Craig
An early video work in which the surfaces of the body, shot in extreme
close-up, provide a ground for an interrogation into the nature of framing,
exposure, visibility, self-revelation, and spectatorship. 1979, British
Columbia, 12:00.

Die Dyer
Directed by Alain Pelletier
A dense and stunningly visualized work that incorporates dance and theater
in an elliptical narrative about an artist's perverse experiment in
surveillance and control. 1999, Québec, 23:16.

Object/Subject of Desire
Directed by Shawna Dempsey/Lorri Millan
An arch performance tape that moves from repressed and cloying clichés of
romantic relationships to an outspoken assertion of graphic sexual desire
between women. 1993, Manitoba, 5:14.

99 Men
Directed by Ho Tam
A disarmingly simple work that contradicts the stereotyped notion that "all
Asians look the same," while simultaneously refusing to allow the images to
fully disclose individual difference. 1998, U.S./British Columbia, 3:00.

Somalia Yellow
Directed by Allan Harding MacKay
A visually arresting and politically powerful work made by a painter
engaged as a war artist with the Canadian military during their recent
peacekeeping mission in Somalia. At issue are the complex relationships of
outsider to subject, and conflicts created by one culture's occupation of
another. 1993, Somalia/Alberta, 19:00.

A Prayer for Nettie
Directed by Donigan Cumming
The first video by a still photographer whose subversive, improvisational
eulogy for his elderly photographic model is a relentless portrait of an
abject yet strangely dignified world, and a reversing of documentary
assumptions. 1995, Québec, 33:00.

Making Strange, Making Familiar
A series of works that reframe everyday objects, activities, and
situations, in turns rendering the real surreal, reversing the seductions
of climactic (and cinematic) spectacle, and elevating the seemingly
mundane. Included are experiments with daily language, explorations-both
sobering and hilarious-of routine rituals, and performative reenactments of
daily life. Program length 86 minutes.

98.3 KHz: (Bridge at electrical storm
Directed by Al Razutis
An early hybrid film-video work that incorporates a number of image
processing techniques (waveform distortion, loop printing, etc.) to affect
an apocalyptic, surreal vision of a perfectly ordinary place and time.
1973, British Columbia, 11:29.

Slang
Directed by Rae Staseson
A visually layered tape, in which the use of text, voice, and repetition
provide a darkly comic and fresh investigation of everyday language, gender
politics, and nomenclature. 1994, Québec, 4:39.

1/4 MOON
Directed by David Askevold
Shot in rural Nova Scotia, this tape observes the objects and inhabitants
of a farm-a white horse, a man playing the violin, clothes hanging on a
line, a black dog-establishing a series of surprisingly compelling and
hyper-real tableaux. 1986, Nova Scotia, 8:40.

Say
Directed by Rodney Werden
Through a deceptively simple and seemingly innocent wordgame, this early
conceptual tape reveals a complex network of sexual politics, linguistic
dramas, and power plays. 1978, Ontario, 3:30.

Good Afternoon Royal Tower
Directed by Leon Johnson
A portrait of a woman at work, which, through sustained observation,
portrays the daily rituals, relentless drudgery, and small triumphs of a
manager in the apartment-rental business. 1986, Manitoba, 26:00.

Disaster
Directed by David Hoffos
Originally part of an installation, this tape reenacts-and deconstructs the
seduction of-the most appealing of unnatural disasters. 2000, Alberta, 4:00.

Qulliq
Directed by Arnait Ikajurtigiit
An Inuit women's video collective performs and records the traditional
daily activity of preparing and lighting a seal-oil lamp, illuminating both
the inside of an igloo and the poetic possibilities of
self-representational documentary. 1992, Nunavut, 10:00.

Le Beau Jacques
Directed by Stéphane Thibault
A generous and extremely funny portrait of two older women's obsession with
Formula One racing, and in particular with Québec's native son, Grand Prix
driver Jacques Villeneuve. 1998, Québec, 17:00.

The Medium Is . . .
The diverse natures and conditions of the video medium-from activist
intervention to feedback loops to broadcast TV-are explored in this
program. Mass media (broadcast, cinematic, pornographic) is dealt with as
spectacle, tool, condition, adversary, comedy of errors, or opportunity. In
some works, access to even the most basic technology provides ample
possibility for communication, while other works inventively reveal the
complex visual, material, and technical possibilities of the video
apparatus itself. Program length 88 minutes.

Réaction 26
Directed by Charles Binamé
An early video feedback piece, complete with swirling patterns, clouds,
hand-held titles, and psychedelic guitar. 1971, Québec, 4:00.

WHITEWASH
Directed by Jan Peacock
A re-reading of broadcast news conventions and an investigation into
individual memory coalesce into a highly sophisticated exploration of the
construction of self through media representation and narrative. 1990, Nova
Scotia, 14:30.

Television Spots
Directed by Stan Douglas
A selection of short works designed to be shown unannounced between
commercials on television. Subtle, deft, and decidedly inconclusive, they
upstage and resist the over-determined and commodity-based programming of
broadcast TV. 1987/1988, British Columbia, six spots interspersed, 2:00.

In Response to the Dumbest Question of the 20th Century
Directed by Marcel Fayant
A low-tech, modern-day Cowboys and Indians saga, shot in one hour on a
consumer camcorder, featuring plastic toy actors, in-camera editing,
hand-drawn backgrounds, and time-date stamp. 1999, Alberta, 3:40.

En deça du réel (On this side of the real)
Directed by Manon Labreqcue
Made by a dancer and videomaker, this tape explores the expressive
potential of the human body in an innovative investigation of the
materiality and fragility of video itself. 1997, Québec, 11:43.

Piujuq and Angutautuq
Directed by Arnait Ikajurtigiit
An Inuit women's video production collective tells a contemporary version
of a traditional tale, exchanged over CB radios, and illustrated by
computer drawings and images of the makers' daily lives. 1994, Nunavut,
excerpt, 11:22 of 27:00.

The Jungle Boy
Directed by John Greyson
A simultaneously bawdy and poignant narrative that interweaves naked
karaoke, the tragic repercussions of police bust at a popular gay cruising
spot,  and a revisionist reading of the 1942 film Jungle Book. 1986,
Ontario, 15:40.

Buffalo Bone China
Directed by Dana Claxton -
Originally part of a video installation, this visually compelling tape
explores the latent political and emotional meanings of everyday objects,
and the history of North American colonial expansion. 1996, British
Columbia, 10:12.

Danny Kaye's Eyes
Directed by Doug Melnyk
A tape that ingeniously integrates collage, animation, photography, and
found footage into a gently humorous, goofily pornographic work examining
the nature of romantic love, simulation, television, and religion. 1992,
Manitoba, 14:00.



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