AGH's 10th Annual International Film and Video Festival
and Bell Canada Award for Short Film and Video
AWARD WINNERS
Bell Canada Award for Short Film and Video: Tereza Buskova (Czech Republic) – Wedding Rituals $1000.00 cash award
Art Gallery of Hamilton Award for Short Film and Video: Kevin Lee Burton (Vancouver, BC) – Nikamowin
$500.00 cash award
An engaging programme of 22 international short films and videos are in competition for the Bell Canada Award. These works were selected from over 200 entries by both established and emerging directors from 12 countries. Genres include drama, documentary, performance, comedy, animation and experimental film and video, all under 15 minutes in length and produced between January 1, 2006 and January 1, 2008. Works screened at this year’s festival include regional, national and international premieres. Several works have also been featured at prestigious international festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Locarno Film Festival. Festival jurors and screened directors will be in attendance. The 2008 Oscar-nominated short I Met the Walrus will also be featured in this year’s programme with the film’s producer and participant Jerry Levitan in attendance.
The Bell Canada Award is a $1000 cash prize awarded by a jury comprised of accomplished film and video professionals. This year, the festival presents a new award, the AGH Shorts Award - $500 cash award presented for innovation in short film and video selected from the 200 submissions.
Also new this year are two screenings at 9:15 pm and 11:15 pm, increasing the number of films presented from 10 to 22 works. A guest DJ will spin outdoors in the Irving Zucker Sculpture Garden between screenings. In case of rain, the event will be held indoors in the AGH’s Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Pavilion.
The AGH International Film and Video Festival 10 is generously supported by Bell Canada Inc., Department of Canadian Heritage Arts Presentation Program, and the City of Hamilton, Office of Film and Television. Additional support is provided by View Magazine and Sound Box Entertainment. The AGH gratefully acknowledges the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Hamilton for their generous support of all its programmes.
Bell Canada Award Jury
Lesley Loksi Chan (Hamilton) is a film and video artist. Chan was the Canadian Spotlight Artist at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival where she won two awards for her films "I no I no" and "Wanda & Miles". Chan’s work has been screened at festivals/galleries including the Toronto Hong Kong Film Festival, Alucine Toronto Latina Media Festival, Emergeandsee (Berlin), and Pleasure Dome. Chan's "OPIE," a live performance with video, overhead projector, keyboard and sewing machine, was presented by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the TH&B Collective in May, 2008.
R. Bruce Elder (Toronto) is a filmmaker whose works have been presented in retrospectives at Anthology Film Archives, the Art Gallery of Ontario, La Cinémathèque Québécoise, Il Festival Senzatitolo (Trento), Images ‘97 (Toronto) and by Cinematheque Ontario, who proclaimed in their program note for their November, 2008 tribute: "R. Bruce Elder is not only one of Canada's foremost experimental filmmakers, he's one of our greatest artists, thinkers, critics, and filmmakers, period." In 2007, he was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Media Arts. His is also the author of several critical books on film.
Gisèle Gordon (Toronto) is a filmmaker and programmer whose works have screened at festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival, Hot Docs, and the Images Festival. She curates film and video independently and works as a programmer for Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival and the imagineNATIVE Media Arts Festival where she is currently the Vice-Chair of the board of directors.
PROGRAMME ONE:
Life #2 (Dennis Day, Toronto, 2007, 5:00 min., video) Hamilton Premiere
Capitalism: Slavery (Ken Jacobs, New York, 2007, 3:00 min., digital/computer) Hamilton Premiere
The Gift (Ryan Furlong, Hamilton, 2006, 8:20 min., digital video)
Nikamowin (Song) (Kevin Lee Burton, Vancouver, 2007, Cree/English, 11:15 min., digital video) Hamilton Premiere
I Met the Walrus (Josh Raskin, Toronto, 2007, 5:10 min., animation) Hamilton Premiere
PROGRAMME TWO:
L’Intrus (The Intruder) (Emmanuelle Raynaut, France, 2007, 3:57 min., mini DV) Canadian Premiere
Hinterland (Sheridan Shindruk, Montreal, 2007, 9:20 min., video) World Premiere
Loudly Death Unties (Sheila and Nicholas Pye, Hamilton, 2007, 11:00 min., HD) Hamilton Premiere
Odin’s Shield Maiden (Guy Maddin, Winnipeg, 2007, 4:30 min., Super-8/16mm) Hamilton Premiere
1977 (Peque Varela, Spain/U.K. 2007, 8:00 min. Beta SP) Canadian Premiere
My Personality Hates Me! (Didi Buckmayr & Michael Strohmann, Austria, 2007, 5:00 min. computer animation/Beta SP) Canadian Premiere
Tea Party (Asa Mori, 2006, Japan/Canada, 1:45 min., Super-8 animation) Hamilton Premiere
A Dream (Luo Li, Wuhan/Hamilton, 2008, 8:13 min., video) World Premiere
Made in Japan (Ciro Altabás, Spain, 2007, Spanish/Japanese with English subtitles, 6:00 min., Mini-DV) Canadian Premiere
Milk Teeth (Tabor Banoczki, Hungary/UK, 2007, 11:00 min. HD Cam, hand-drawn cut out animation and computer) Canadian Premiere
U don't bring me flowers (Lucas Michael, Argentina/U.S.A, 2006, 3:30 min., video) Canadian Premiere
Summaries (alphabetical by director):
Made in Japan (Ciro Altabás, Madrid, 2007, Spanish, 6 min., Mini-DV) Canadian Premiere
"... My mother admitted that the man who I thought was my father was not my father..."
Born in Zaragoza, Spain in 1977, Ciro Altabás has lived in Madrid, Los Angeles, and London. His short films have won more than a hundred awards in festivals around the world. He has been a college teacher, translator, jury member, reviewer, and a professional screenwriter for feature films and television movies.
Milk Teeth (Tibor Banoczki, Hungary/UK, 2007, 11:00 min., HD Cam, hand-drawn cut out animation in computer) Canadian Premiere
A young boy follows his sister into a field as she sneaks out to see her boyfriend. Lost in the strange world of the cornfield, the siblings experience fear, love, and learn more about themselves and their relationship as brother and sister.
Tibor Banoczki grew up in Hungary. After graduating from the Hungarian Academy of Craft and Design in Animation Direction, he moved to the United Kingdom and recently completed an M.A. at the National Film and Television School. Tibor is developing both feature-length and short-format animations.
My Personality Hates Me! (Didi Buckmayr & Michael Strohmann, Austria, 2007, 5:00 min., computer animation/ Beta SP) Canadian Premiere
When a sensory nerve receives a movement impulse, the result is a balance of tension termed affect: The organism does not convert the stimulus into an action, but an expression—until there is a collision.
Michael Strohmann trained at the Institute for Electro-Acoustic in Vienna. Part of group F***head and Honolulu group Bilderwerfer.
Didi Bruckmeyer has a Doctor of economy, since 1985, a singer, actor and performance-artist and international exhibitions and activities with the multimedia-performance-group F***head.
Nikamowin (Song) (Kevin Lee Burton, Vancouver, 2007, Cree/English, 11:15 min., digital video) 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Hamilton Premiere
This piece is a linguistic soundscape comprised of the deconstruction and reconstruction of Cree narrative dances with manipulated landscapes. This audio-visual experiment begs questions of how languages exist, emerge and survive with a rhythm generated from altered and constructed Cree.
Kevin Lee Burton is from God's Lake Narrows First Nation in Manitoba. A Cree language speaker, Kevin uses his art practice to help preserve and promote this language through media.
Buskova’s first Super-8 film, this interpretation of Bohemian marital folklore and the complex narratives of a young bride incorporates diverse influences and techniques, an interest in tableaux vivant, and experimental improvisation.
Czech-born artist Tereza Buskova lives in London and works in both the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. She completed her M.F.A. in printmaking at the Royal College of Art (UK) in 2007. Her first major solo show is currently on view at London’s David Roberts Art Foundation.
Life #2 (Dennis Day, Toronto, 2007, 5:00 min., video) Hamilton Premiere
A meditation on the space between zero and one.
Dennis Day was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland in 1960. He studied classical music and psychology before graduating in media-based art from the Ontario College of Art and Design. He has won numerous awards and exhibited internationally including the Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Canada.
Pool captures a fragment of the lives of young children in Aceh, Indonesia. In the wake of the devastating 2004 tsunami, a water reserve in construction becomes a swimming pools as their fear of water subsides. US AID across the pool floor is unsettling presence. Best Canadian Short, T.I.F.F. 2007.
Christopher Chong Fui, a Malaysian/Canadian filmmaker, has worked in television, animation, directed experimental film with films in 20 festivals internationally. Currently, he is living in Malaysia developing dance-drama, feature and documentary works.
The Gift (Ryan Furlong, Hamilton, 2006, 8:20 min., digital video)
An estranged father meets his daughter for a birthday visit. Waiting for their drinks, they recant their turbulent past and discuss their promising future, all the while Dad is eagerly waiting to give Susie a special surprise gift.
Hamilton native Ryan Furlong directed the music documentary BARK about Blackie & the Rodeo Kings with renowned collaborators Garth Hudson and the late Richard Bell. Other films include The Vampire and Snake Road, both produced for Bravo! and inspired by the music of Bob Lanois. The filmmaker is currently in development with his debut feature film.
Capitalism: Slavery (Ken Jacobs, New York, 2006, 3:00 min., digital/computer) Hamilton Premiere
An antique stereograph image of cotton-pickers is captured with computer animation and presents the scene in an active depth even to single-eyed viewers. The product is silent, mournful, and brief.
Born in 1933 in Brooklyn, Ken Jacobs studied painting with Hans Hofmann. He started making films in1955 and created/directed The Millennium Film Workshop in New York and founded the Department of Cinema at Binghamton University (SUNY), where he is Distinguished Professor Emeritus. His works screen internationally.
Room: An Extension (Yam Lau, Hong Kong/Toronto, 2008, 2:31 min., computer-generated animation, digital video) Hamilton Premiere
Video footage capturing the filmmaker’s apartment space and daily routine are reconstituted within the virtual environment of 3-D imaging software.
Born in Hong Kong, Yam Lau is an artist and writer based in Toronto. A professor of painting at York University, his work is represented by Leo Kamen Gallery in Toronto and Yuanfen New Media Art Space in Beijing, China.
A Dream (Luo Li, China/Hamilton, 2008, 9:21 min., video) World Premiere
On his way home from a party, a man sees something that nudges him into a world of subtle strangeness. Based on an ancient Chinese story, this film is a quiet mood evoking the uncertain borders between dreams and reality, trust and doubt.
Born in Wuhan, China, Luo Li is a film and video maker who is currently completing his M.F.A. at York University. His works has screened at such festivals and galleries as the Images Festival, Cinemateque Ontario, Nouveau Cinema Festival, and Reyes Hecoles Gallery (Mexico).
Odin’s Shied Maiden (Guy Maddin, 2007, 4:30 min., Super-8) Hamilton Premiere
The shield maiden of Gimli yearns for the drowned fisherman Mundi while her acolytes in mourning aid her in this fact-based account of a tragic accident.
O, celibate ocean / Wet with death / Do not grieve.
Guy Maddin, born and raised in Winnipeg, has directed numerous shorts and nine features, including Archangel and Brand Upon the Brain!. He has been awarded an International Emmy, two U.S. National Society of Film Critics Awards, a Genie, a Gemini and most recently the Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film for My Winnipeg at the 2007 T.I.F.F. An author and journalist, he also teaches film studies at the University of Manitoba and at the Ontario College of Art and Design.
U don't bring me flowers (Lucas Michael, Buenos Aires/ Los Angeles, 2006, 3:30 min., video) Canadian Premiere
Interpreting and lip-synching Neil Diamond's and Barbra Streisand’s You don't bring me flowers, this work tragicomically explores the multiplicity and division of the self, the idea of self love/neglect, the relationship one has with death while alive, and the co-existence of anima/animus within.
Born in Buenos Aires, Lucas Michael lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. He works mostly with video, photography, drawing and performance. His work tends to be queer, political, dramatic and humorous in nature.
Tea Party (Asa Mori, 2006, Japan/Canada, 1:45 min., Super-8 animation) Hamilton Premiere
A Super 8 animation of a card party with a little something special in the tea.
Born in Nagano, Japan, and living in Vancouver, Asa Mori has a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and works primarily with media installation and animation.
6th and Market (Kottie Paloma, San Francisco, 2006, 4:46 min., video) Canadian Premiere
The filmmaker’s down-and-out neighbourhood in San Francisco is home to characters that inhabit this vivid world of poverty, despair and, yes, even a bit of redemption. 6th and Market is the seventh book in Kottie's Books on Tape Vol. II series.
Born in Los Angeles in 1974, Kottie Paloma moved to San Francisco in 1996. In addition to his books, Paloma also works in other media, including drawing, painting, photography, and soft sculpture; on some occasions he outsources video projects to his friends. From 2003-2005, he created and directed a live performance-based talk show.
Somewhere Between Here and There (Liss Platt, Hamilton, 2008, 10:00 min., 16mm, Super-8 film)
Through collaged images and sounds of Brooklyn, Hamilton, and the roadways that connect these cities, Somewhere Between Here and There is a rumination on coming and going, staying and leaving, living and dying. A homage to Platt’s friend and fellow filmmaker Diane Bonder, the piece emerges in part from their intersections – Brooklyn, still photography, soap operas, and imaginary filmic place.
Liss Platt is a media artist whose works take the form of videotapes, films, web sites, photographs, performances, and installations. Her work has been exhibited and screened throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Recent exhibitions include YYZ Artist Outlet, MKG 127 Gallery, Pleasure Dome, and TH&B.
Loudly Death Unties (Sheila and Nicholas Pye, Hamilton, 2007, 11:00 min., HD) Hamilton Premiere
Set in a dilapidated cabin, a young man and woman face death in the form of a banshee child. He must heed her call and say goodbye to his love forever in this fable.
Born in Torquay, England in 1976, Nicholas Pye teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and holds an M.F.A. from Concordia University and his B.F.A. from the Ontario College of Art and Design.
Born near Hamilton in 1978, Sheila Pye has completed eight short films and maintains an active art practice in performance-based cinema and large-format still photography. Her work is exhibited in festivals, museums, and galleries internationally. She is currently developing her first feature, The Young Arsonists.
I Met the Walrus (Josh Raskin, Toronto, 2007, 5:10 min., animation) 2008 Academy Award Nominee, Hamilton Premiere
In 1969, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, 14 year-old Beatle fanatic Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's Toronto hotel room and convinced John to do an interview during his bed-in for peace tour. Thirty eight years later, Jerry produced this film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. Director Josh Raskin marries traditional pen sketches by James Braithwaite with digital illustration by Alex Kurina.
Josh Raskin has been making sounds and pictures for as long as he can remember. After a four-year romance with the new media programme at Ryerson University in Toronto, Josh appears unwavering in his tendency to keep doing so.
L’Intrus (The Intruder) (Emmanuelle Raynaut, France, 2007, 3:57 min., colour/mini DV) Canadian Premiere
In a faraway hotel room, on a continent that I do not know, I observe the reflection of fragments of my body: in the window, in the framed pictures hanging on the wall, in an empty glass standing on the table.
Emmanuelle Raynaut is a visual artist working with video, sound, performance, sculpture, installation and drawing. Her work is in private and public collections. Her last performance, "J'étais comme un arbre, j'étais comme une pierre," was featured at the Musée Cluny du Moyen in 2007.
John Small is an optimistic, ambitious little man dedicated to success in his career. He's absorbed in his work and his daily routine and blissfully oblivious to the feelings of his lonely and disillusioned wife, Jane. Eventually he bumps up against the limits of his proscribed life and considers the concept of free will for the first time.
Jesse Rosensweet finds thrills where visual representation collides with time-based media. His first short film, The Stone of Folly, won the Jury Prize for Short Film at Cannes and has played at animation and film festivals around the world.
Hinterland (Sheridan Shindruk, Montreal, 2007, 9:20 min., video) World Premiere
In the city of psychics, puzzling reports are collected from the hinterland and investigations are conducted through art. In Hinterland, nature is the beautiful (if remote) backdrop to the awkward, poignant strivings of men and women.
Sheridan Shindruk is an artist working with staging and styling techniques to produce narrative video. His videos have screened both internationally and regionally. He holds a B.F.A. from the University of Manitoba, a Diploma in New Media from Winnipeg's Red River Community College, and an M.F.A. from Concordia University.
Animation of a small town, a growing knot and a girl searching for her identity. Sundance Film Festival 2008
Pique Varela grew up in Ferro, small town in Spain. From the moment his Dad came home with a video camera he could not stop filming his family and making short videos with friends. He has a degree in Contemporary Media Practice at the University of Westminster and produced this work while at the National Film and Television.
