Deframing the Frame

A while back, I entered "echoes" into a contest called "Deframing the Frame." The concept:

The goal of this contest is to sponsor the development of single author movies. We have developed a multi-layered idiom that fuses literature with cinema. We like this direction but are open to other attempts to forge a viable form for single author movies. The only other element to keep in mind is that De-framing the Frame is looking to do just that—to shatter the frames that media has placed on events. So the submission should do this in some manner, either overtly or experimentally.

I thought the concept fit well with "echoes" even though my film pushes the boundaries of "single author" by incorporating a single dancer shot on Super 8 along with the animation that I created combined with found photos and footage, but I certainly think it "shatters the frames that media has placed on events." Turns out that it comes down to an audience choice vote, though, which I wasn't expecting. So here I am, asking for you to watch "echoes" on YouTube (or just scroll down and watch it on this blog) and vote for it here: Deframing the Frame - 2011 Audience Choice Vote. Thanks for your support!

Calgary Dreams

"echoes" will be screening in Calgary, Alberta on June 3rd as part of Calgary Dreams: A selection of Aboriginal films from Dreamspeakers Film Festival.

June 1-4, 2011
Wednesday June 1 @ 7pm - “Down the Mighty River” - the story of the relationship of displaced Cree with the Hydro Dam development that unsettled them. (CSIF Sofa Cinema – J2, 2711 Battleford Ave. SW – Currie Barracks)

Thursday June 2 @ 7pm - “Qimmit” – an overview of the changes experienced by the Inuit from 1950-1970 with their loss of sled dogs and semi-nomadic lifestyle. A controversial issue at the time, many Inuit still believe that their dogs were deliberately killed by the RCMP as part of government policy to force them off the land. (CSIF Sofa Cinema – J2, 2711 Battleford Ave. SW – Currie Barracks)

Friday June 3 @ 7pm – Local Aboriginal Short Films – a selection of live-action and animated short films by local artists. Featuring films by: Stephen J. George, Terrance Houle, Cara Mumford, Christiana Latham, Laura Auger, Kevin Littlelight, Elija Wells, Jack Saddleback and more (The Plaza Theatre – 1133 Kensington Rd. NW)

Saturday June 4 @ 7pm – “Boy” – It is 1984, and Michael Jackson is king-even in Waihau Bay, New Zealand. Here we meet Boy, an 11-year-old who lives on a farm with his gran, a goat, and his younger brother, Rocky (who thinks he has magic powers). Shortly after Gran leaves for a week, Boy’s father, Alamein, appears out of the blue. Having imagined a heroic version of his father during his absence, Boy comes face to face with the real version-an incompetent hoodlum who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years before. This is where the goat enters. (The Plaza Theatre – 1133 Kensington Rd. NW)

Tickets: $8 Members, Students, Seniors; $10 General Admission
Available at the door.

FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE

echoes now on YouTube

I recently submitted "echoes" to Deframing the Frame, an online new media competition via YouTube. The description of the competition:

"This is not a search for movies or for fiction or for journalistic stories. It is a search for a fusion of such elements into a new usable idiom of expression. Use text but make it visual text. Use images (still images or video) but preferably images you have found, rather than staged and shot (some staging and shooting can be done, but keep it to a minimum). Use your work to de-frame the mainstream frames within which media has imprisoned our reality."

Since I thought that described echoes well, I decided to upload it. So it is now available to watch online!

production notes

"echoes" was inspired by a poem of the same name that I wrote on September 11, 2001, commonly referred to as 9/11. I wanted to experiment with mixing forms and textures, while incorporating poetry and dance, to create a visual poem. Lee Maracle, renowned writer of Salish and Cree ancestry, says to use beautiful words to say hard things. I believe that this type of visual poem, even with its graphic imagery, can be a beautiful way to make a political statement. That is why I have incorporated this style into my next film, "December 6", commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.

The only film component of this piece is the Super 8 footage of dancer Oriana Evoy, the Gothic Ballerina who, in my mind, represents the twin towers. Based on footage of the live dancer, I created both a 2-dimensional cut out and a 3-dimensional stop motion puppet during an Experimental Animation course at the Quickdraw Animation Society and filmed them on mini DV using iStopMotion. I also incorporated still photographs manipulated in Photoshop along with video clips manipulated in Final Cut Pro into "echoes". The soundtrack was created in Garageband and incorporates a 10-second clip of the opening piano notes of Metric's song "The Twist". Spoken word vocals were provided by Emma Claire Miller, the actress from my silent film "Coda in G Minor". Some day, I will make a film that includes Emma Claire's voice and visuals at the same time!

upcoming screenings

I am excited to announce that "echoes" has been selected for the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto and the chashama Film Festival in New York City.

At imagineNATIVE, it is screening in the Experimental Program entitled "Non Compliance"... a title that feels very well suited to my film. I will be in attendance for that screening.

At chashama, "echoes" is scheduled to open their "Working for Change" program. Given the fact that this film relates to the events of 9/11, I'm quite moved to be screening it in New York, the city so devestated by those events. I really wish I could be in attendance for that one, but I'll be pre-production for my next film by then (production begins in November). If anyone reading this blog attends that screening, I'd love to have you post comments about it here.

Both screenings are this October; details can be found in the sidebar. And maybe I'll see some of you in Toronto!

echoes

The poem...
written by Cara Mumford on September 11, 2001.

Melancholy riffs
echo in my head,
so empty of all thought.
Instead—
such images of evil
and the din of fear,
death,
last breaths.

And I fancy that I see
the fabric of freedom
disintegrate,
like an ancient shroud,
into so much dust—
a broken trust—
on the streets of the city.

Dante had nothing on this.

The evil that man wreaks upon man
overwhelms me
as before,
as always.
And my cold soul
fills with loneliness.

There is no anger yet,
nor tears,
just despair and sorrow
to face the morrow.

So as this long day collapses into dark night,
the only solace that I find
is in the blues refrain
that echoes in my mind.