Reports of film’s demise may have been overstated but in a sense the death knell feels appropriate. Truthfully when one thinks of still images set in motion brought to life before our eyes from the beam of a projector it seems firmly within the realm of the obscure or the undead. Appropriately as mainstream celluloid production and exhibition dwindles film has found a second life on the fringes of art and independent production with small-gauge materials — mostly 8mm and 16mm — providing a viable and thrilling alternative for adventurous practitioners and filmgoers.
Toronto’s Stephen Broomer is fascinated by celluloid specifically its unique ability to produce what he calls “a palpable experience.” The acclaimed filmmaker scholar and preservationist also dons the hat of “visiting artist” this week for the 2015 instalment of the $100 Film Festival. Internationally renowned and Calgary’s longest-running film fest the $100 remains a stalwart of the city’s film and art scene. Its commitment to celluloid exhibition has graduated in recent years from an admirable philosophy to a nigh-heroic undertaking.
In addition to three nights of small-gauge screenings and the annual Film/Music Explosion — this year boasting performances from Lab Coast Bitter Fictions and Bog Bodies in collaboration with local filmmakers — the festival welcomes Broomer for an artist talk and workshop exploring celluloid film production as it collides with digital processing techniques. Broomer is quick to note the close relationship between film and video in his work and doesn’t see an adoption of the latter as an abandonment of the former. “Almost all of my work has involved an exchange between video and film using the video image to augment and support the film image — the notion that we lose and gain through such medium exchanges.” He likens the exchange to writing techniques “that similarly expand our vocabulary.”
Broomer’s artist talk and workshop as well as the films Snakegrass and Brébeuf (screening Friday and Saturday respectively) serve as the culmination of the filmmaker’s de facto Calgary takeover which includes a month-long installation of his work at Arts Commons (on view until February 28). While the selected works were not initially produced for a gallery or installation setting — “If I give a thought to exhibition while producing work I’m imagining film exhibition” he says — Broomer is curious to see what comes from a different form of audience engagement. “I’m happy to see its life extended into that world particularly Pepper’s Ghost which as a work about using light to expand space lends itself to the gallery” he says.
That Broomer remains so open to mixed-media techniques and the fluid nature of his works’ presentation is perhaps not surprising considering his long investment in both art production as well as critical writing including a recent PhD in Communication and Culture. “I’ve worked hard to distinguish my work as a writer from my own work as an artist because they require distinct labours and applications of experience” he says.
That said he admits that a dialogue frequently emerges between the two discreet endeavours: “My scholarly work has been geared to close analysis of the work of mid-century avant-garde filmmakers and poets and my films bear those debts much as my analysis is informed by my filmmaking. I believe that in both my writing and filmmaking I am defending the same values.”
Alongside Broomer’s ambitious experiments this year’s $100 Film Festival program include animation narrative fiction and a healthy showing of found footage works the latter an increasingly common alternative for resourceful filmmakers interested in working with celluloid despite its impediments. While film may be far from dead for three days we might be well served by pretending it’s true; time to dim the lights thread the projector and prepare for the séance.
$100 FILM FEST runs from February 26 to 28 at the Engineered Air Theatre.
