This eclectic program of short films from CFMDC’s contemporary catalogue takes us on a timely journey, in celebration of our 50th anniversary (Canada’s 150th) in 2017. Referencing this epochal moment in time, we begin with one of Canada’s most celebrated artists, Michael Snow, whose humor-inspired nod to the 21st century malaise of attention deficit in the digital world, WVLNT - Wavelength for Those Who Don’t Time, reduces his 45 minute classic film to a 15 minute video redux.
From there we go to a modern rendering of archival film footage from the World Expo 1967 hosted by Canada in Montreal. The full program of shorts moves through a world that collapses time and focuses on the seen and unseen at once. With musings to ancient Mycelium, or the static wave of an old analogue radio tower, to the skeletal dance of life, to the frantic freeway experience. Through built spaces and deconstructions, the micro and the macro, this program highlights artists interventions with the frame and the material. These artists are representative of a country that celebrates the diaspora of our society, from First Nations artist Lyndsey McIntyre, to artists whose families have emigrated to Canada. From the old guard to the new guard, diverse in cultural and sexual identity, this program highlights the many women breaking through the historically male-dominated domain of experimental film, crafting spectacular frames filled with light refractions of the physical and metaphysical movements on screen. With subject matter ranging from the abstract to identity and sexuality in subtle and overt forms. From this dazzling dance of light, all that is crystal will be clear.