Film And Video

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Open Access
3 Seconds Divorce: An Interactive Documentary
(2016-11-25) Javed, Shazia; Longfellow, Brenda
3 Seconds Divorce is an Interactive Documentary (I-doc) that explores the effect of the prevailing practice of Triple Talaq, or Oral Divorce, on the lives of Indian Muslim women. This I-doc also highlights the grassroots movement that has been campaigning to ban this method of divorce, while examining the opposition faced by women activists from institutionalized patriarchy within the community. In creating a digital space for the local Muslim feminists and victims of this law to share and amplify their voices, 3 Seconds Divorce seeks to construct a model of the Interactive Documentary as a tool of empowerment for those subaltern feminist voices that may otherwise go un(der)-represented in mainstream feminist discourse.
Open Access
A Collage Barbarous
(2021-11-15) Zhao, Ruobing; Longfellow, Brenda
A Collage Barbarous is a short experimental film that navigates a voyage of exile and femininity, and drifts towards the embodied experience of traveling between worlds. On a train moving through Sichuan, the traveling actress meets the imaginary. Confused, she struggles with an upcoming performance of a local adaptation of Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan.
Open Access
A Drop Across
(2016-11-25) Svoboda, Elinor Brita; Greyson, John R.
A Drop Across is a short experimental fiction film that explores parallel realities and the role of free will from a broader perspective. Told through interweaving narratives, we meet Charlotte in three different timelines as she encounters her love interest Harlow, some for the first time and another for the last. Their dynamics are similar but expressed in variant ways: she is tough but needy; he's caring but fragile. They are inevitably drawn together and yet, can never seem to get past their own barriers to really connect. This cycle is disturbed by a fourth, ethereal version of Charlotte, who wanders the corners of each life from another dimension. She is omniscient, seeing and feeling everything her counterparts experience, but is unable to intervene. It isnt until she finds an opening through a crack in the pavement that she breaks through to make brief contact by causing one Charlotte to fall. Like a pebble dropped through the dimensions, that Charlotte is left altered, while the others know that something has occurred. She offered a new choice, to move beyond the world of her relationship with Harlow and deeper into the relationship with herself.
Open Access
A Late Thaw
(2015-08-29) Barr, Kimberley Angela; John R Greyson, John R.
A Late Thaw is an eighteen-minute drama based on the loss of my boyfriend in an ice climbing accident when I was nineteen. The film is largely a poetic exploration of love, grief, and hope. The narrative is fictionalized in order to tap into the universal themes embedded in such an experience. It exposes how unresolved grief can be triggered by outside forces, changes and upheavals, or by inner forces such as a desire to hold on to the memory of the loved one. In some cases, feelings of grief can remain frozen until an event draws attention to that which is still in need of healing. Often feelings of pain and loss become intertwined with love. These conscious and unconscious forces complicate the healing process. The goal of the film is to recount the story events (cause) while expressing the inner grief process (effect), creating two story worlds and bridging them together in a seamless way. The challenge lay in externalizing an internal process so that the viewer would understand and perhaps recognize the feelings being conveyed. The research behind the film reflects this bridging of inner and outer worlds, as I turned inwards to my memories, the healing process, and physical artifacts of that time, and outwards towards research in Post Traumatic Stress as well as other films that explore similar themes and subject matter. Part memoir, part research, and part production journal, this paper examines the inspirations, influences, and decisions behind A Late Thaw.
Open Access
A Sad, Sad Ghost Picking at the Hairs of Their Knuckles
(2022-12-14) Goldkind, Zachary Nathan; Hoffman, Philip J.
A Sad, Sad Ghost Picking at the Hairs of Their Knuckles is a durational fiction film, a three-hour work of self-positioning, a film about an abstract me. However, I do not find it of substance to discuss the faculties of the film itself, but rather the context through which the film was made. Outlining a thesis for which the film can speak — this is of importance. I will not speak for the subjectivity of others, and the film, itself, speaks for my own. Therefore, I ask questions: Can we study formalism through a historical materialist analysis? Can this study open up manners of seeing a dialectical materialist survey of image-linguistics through our era of the cinema? When we speak of affect in the cinema, are we speaking of the narratological relations between diegesis and spectator; or are we speaking of the psychoanalytical evocations that the form of an image holds, as, then, extrapolated by the spectator? What is narrative in the cinema What can it be? What is performance in the cinema? How has the apparatus of a camera shaped its form? What is time in the cinema? Is it not the foundation upon which all else comes? I, here, have a matrix of thoughts and theories and observations that embolden the filmmaker to scrutinize their positionality as an artist and as a labour organizer. A filmmaker’s imagination is more closely tied to the ethics of production than ever before. The responsibility of an artist is that of history, of people, and of temperateness: a respect for oneself, the filmworkers here to help create the work, and the audiences it will be exhibited to. The film, A Sad, Sad Ghost Picking at the Hairs of Their Knuckles cannot be the endpoint of the politic and philosophy present here, but merely a gesture towards a people, the beginning of a process that will unfurl over a lifetime.
Open Access
Absence is Present
(2015-08-29) Paskaljevic, Vladimir; Barta, Tereza
Absence Is Present is a short film about emotional aspects of immigration. It’s a story about two women: a daughter in Canada and a mother in Serbia. The daughter (Jelena), who is a young immigrant with a degree in Economics, seeks an appropriate job in Canada. As she does not have any “Canadian experience” she has to work in all kinds of menial jobs. This is mainly why Jelena’s mother Rada is reluctant of the idea of her daughter being an immigrant. The film begins when Rada faints on a street and loses the family dog Srećko. Throughout the she struggles with corrupted Serbian health care system while she searches for the dog throughout city of Belgrade. The purpose of this thesis paper is to examine creative process over the course of making the short film Absence Is Present.
Open Access
All That is Solid: A Celluloid Exploration of Brutalist Architecture
(2015-08-28) Kolcze, Eva; Hoffman, Philip
All That Is Solid is an experimental film that investigates Brutalist architecture through the decayed surface of black and white celluloid. The film features three locations: Robarts Library, The University of Toronto Scarborough campus (UTSC) and the Ross building at York University. All are prominent examples of Brutalist architecture on university campuses. Footage of the buildings has been degraded using photochemical processes that result in unique patterns of decay. The decay processes are used to draw material and aesthetic connections between concrete and celluloid. By distressing and dissolving images of massive buildings, the film explores how time breaks down all materials, even solid concrete. The film also explores the shifting reactions and responses to the buildings, from their initial praise by the architectural community as cutting edge and futuristic, to the intense public backlash that followed shortly after they were built.
Open Access
Amanda
(2017-07-27) Burns, Neil Stuart; Hoffman, Philip J.
"Amanda" is a stop-motion animated short film, shot in stereoscopic 3D. Using fairy tale themes, it tells the story of a young girl who is struggling to control her emotions. Lost in a dark swamp, she encounters a troll who catches and consumes her. She must eventually outwit him in order to return home.
Open Access
An Active Imagination
(2017-07-27) Mor, Nikita Surendra; Kazimi, Ali
"An Active Imagination" is a magical realism short about a young girl coming to terms with her nascent pre-cognitive abilities, while navigating an abusive and turbulent childhood. It interweaves the nave fantasies of children with the harsh realities of the adult world in a coming-of-age story, which transports the viewer back to the magic of childhood.
Open Access
Aqui y alla (Here and There)
(2019-11-22) Rodriguez, Lina Paola; Hoffman, Philip J
Aqu y All is a 22-minute experimental documentary that reflects on family as an emotional system that operates across generations by focusing on the passing of time, the possibilities of remembering and the construction of space as an ongoing historical and subjective process. The film creates an impressionistic tapestry that weaves the historical tension of racial identity in Colombia with the complexity of family dynamics between my grandparents, my father and his siblings during their time together in Chipaque, a small town in Colombia. I began this project with the intention to trace the echoes of violence in Chipaque between the 40s and 50s based on stories that my paternal grandfather used to tell. As I was doing preliminary interviews, I became aware that in a way I was chasing my grandparents shadow, as they have both passed away. Then, the house where my father and his siblings grew up was sold. This development prompted me to refocus the film and make a more personal and intimate exploration of the concept of family bonds and the idea of home. A type of cognitive map that works as a family portrait, the film juxtaposes colour 16mm images, black and white video footage and photos from the familys archive with an immersive sound design and a diaristic use of text to illustrate the impossibility of looking at the past as a fixed, solid and understandable dimension. Weaving fragments of private and public spaces, gestures, voices and phrases, the film draws from the tradition of experimental cinema to create an intimate audiovisual site of personal and collective memory in which the beauty and the pain from both the past and the present co-exist simultaneously.
Open Access
Argos
(2018-11-21) Boni, Christopher Michael; Greyson, John R.
Within a small derelict town, a mother, fed up with the absentee father of her child, uses her powers to transform him into the most loyal creature known to man. By turning him into a dog, she is teaching her daughter that the only way to maintain loyalty from the opposite sex is to learn the process of transformation.
Open Access
Aum, She Who is Most Auspicious
(2015-12-16) Dillon-Davis, Julia Kate Elizabeth; Buchbinder, Amnon
Light seekers. Familial secrets. And parentified children. AUM, SHE WHO IS MOST AUSPICIOUS is a coming-of-age screenplay about what it means to care for others – and for our selves. On the morning she expects to leave for Europe to pursue music studies, 17-year-old Elise Lichten wakes to find her plane ticket gone – and her mother, too. It’s not the first time. As daughter to guru-seeking Paula, Elise and her sister Lily are used to their mother’s spiritual malaise and unannounced retreats at ashrams overseas. Elise is beyond ready to be free of her family. She has to find a place for her little sister to stay till their mother returns. At first, 17-year-old Gavin Cahill’s adoration for Elise comes with a family – a stable family – for Elise to entrust her sister. But when she begins to warm to his affections, she opens to a world she’s adamantly rejected: one of spiritual devotion, non-duality and an assuredness in the divine. Soon, she loses sight of her dream to study music and finds a new dream in Gavin. But their love comes at a cost: their relationship reveals long-hidden family secrets. When Paula returns, distant and vulnerable, Elise has to decide what she cares for most – and what she’s willing to lose in order to stand unapologetically in who she is. Combining research in storytelling, feminine psychology, and archetypes and mythology, AUM is a heroine’s journey about a young girl’s descent to the underworld and auspicious return.
Open Access
Based on a True Story
(2023-03-28) Badkoobeh, Pooya; Becker, Manfred
"Based on a True Story" is a 20-minute minimalist short film set in Tehran, Iran. It is based on the real-life story of an old couple who planned to commit suicide together on March 19, 2007: the woman went through with it, but the man did not. The film’s central theme is life and death. Employing minimalist storytelling and a hybrid of fiction and documentary style, which brings it closer to cinematic realism, the film uses long takes and distant camera placements for a distinctive effect. The film places professional actors in real locations; the script features very little dialogue and long silences, illustrating the characters’ inner lives and allowing the viewer to fill in their background. These devices help the audience to reflect on the story and connect with the characters.
Open Access
Be/longing
(2019-03-05) Breuer, Amit Ahuva Gita; Longfellow, Brenda
Be/longing follows Jaffa resident Amal Rihan during one of the most challenging times of the year for Palestinian-Israelis: the days between Israels Memorial Day, for fallen soldiers, and Israels Independence Day. Set against the backdrop of Jaffa, a mixed city annexed to Tel Aviv, the complexities and contradictions of Amals life unfold before us, and offer an intimate look at the questions raised about centrality of place in narratives of personal identity.
Open Access
Before You Go
(2021-07-06) Joudaki, Bita; Evans, Barbara
Before You Go is a 13-minute essay film exploring the relationship between immigration, memory, personal identity, and how it relates to a larger Canadian narrative. Approaching this film using a hybrid process, Before You Go uses home video, old family correspondences, and actors to re-create and interact with moments that are written about in the letters. While working to interrogate an often homogenized representation in the media of what it means to be Canadian, this film borrows its experimental form from the inherently fragmented, dispersed, and hybrid identities of immigrants.
Open Access
Between Us
(2020-11-13) Scott-Grimes, Cailleah Wyn; Veninger, Ingrid
Between Us is a short film set in rural Japan about the strains and intimacies between a local transgender man and his queer Canadian partner in an unexpected encounter at the local hot springs. The story, while fictional, draws on my Masters thesis research and is inspired by the lived experiences of locals and immigrants in Japan with whom I have sustained close relationships for the past ten years. It was important to me that the films production model also be rooted in creative international collaboration. From film professionals to office workers, students and seniors, to trans folks and allies, our cast and crew of 8 different nationalities came together to make this film possible. We do not always have the vocabulary adequate to explore the spaces and experiences that exist between different cultures, genders or generations. Between Us invites audiences to engage with ways of being that cannot be placed on either side of a divide. The purpose of this support paper is to contextualize the film and to engage in a critical reflection on its content, form, and the creative process behind it.
Open Access
Biidaaban: First Light
(2019-07-02) Jackson, Elizabeth Linda; Hoffman, Philip J.
Biidaaban: First Light is a short room-scale virtual reality (VR) experience that places the user in a future Toronto, set in and around Nathan Phillips Square. It projects a possible future where nature has begun to reclaim the city and where humans are living in keeping with the knowledge systems of the original people of the territory, the Wendat, Anishinaabe (Ojibway), and Kanyenkeha (Mohawk), as marked by their spoken languages which also appear as text, in their original form and as English or French translations. The current structures of commerce, politics and technology/transport and the Euro-Western ideologies that underlie our society are replaced by sustainable ways of living and the cultural understandings and knowledge systems of the peoples Indigenous to this place. The piece is concrete and poetic, using both practical imagery and metaphorical symbol to communicate a worldview that is rooted in Indigenous thought and accessible to any user, while offering added meaning to those who are familiar with the languages and thought systems of the original people of this land.
Open Access
Birthday
(2019-11-22) Khademolreza, Atefeh; Greyson, John R.
BirthDay is a 28-minute experimental narrative film set in Toronto, following one day in the life of three immigrants: an Afghani woman, a Serbian man, and a Syrian boy who lives with his grandmother. Their lives are interconnected through montage, giving the illusion that they are one family. Toronto becomes a space that seems to embrace the characters, while at the same time separating them through the hardships of immigration.
Open Access
Blind
(2014-07-09) Garrity, Sean Michael James; Kazimi, Ali
“Blind” tells the story of a man who quits his job and buys an RV to drive his daughter, who is losing her sight, across Canada to see the Rocky Mountains before she goes blind. The film is framed with the narrative device of a voice-over from a “filmmaker” who is contemplating a film he wants to make, about a girl who goes blind. The film comes into being as the filmmaker imagines it, with many details left out, to be decided later, before actually making the film. The purpose of this thesis support paper is to examine and lay bare my creative process over the course of making the short film, BLIND; to make explicit, for myself, a process that has always been instinctual. In addition to a brief overview of some theorectical frameworks, this will involve an examination of the sources and references that I drew upon in creating the film, and more importantly, an analysis of the deeply personal, challenging insights I have been exposed to in the course of my study.
Open Access
Blind Date
(2016-11-25) Kennedy, Matthew Casey; Evans, Barbara
Blind Date is a documentary film about a young woman from rural China named Chun Cao Zhao who is pressured into marriage through a tradition known as blind dating. The film begins in Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis in Southern China, where she has been living for the past ten years, and is just days away from returning home for her wedding. As she slowly says goodbye to city life, the life she wants to keep, she reveals to the camera her feelings toward her fianc, her thoughts on the impending wedding and her own struggles to find a boyfriend. As the film follows her back home we intimately witness the sacrifices she is forced to make in order to appease her parents and the greater instrument of Chinese culture. The film examines and contrasts contemporary China with traditional China and displays the varying roles of each gender in both rural and urban settings. The film concludes with her arranged marriage and a short follow-up with her new husband six months after the wedding.