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October 8, 2009


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2009-10-08

Beyond the blockbuster

WNDX film and video festival focuses its lens on experimental cinema and the work of influential Canadian filmmaker Philip Hoffman

Aaron Graham

The minds behind WNDX, Winnipeg's annual experimental film festival that showcases everyone from burgeoning local artists to established international filmmakers, are understandably enthusiastic about the guest of honour this year: filmmaker Philip Hoffman (and no, he's not the guy from Capote).

Fervent admirers of this highly personal artisan were treated to a double-header retrospective on Oct. 7, featuring Kitchener-Berlin (1990), passing through/torn formations (1988), ?O, Zoo! (1986) and What these ashes wanted (2001).

Those who missed out on last night's screening can still check out Hoffman's master lecture at 5 p.m. on Oct. 8 at Cinematheque.

Hoffman spoke to me from his home in Normanby Township, Ont., about what Winnipeggers can expect from his first feature-length film, All Fall Down, a 2009 Toronto International Film Festival selection that screens on Saturday, Oct. 10.

"I moved in the early '90s to a farmhouse in Southern Ontario, not far from where I came from originally. It was an old stone house and I started thinking about what had come before I began living there. So, after doing research, I found out about Nah-Nee-Bahwee-Qua (also known as Catherine Sutton), a 19th-century Aboriginal fighter of land rights, and all of her tireless work," Hoffman says.

"Rubbing up against this was what was currently going on in my own life, with my stepdaughter's father, a man named George Lachlan Brown. Those two strands initially formed All Fall Down for me."

Brown, a British expatriate who fell on hard times, can be heard throughout All Fall Down. He grapples with reality and rambles on Hoffman's answering machine, apologizing for his inconsistencies as a father. Hoffman had never met the man and yet, here he was - appearing at a time when Hoffman's research on the fearless Nah-Nee-Bahwee-Qua was just beginning.

These two seemingly unrelated people and their past actions were given Hoffman's unmitigated attention, and their stories make All Fall Down a sort of diary of the filmmaker's headspace at that time.

A third tongue-in-cheek tale also weaves itself through Hoffman's unconventional film: footage from his unpaid work on a commissioned project about 19th-century Scottish and Irish settlers in Ontario.

"I just wanted to shed light onto these three threads. I know it's not exactly the three-act structure that people have been conditioned to, but I would argue that you can gain a new way of seeing by depicting all of them in one film. Even though they may appear to be different, there are similarities, (such as) Brown and Sutton both maintaining a certain outsider status."

Hoffman's work isn't the only focus of WNDX.

Thursday Oct. 8 will feature New Prairie Cinema, a collection of short films and videos by Prairie artists, including the world premiere of a five-minute short by Winnipeg filmmaker Sean Garrity entitled Intuition, and Caroline Monnet's IKWÉ, another TIFF selection that was originally made as part of the Woman's Mosaic Film Project, a collaboration of the Winnipeg Film Group and MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women's Art). Screenings start at 7 p.m. at Cinematheque.

The action moves offscreen on Friday, Oct. 9, when Cinematheque hosts a panel discussion about short film distribution for new and emerging filmmakers. (You can get ideas for your own five-minute mini masterpiece at that evening's Canada Avant Garde, a screening of shorts from across the country.)

In addition to All Fall Down, local cinephiles can also catch Video Alchemy on Oct. 10 at 9 p.m. at Winnipeg Film Group Studio. Billed as a "live video showdown," the event will showcase Toronto's Tasman Richardson and Paris' RKO as they use found media to create "a non-language based video performance."

The highlight of Sunday, Oct. 11 is sure to be The One Take Super 8 Event Screening. Now in its fourth year, this audience favourite features over three dozen new short works by Manitoba filmmakers from Winnipeg, Lac du Bonnet and The Pas. As its name implies, all the films were shot on Super 8 in one take.

Details on WNDX screenings, venues and ticket information are available at www.wndx.org. To find out more about Hoffman, his films and his Independent Imaging Retreat in Ontario, visit www.philiphoffman.ca.

WNDX: FESTIVAL OF FILM & VIDEO ART
Oct. 8-11, various venues

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