the 8 fest schedule

January 30-February 1, 2009

 

Download the full catalogue here.

 

Friday, January 30

7pm The West Coast Invades the East curated by Julie Saragosa

8:30pm Red Shift Jonathan Culp & Picastro

 

Saturday, January 31

4pm White Calligraphy Artist Talk & Performance by Takahiko Iimura

6pm Home Movie Repair Clinic - free!

7pm My Year in Malaya + Bring Your Home Movies Homemade Movies home movie history project

9pm Bageroo, too! survey of recent Canadian & international films

 

Sunday, February 1 1-5pm Introduction to 8mm Filmmaking - free!

workshop led by John Kneller (preregistration required)

 

All events at:

Trash Palace, 89-B Niagara Street (Just West of Bathurst) Toronto, ON

Tickets $5 per event, except where noted

more info: the8fest ( at) gmail.com

 

PLUS Window Installation by Robert Kennedy

Thursday, January 29 - Sunday, February 1

Paul Petro Contemporary Art 980 Queen St. West (at Ossington)

Thursday January 29 7pm - Artist Talk - free!

 

Join our listserv - email the8fest (at) gmail.com with 'subscribe' in the subject line.

 

 

January 29 to February 1

window installation by Robert Kennedy

nightly in the window of Paul Petro Contemporary Art 980 Queen Street West (at Ossington)

 

Animal Control #3 – (Urban Wildlife) Robert Kennedy Toronto Super 8 installation 2009

Robert Kennedy is well known for his many, often moodily playful, Super 8 works such as Hi, I'm Steve and Valley of the Chap Stick. Over the past few years he has also created his Animal Control series, in which animals – both wild and domestic – are enlisted as filmmakers. Their activities trigger an electronic motion sensor and a Super 8 camera thus they film themselves in the act of using the urban landscape to their own ends. Special thanks Colin English (Squirrelcam engineer)!

 

Please join us for a reception & talk on the opening night of the installation (Thursday Jan. 29, 7pm). - free!

 

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Friday January 30 7pm

The West Coast Invades the East  curated by Julie Saragosa

a Pleasure Dome co-presentation

 

The Project8 Film Collective is a group of small-format filmmakers who share skills of DIY and hand-made filmmaking in the interest of developing a diverse community of local independent filmmakers in Vancouver. Every year, the Project8 Film Collective runs a free mentorship program for people who are interested in learning how to make a Super 8 film, but have limited access to resources to do so – Super8 Boot Camp. This screening represents work made by participants of the Boot Camp, the collective members, and work that's been screened at Project8's annual festival.  All films in Super 8!

Films by Kathleen Gowman, Sara Young, Mary Shearman, Diane Thorn Jacobs & Andrew Robert Smith, Amanda Dawn Christie, Liz Glowacki, Scott Amos, C.J. Brabant, Ian MacTilstra, Sacha Fink, Nancy Lizuck.

 

 

 

Friday January 30 8:30pm

Red Shift Jonathan Culp & Picastro

sponsored by The Music Gallery

 

Red Shift Jonathan Culp super 8 performance with

live accompaniment (composed by Liz Hysen, Nick Storring and Brandon Valdivia) Toronto 2009 40 min.

World Premiere!  In this long piece commissioned specially for this year's the 8 fest, filmmaker Jonathan Culp creates a hypnotic, rhythmic collage of commercially produced Super 8 material. Cutting between faded ('red shifted') Eastmancolor industrial films, classroom-film curios, and Hollywood imagery old and new, the pictures interlock with the haunting semi-acoustic dissonances of local band Picastro, performing live with the film. Red Shift is a slowly disintegrating nightmare of utilitarian media gone wrong.

More info on Jonathan Culp: http://www.satanmacnuggit.com

More info on Picastro (Liz Hysen, Nick Storring and Brandon Valdivia): http://www.myspace.com/picastro

 

 

Saturday January 31 4:00pm

Artist Talk + White Calligraphy performance by Takahiko Iimura

sponsored by FADO Performance Art Centre

 

White Calligraphy Takahiko Iimura live Super 8 performance Tokyo 1967/2009

Takahiko Iimura has been a pioneer artist of Japanese experimental film and video, working in film since 1960 and with video since 1970. He has been a link between the North American and Japanese experimental media communities for over forty years, spending time and making work in both New York and Tokyo.Iimura will discuss his use of small-gauge film and his body of work as a whole after performing White Calligraphy. This piece reworks a film initially made in 1967 by writing/scratching the characters of the 'Kojiki', the oldest story in Japan, directly onto 16mm black leader (now reduced to Super 8). The language flows by at one character per frame. Iimura handholds the Super 8 projector, varying the speed and angle at will. The result anthropomorphizes the iconographic characters of the story, animating language into a visual dance.

 

 

 

Saturday January 31 2009 7pm

(Home Movie Repair Clinic 6 PM)

Homemade Movies home movie history project presents

My Year in Malaya

Films shot by Harold Norris

With live narration by Cathy Punter

 

My Year in Malaya Harold Norris 8mm Toronto 1953-54 30 min.

In 1953 at the age of 13 Cathy Norris (now Cathy Punter) travelled with her family from Toronto to live in Malaya for a year. Her father Harold recorded their time in Malaya on beautifully preserved colour 8mm film and slides. Harold Norris was a schoolteacher in Toronto and was sent under the post-World War II Colombo development plan to teach at the government school in the city of Ipoh (today the capital of the Malaysian state of Perak). Cathy has vivid memories of what she saw in Malaya: The Sultan's court, convent school, the hustle and bustle of street markets, British colonial officials, tin mining, bearing Kavadis on flesh hooks at the Thaipusam religious procession, the jungle and countryside, dhow fishing on the Straights of Malacca – to name a few of the subjects captured in her father's films.

 

followed by . . .Bring Your Home Movies The second part of our screening is your chance to bring your home movies to show (8mm, super 8). Dig through your parent's attic or grab that orphaned reel you found at the thrift shop. – AND – If you no longer have a working projector, come early to our Home Movie Repair Clinic starting at 6 PM. Let us help you one-on-one to look through your home movie collection again and give advice on preserving your films.

 

 

Saturday January 31 2009 9pm

Bageroo, too!

recent Super 8 filmmaking!

sponsored by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre

 

An exciting collection of new small gauge films closes out this year's screenings! Eight of these films were selected from an international call for recent Super 8 films. Augmenting the selection of recent work is five brand-new films commissioned by the 8 fest, and supported by Kodak Canada and Exclusive Film & Video. Further proof of the many possibilities of small-gauge filmmaking, these films range from evocative expressions of place to comedic entendres. Hailing from Toronto, across Canada and from the USA, Germany & Japan, this survey shows glimpses of the active practices of Super 8 film. All films in Super 8!

Films by Jason Halprin (Pittsburgh), Jason Ebanks (Toronto), John Porter (Toronto), Coral Aiken (Montreal), Julie Doucette (Moncton), Alex Rogalski (Toronto), Mario Doucette (Moncton), Alexandre Larose (Montreal), Tanya Read (Toronto), Andrew J. Paterson (Toronto), Rob Cruickshank (Toronto), Tomonari Nishikawa (San Francisco/Tokyo), Adam Paradis (Boston), Faride Schroeder (Mexico) and Dagie Brundert (Berlin).

 

Friday & Saturday January 30 & 31

on-view during intermissions

suddenly everything changed Christina Battle Toronto dual projection Super 8 installation 2009

Looking back, the clues were clear. But by the time the emergency crews took flight it was too late. Things will never be the same.

 

Sunday February 1, 2009 1-5pm

Introduction to 8mm Filmmaking

workshop led by John Kneller

a LIFT workshop

8mm film - or 'regular 8' – is not just Super 8's crazy uncle: it's the original 'small gauge' format, and it's still going strong.In this workshop, local filmmaker John Kneller will give you a comprehensive introduction to 8mm filmmaking. You'll get hands-on practice loading the 8mm camera and 'flipping' the film. Basic principles of camera operation, such as setting exposure and focusing using the parallax system, will be discussed. Learn how to apply techniques like multiple pass, single frame and 'unslit' projection; find out how to splice film and operate an 8mm projector. Get information on where to buy and process film. And watch classic examples of 8mm filmmaking in action. Beginner and experienced filmmakers alike will find this workshop informative and inspiring. FREE!

 

*Capacity: 15 * Space is limited, we suggest you register in advance by email (pending availability, signup will also be offered during the festival on Jan 30 - 31). Please email us at 'the8fest (at) gmail.com' with your name and phone number – and 'WORKSHOP' in the subject line.

 

 

 

the 8 fest is made possible through the generous support of:

The Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council as well as our sponsors and community partners.