TORONTO, March 12, 2008 -- York University’s Film Department showcases the diversity, originality and excellence of works by rising filmmakers in its graduate program with York Shorts, a screening of six thesis productions created over the past decade.
Ranging from festival favourites to rarely-seen cinematic gems, this hand-picked selection of fiction, documentary and alternative films will be presented in the Nick Mirkopoulos Screening Room at York on one night only, Thursday March 20, as part of the third annual York Fine Arts Festival.
On the program:
Paul Lee: The Offering (10 min. 1999, 35mm cinemascope, Dolby Digital Surroundsound)
The Offering premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and has been seen at 471 festivals in 59 countries, bringing home 65 awards. The film is an elegiac meditation on the passing of life told through the story of love and friendship between a Japanese monk and a novice, from their initial encounter to their final parting.
Lee’s other directorial credits include the multi-award-winning festival hits These Shoes Weren’t Made for Walking (1995) and Thick Lips Thin Lips (1994). He also produces films for others, especially first-time filmmakers, international co-productions and educational films exploring human rights and social justice. He has organized and curated film festivals on four continents, and is currently the director of operations and strategic planning for the New York-based Soulbird Music Project.
Olivia Merriman: Her Spoon and the Sea (24 min. 2004, DV Cam)
Olivia Merriman’s meditative reflection on the theme of the artist and her environment condenses two years of a girl’s life into a compelling visual diary. It depicts the protagonist’s personal and artistic journey to create a film about a sculptor and her own “sculpting” – re-working the images she collected. An open-process video project, the film integrates a variety of techniques and formats, including mini-dv, Digital 8, Super-8, computer-generated text and scanned images.
Sara Marino: Bear (22 min. 2000, 16mm)
Producer/director Sara Marino’s controversial short film, Bear, adapted from Marian Engel’s Governor General's Award-winning novel, explores a woman's relationship with a semi-domesticated black bear. The film was pre-selected for Cannes and shortlisted for the Sundance film festival, but both deemed the content inappropriate for their audiences. Bear has gone on to other festival success, including launching Planet In Focus, Toronto's international environmental film festival, and taking the prize for best Canadian short in the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.
Marino’s filmmaking centres around human relationships with animals. Her credits include Wilhelmina Josephina (Audience Choice Award, Atlantic Film Festival Viewfinder), a black comedy about a girl who mows the head off her mother’s pet lynx; Game Over: Conservation in Kenya for CBC Television’s The Nature of Things, featuring world renowned scientist Dr. Richard Leakey; and Day of the Groundhog, a natural history comedy for Animal Planet USA.
John Kneller: Separation (6:30 min. 2007, 16mm)
Hailed as “one of Canada’s best-known experimental filmmakers” (Take One), John Kneller is recognized internationally for his distinctive creative approach, which often includes optical printing and colour manipulation. His short film Separation engages directly with the illusionary processes that make a colour image in motion picture film.
It manipulates a 1950s home movie containing found footage of Quebec winter sports and carnival scenes by recreating and then deconstructing a three-strip red, green and blue colour separation technique first developed in the 1930s.
Separation is one of three shorts comprising Kneller’s thesis production, Continuum. He has worked on many other films, developing visual techniques for highly inventive mainstream and experimental projects. His productions have been screened at numerous festivals in Canada, the United States and in Europe, notably the Toronto International Film Festival and Recontres Internationales in Paris and Berlin.
Gilbert Kwong: A Moth and a Butterfly (40 min. 2003, 16mm, mastered on HD Cam – 24p)
Gilbert Kwong’s gripping drama, A Moth and a Butterfly, explores frustrated love, repressed desire and boredom between two gay brothers from Hong Kong who reunite in Toronto. The film premiered at Switzerland’s Locarno Festival and was featured at Toronto’s ReelWorld Film Festival and many other festivals. Its international accolades include the Distinguished Award at the Hong Kong Independent Film & Video Awards and Best Canadian Male Short Film award at Toronto’s Inside Out Toronto Lesbian & Gay Film and Video Festival.
Kwong worked as an advertising photographer and news cameraman before turning to filmmaking. His current projects include serving as director of photography on a production about a dying child, and his own short film about a Chinese immigrant.
John Caro: Bastard (23 min. 2001, Betacam SP)
John Caro draws on his own experiences and family history to confront the negative stereotypes surrounding illegitimacy and single mothers in his personal documentary, Bastard. Using interviews, archival material and video diaries, the film recounts a positive story of a family’s healthy development without the presence of a paternal figure.
Caro’s work has been screened at Raindance, Docupolis, The One Minute Film & Video Festival and the International Tel-Aviv Film Festival. He has worked as director, producer and editor on many productions, including feature films, animation and documentaries. Other credits include a five-year stint as set decorator at Pinewood Studios, working on films such as Aliens, Legend and Full Metal Jacket. He currently teaches creative arts at the University of Portsmouth, England.
York University’s Graduate Program in Film is recognized nationally as a leading centre for professional education in the field. Alumni include screenwriters Tudor Voican (Marilena de la P7, California Dreamin') and Guy Mullally (Street Legal -64 episodes, Highlander, Earth: Final Conflict, The Lost World, Charlie Jade) and filmmakers Carl Bessai (Normal, Unnatural and Accidental, Emile, Lola, Johnny); Karen Shopsowitz (My Grandparents had a Hotel, A Place To Save Your Life, My Father’s Camera, Canada’s War in Colour); Eyelem Kaftan (Faultlines; Vendetta Song); Keith Lock (A Brighter Moon, Small Pleasures), Mary Daniel (Confessions of a Compulsive Archivist, Coming to Her Senses), Brian Stockton (Saskatchewan Parts 1- 3), Jorge Manzano (City of Dreams, Johnny Greyeyes) and Genevieve Appleton (Wilby Wonderful; The Arrow; Such a Long Journey).
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The Faculty of Fine Arts at York University is spotlighting its resident talent in a three-week festival packed with 40 exciting and entertaining events. Running March 11 to 31, the York Fine Arts Festival features exhibitions, theatre and dance productions, film screenings, multimedia shows, and a wide variety of classical, jazz and world music concerts. Events take place in state-of-the-art facilities at York University’s Keele campus.
York’s Faculty of Fine Arts is one of North America’s leading and largest centres for fine arts education. A vibrant community of some 280 faculty and 3,300 undergraduate and graduate students, it offers academic studies and professional training in all the fine arts. For a generation, York Fine Arts has been a premier launching pad for outstanding young talent and a major contributor to the arts and cultural scene in Toronto, Canada and beyond.
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What: York Shorts
When: March 20 at 7pm
Where: Nick Mirkopoulos Screening Room, 004 Accolade East Building, York University, 4700 Keele St.
Admission: free
Box Office & Info: 416.736.5888 | www.yorku.ca/finearts/festival
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Media Contact:
Amy Stewart, Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
416.736.2100 ext. 20421 | amy.stewart@yorku.ca
