Nine Short Reviews of Films at the 20th $100 Film Festival by Joseph Walsh

CSIF member Joseph Walsh has 9 short reviews of some of the films you’ll see at the 20th edition of the $100 Film Festival, March 8th through 10th.

Clouds (Ben Popp, 2009, 00:53)
A crafted, visual poetry slam.

Contingency (James Beattie Morison, 2011, 02:36, Alberta)
A look and feel for iconic Calgary, from new pedestrian eyes.

Fractals (Benjamin Ross Hayden, 06:38, Alberta)
An elegant visual choreography with melodic theme music that adds to the sensual stimuli. Influenced by Troooids by Lazarus Plath.

The Third Choice (Hesam Henafi, 2011, 01:28, Nova Scotia)
A microcosmic look at what it felt like to be in the 2009 Iranian Election demonstrations. Find the cost of freedom.

Imperceptihole (Lori Felker and Robert Todd, 2010, 14:50)
Rediscover your sense of all that exists around you, down to the smallest minutae, brought to you with the sounds of “silence”.

Eden (Shinya Isobe, 2011, 15:00, Japan)
The ruins of Iwate Hachimantai form a backdrop to this visual exploration of time and place, and our perception of that relationship.

Vanilla Sam (Tara Lee Reddick, 2011, 01:30, Nova Scotia)
What does extreme heat and humidity look like?

Caridea and Ichthyes (Paul Clipson, 2011, 06:30)
Unexpected visual forms are realized when Caridea (shrimp) and Ichthyes (fish) are filmed in their aquatic habitat.

Sound of the Sun (Paul Domingo, 2011, 03:01)
A series of time lapse images create an indelible look at creativity.

Three New $100 Film Festival Reviews by Tim Zak

Brief reviews for three films appearing in the 2012 $100 Film Festival (March 8th-10th) by Tim Zak, CSIF memeber & filmmaker:

He, She, I Was by Ross Meckfessel

Images of people, places, with voice of people’s life events and important memories. Reminds us that each one of us has a story or at least an event in our life.

Hindsight by Sean Hanley

Images and sounds of small town USA events. Day to day life events. A personal journal shared with us all. All about what we remember.

Walter by Sezen Türkmen

A Surrealist dinner party. A film filled with icons. Stirs the mind.

Three Reviews of $100 Film Festival Films by Tim Zak

Three brief reviews for films appearing in the 2012 $100 Film Festival (March 8th-10th) by Tim Zak, CSIF memeber & filmmaker:

Peninsula Valdes by Mark Fiorillo

Voice over a beautiful sunset while the filmmaker discusses that he makes simple small films.

The Electric Embrace by Norbert Shieh

With black and white visuals the viewer thinks about the electric grid system and how it is a part of our life.

In the Shadow of Marcus Mountain by Robert Schaller

In a minimal style, the filmmaker gives the view just enough visual to satisfy. A wonderful expression of night views on a mountain side.

Four More $100 Film Festival Reviews by Tim Zak

Four new brief reviews for films appearing in the 2012 $100 Film Festival (March 8th-10th) by Tim Zak, CSIF memeber & filmmaker:

Focus by Christine Lucy Latimer

An silent film with live action and animated visuals on top. A wonderful expression of visuals.

Infinite Struggles by Danielle and Corey King

A unique hand painted on live action. A visually stunning piece that has a great soundtrack.

Sound of the Sun by David Domingo

Man seeks help from Robocop to help with all the images of the sun.

Lark’s Tongue in Aspics by David Shushan

A silent black and white film which serves up an interesting dish of visuals.

Four New $100 Film Festival Reviews by Tim Zak

Four brief reviews for films appearing in the 2012 $100 Film Festival (March 8th-10th) by Tim Zak, CSIF memeber & filmmaker:

Six by Kelly O’Brien

A dialoged from a child, reminds us what was like to be a child and happy at that stage of life. Makes the viewer wish they were a child again. Makes us ask why do we want to be an adult.

Beneath Your Skin of Deep Hallow by Malena Szlam

A thoughtful piece. Minimal visuals with no sound will transport the viewer into an introspective state.

Clouds by Ben Popp

A silent animated short film about how clouds affect the filmmaker. An amusing tale.

Transfixed; What’s Broken by Brendan Prost

Exploration of an ended relationship. Reflections, questioning, and searching about what went wrong and can it be fixed.

More $100 Film Festival Reviews by Tim Zak

Here are three brief reviews for films appearing in the 2012 $100 Film Festival (March 8th-10th) by Tim Zak, CSIF memeber & filmmaker:

Love is Colder than Steel by Gabrielle Provost

A live action showing that a man’s relationship with a car can be as difficult and rewarding an relationship with another person.

Rerun Amok by Gerald Saul

Man on the street having a wide range of images come his way. Very amusing.

Contingency by James Bettie Morison

A great marriage of visuals. sound, and content. Great expression of $ 100 film festival culture.

Reviews of four films in the 2012 $100 Film Festival by Tim Zak

Four brief reviews for four films appearing in the 2012 $100 Film Festival (March 8th-10th) by Tim Zak, CSIF memeber & filmmaker:

What is this by Stefan Mockel

A brief comparison of non-art and art images to evoke the viewer to question what is art and what is not.

Derby Jam by Allan Brown

A graphic exploration of cars crashing into each other. Live action with scratch animation visuals and cool Jazz track. Making this a wonderful almost a dance. Stunning.

A life’s work by Adam R. Levins

A documentation of a man’s life after retirement. The quietness of his life is reflected in the rural setting. The slow pace of the film shows us all that life is long. The sole character finds value in life though his creations. Reflections on past events, the order of his present life. and the acceptance of his own morality. The filmmaker captivated this person’s life and work.

Let me try to explain by John Cannizzaro

A film all filmmaker can identify with. The use of voice over live action of a low budget film being shoot is an effective technique in showing the audience what independent filmmaking about. The filmmaker right on the mark with this film.

Interview with Erin Sneath

Interview with local $100 Filmmaker (and new CSIF Board member!) Erin Sneath by Aaron Feser

More interviews!

Interview with Alexandre Larose by Ben Hayden

Alexandre Larose Artist Talk

By Kaitlin James

On Friday night the $100 Film Festival welcomed Alexandre Larose as part of their festival featured retrospective. Larose has been making experimental films since his graduation from engineering school in 2001. He has since attended Concordia University to expand on his filmic techniques. Larose was welcomed to give a presentation on the process of his filmmaking.

Larose in contrast to narrative filmmakers, almost at times relies on a happy accident and because of the nature of his films this works for him. Larose often times, as part of his creative process is left to create ways in which the camera can capture the new and strange. For his film Ville Marie (2006- …) Larose and a long time collaborator had to create an apparatus in which could with stand having a camera thrown off a multi-story building. For Ville Marie the process of creating this apparatus is what has shaped the filmic narrative. Ville Marie was conceptualized as a sense of falling, and losing ones self within that space, a dream Larose recalls with slight confusion.

For Artifices #1 (2008), also shown Friday night, along with the rest of Larose’s film collection, the idea of time-delayed images is what propels the film. Larose was left to create an apparatus in which, had to physically move through space and be portable and still able to capture images on a time delay. The result for Artifices #1 is streaks of light across a black screen. By capturing cars driving within a tunnel and a apparatus which could physically change the image, by rotating the camera Larose creates an almost tunnel like effect. Accompanied by the almost eerie sound of driving through a tunnel the film maintains a strange quality, which the image becomes more intense, while the sound stays the same and the audience is left to escape somewhere in the tunnel itself within a stream of light.

Brouillard (2010) the most recent film by Larose, is an almost other worldly experiment with filmmaking. Larose attached a camera to himself and simply walked along a path, starting on a highway, walking through his parent’s house, outside of Quebec and finally arriving at a lake. Larose completed this journey almost 15 times, and once finished he layered the images on top of each other, where they were able to maintain a ghost like quality about them. The images do not show clearly Larose’s journey through space, but at time are able to allude to the journey, the audience is never sure which part they are seeing, the film simply moves through space. Supplemented by a simple sound track of the journey itself the over all affect is supernatural.