The Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa Inc. (IFCO) announces its annual gala première screening of its filmmakers’ works on Saturday, March 20th at the National Library & Archives of Canada. IFCO’s filmmakers are rebelling against the norm with another batch of exciting short films, and Ottawans are invited to experience Ottawa’s REEL REBELS, as the Co-operative showcases all new film works from its incredibly talented filmmakers.

The Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa Inc. (IFCO) is on the ‘cutting edge’ of indie filmmaking; encouraging and inspiring local artists to create celluloid based works; films which emphasize creative filmic approaches & processes; films which reflect the individual filmmaker’s personal vision, and films which don’t necessarily conform to any one definitive cinematic genre or style.

At IFCO the principle mode of production is (celluloid) film. IFCO continues to challenge its artists to think outside the box; push the boundaries of image making and reclaim the art of filmmaking. At IFCO we’re keeping it ‘reel’ by retaining the ‘film’ in filmmaking. Over the last 18 years The Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa Inc. (IFCO), has supported the creation of well over 200 short length films.

IFCO’s filmmakers’ works have been broadcast locally and nationally on television, and have also screened nationally and internationally at various preeminent film festivals. I’ve often been asked the question why film? Why use film in a digital age? My response is always why not use film? Digital and film each possess their own intrinsic qualities, and it’s really a matter of personal artistic choice, which art form the artist chooses to employ.

At IFCO we’re demystifying the art of filmmaking, making film accessible to “every man” and “every woman.” Film is here, film is now, and film is ALIVE! “Film as dream, film as music. No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.” – Ingmar Bergman

So, if you’re looking for an alternative viewing experience, IFCO’s REEL REBELS will provide just that!

Join us at The National Library & Archives of Canada (395 Wellington @ Bay Street) on Saturday, March 20th at 7:00pm, in support of some of Ottawa’s best!

You’ll have a great opportunity to mix and mingle with the filmmakers at the after-mixer sponsored by D’Arcy McGees (44 Sparks St. at Elgin – downstairs).

Tickets are $12, and are now on sale at IFCO – located in Suite #140 – #2 Daly Avenue (Arts Court). The Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa Inc. (IFCO) is a locally based charity, dedicated to the propagation of Super- 8/16mm and 35mm filmmaking in Ottawa.

You can visit IFCO online at www.ifco.ca for more information about the Co-operative and its amazing programming.

Contact: Patrice James, Executive Director Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa Inc.

(IFCO) 613-569-1789

 director@ifco.ca

http://www.ifco.ca

Ottawa’s newest media artists’ collective, FILM FEMINA, is pleased to announce its first screening to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, 2010 at Club Saw at 7:00 p.m.

FILM FEMINA was established in February 2010 by Nena Toth, filmmaker and cinematographer. The objective of the collective is to bring communities together to increase awareness and understanding of women’s media art work. Members of the collective include local media independent artists: Kelly Ann Beaton, Tara Arnatsiaq-Barnes, and Liisa Rissanen. Bios on the collective members are attached.

“ The International Women’s Day is an excellent opportunity to celebrate and view contemporary and unique films and videos created by 17 women directors that had been produced in the last 15 years in Ottawa region,” said Nena Toth.

FILM FEMINA screening will feature contemporary short experimental, documentary, animation, and narrative films and videos independently produced for the last 15 years in by Ottawa filmmakers. A complete list of films is attached.

Some of the films and videos from FILM FEMINA program have been awarded prizes at national and international film festivals.  

Several of the films were previously selected from the Canadian Film Femina Festival, held in Podgorica, Montenegro (November 1-3, 2009). The cost of the screening is $5.00 Club SAW is located at 67 Nicolas Street, Ottawa, Ontario.

For information on FILM FEMINA, please contact: Nena Toth, Independent Media Arts curator and Nena Film Verite Productions and Academy 613-594-8458

nena_toth@rogers.com<http://ca.mc880.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=nena_toth@rogers.com>, www.graham.gs/nena_toth_filmmaker/index.html

Selected by the SAW Video Resolution Selection Committee*
Date: Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Location: Mayfair Theatre, 1074 Bank Street
Time: 7:00pm
Admission: $5

Come celebrate the New Year with RESOLUTION 2010, the anticipated annual screening of new works from SAW Video members.

Featuring independent works produced in 2009, the programme is comprised of eleven short videos. The range of styles and interests from dramas to documentaries to experimental videos make for an evening which pays tribute to the creativeness and rich diversity of Ottawa’s media arts community.

Join us after the screening at Patty’s Pub, 1186 Bank Street!

Programming

Izabel Barsive, Lustrale, 9 min.
Deniz Berkin, Late Nights and Green Lights, 4 min. 15 sec.
Phil Caron, Tammy Teardrop, 4 min. 17 sec.
Pixie Cram, Prometheus in Five Directions, 15 min.
Ed Folger, Water Light and Chaos: Art by Juan Geuer, 20 min. 9 sec.
John Graham, Hidden Cities, 2 min.
Penny McCann, The Professor and the Blind Girl, 7 min. 8 sec.
Rehab Nazzal, A Night at Home, 4 min.
Theo Pelmus, Liquid for the Fall, 10 min.
Tasha Waldron, La Petite Mort, 4 min.
Eric Walker, Up in Smoke, 1 min. 49 sec.

* The Selection Committee was comprised of Steve Loft, Heather Ritchie, Shannon Wenkoff, Line Dezainde, and Mireille Bourgeois.

Deadline for applications :

December 1st, 2009

Date-limite de participation :

le 1er décembre 2009

Do you have a passion for film and a good grasp of French?

The French Embassy, SAW Video and Zoom Productions want to send YOU to the 2010 Cannes Festival!

Spend 10 days in Cannes on the Côte d’Azur in France and participate in the famous film festival. In the company of young francophones from all parts of the world, discover the region, attend film screenings, and live the life of the festival-goer!

Deadline for applications : December 1st, 2009
Travelling dates: 14- 23 May 2010

To apply you must be :
- Of Canadian nationality
- Reside in the Outaouais or East Ontarian region
- Between 18 and 40 years of age
- French speaking
- Have an interest in film

Send a CV and a letter of motivation in French telling us why we should send YOU to the Cannes Film Festival.

Support material is recommended and will be accepted in the form of:
A short video interview of yourself (DVD or MiniDV preferred)
OR
A recently produced video/film short (DVD or MiniDV preferred)

Why apply?
Prize #1: Travel and Accommodations to the Cannes Film Festival!
Prize #2: Video production equipment (TBD) from Ottawa University’s ZOOM Production
Prize #3: SAW Video Workshop of your choice
Prize #4: Books and DVDs on cinema

Send applications to:
Judith Zeller
The Embassy of France
Cultural Services
464 rue Wilbrod, Ottawa ON
KIN 6M8

–

Êtes-vous enthousiaste de film avec une bonne maîtrise du français?

L’Ambassade de France, SAW Vidéo et Zoom Productions VOUS INVITENT AU FESTIVAL DE CANNES 2010 !

Venez vivre un moment inoubliable au Festival de Cannes, le plus célèbre des festivals de cinéma. En compagnie de jeunes francophones du monde entier, vous pourrez découvrir la région Côte d’Azur, assister à des projections, rencontrer des professionnels du cinéma et mener la vie excitante de festivalier pendant 10 jours!

Date-limite de participation : le 1er décembre 2009
Dates du séjour à Cannes : du 14 au 23 mai 2010

Pour participer au concours, vous devez :
- Avoir la nationalité canadienne
- Résider dans les régions de l’Outaouais et Est ontarien
- Avoir entre 18 et 40 ans
- Avoir une bonne maîtrise du français
- Être intéressé par le cinéma
- Fournir un CV et une lettre de motivation en français pour nous convaincre que c’est VOUS que nous devons choisir pour partir à Cannes.

L’envoi de contenu audiovisuel est recommandé, sous forme :
d’un autoportrait vidéo (de préférence format DVD ou MiniDV)
OU
d’une vidéo ou film court récemment réalisé (de préférence format DVD ou MiniDV)

1er PRIX : voyage + logement + repas + assurance du 14 au 23 mai 2010 au Festival de Cannes, offerts par l’Ambassade de France
2è PRIX : 1 caméra vidéo offerte par Zoom Productions
3è PRIX : 1 atelier vidéo de votre choix à SAW Vidéo
4è PRIX : Livres sur le cinéma et DVDs

Envoyez votre candidature à :

Judith Zeller
Ambassade de France au Canada
Service culturel
464 rue Wilbrod, Ottawa ON
KIN 6M8

WORLD PREMIERE

Body Double: Works by Brice Dellsperger

Presented by SAW Video and

Inside Out Ottawa-Gatineau LGBT Film and Video Festival

For the 2009 edition of Inside Out Ottawa-Gatineau LGBT Film and Video Festival, SAW Video is presenting a program of videos and an artist’s presentation by Paris-based filmmaker Brice Dellsperger.

We are proud to host Dellsperger in Ottawa for this world premiere screening of his work before he heads to Montréal for a second screening.

Ottawa Program:

Video screening of Body Double, Followed by Q&A with the artist
5pm, Saturday, November 21, 2009
National Gallery of Canada, Auditorium

Artist presentation
12:30pm, Monday, November 23, 2009
Ottawa University
100 Laurier Ave., Room #114

Description

For the 2009 edition of Inside Out Ottawa-Gatineau LGBT Film and Video Festival, SAW Video is pleased to present a program of videos by Paris-based filmmaker Brice Dellsperger, who, for more than a decade has produced remakes of archetypal sequences of cult movies (Dressed to Kill, Return of the Jedi, Saturday Night Fever…) forming a series of over 20 works entitled Body Double. Through meticulously collaged soundtracks, and substituting the original characters for one or two actors who play all the roles, Dellsperger questions the hierarchy of roles and overturns Hollywood conventions of gender relationships. In a Brice Dellsperger film, gender is not what it seems: male actors play women playing men, and heterosexual characters become queer.

The films Dellsperger selects for his digital partners have pre-existing complicated relations to sexuality and identity. For example; in Body Double 16 (2003) based on A Clockwork Orange (dir. Stanley Kubrick) and Women in Love (dir. Ken Russell) both films speak about relationships caught in a debate between love, lust, and violent hate. The artist uses a single actor in drag to replicate all the roles in this complex digital manipulation. Other films in the program include Body Double 23 (2007) based on The Black Dahlia (dir. Brian De Palma), which is in turn loosely based on the real life murder of Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress found dead in 1920s California; and Body Double 19/20 (2004) based on Flash Gordon (dir. Mike Hodge), in which Dellsperger replaces the heroic Flash Gordon characters with female figures, twisting our notion of empirical domination. Completing the program is the world premiere of Body Double 22 (2009) a remake of the feature film Eyes Wide Shut (dir. Stanley Kubrick), in which French actor and visual artist Jean-Luc Verna plays all the roles – resulting in a triumph of gender-bending oddities.

“Brice Dellsperger, with dressing and making up, shows us it’s still possible to realize our desires that come from a cinematographic imaginary.”

- NY Arts Magazine

Special Programming

Dellsperger will be in attendance at the Inside Out Ottawa-Gatineau LGBT Film and Video Festival thanks to support from the Canada Council for the Arts  and the Embassy of France, and will be available for Q&A after the screening of his work. Dellsperger will also be presenting a behind-the-scenes view of his practice as part of the public lectures series for the Visiting Artist Program at the Ottawa University, November 23^rd at 12:30pm (talk will be given in French). Finally, the artist will travel to Montréal for a second presentation of his work at the Cinémathèque québécoise, Thursday, November 26^th at 7pm followed by Q&A facilitated by independent curator and artist Philippe Hamelin. This event is co-hosted by Espace Vidéographe.

Bio

Brice Dellsperger was born in 1972 (Cannes, France) and has been making films for over a decade. His international reputation is preceded by travels to Switzerland, USA, Austria, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, Italy, France and now Canada for film presentations, artist talks, and exhibitions. In 2002 the artist had a groundbreaking exhibition at the New York gallery Team, where he received high praise from many critics, including New York critic Roberta Smith who included the artist in her art review in a small group of “Most gratifying Dark-room experiences”. He is collected in museums — Sammlung Goetz (Munich), Museum of Modern Art (New York), Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain (PACA, Poitou-Charentes, and Puteaux) — and has been featured in many articles and publications. Currently, Dellsperger is the gallerist of Air de Paris and teaches at l’École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Montreal Program:

Screening of Body Double and artist discussion facilitated by Philippe Hamelin
7pm, Thursday, November 26, 2009
Cinémathèque québécoise, 335, boul. de Maisonneuve Est
Co-hosted by Espace Vidéographe

SAW Video is an artist-run-centre committed to support ground breaking artistic production, presentation and programming of independent video and media art. SAW Video provides many services to its membership including affordable technical facilities, and a wide range of programmes designed to create an atmosphere that will inspire production through the exchange of ideas around form, content and style.

In the 19th century it was common for a family to hire a photographer to capture images of recently deceased family members. This practice was especially common for infants and young children and the resulting photograph was often the only one the parents ever had of their child.

I have always been drawn to cemeteries. I have always found the graves of children that are marked with lambs to be particularly touching.

This short film by Ottawa video artist Mike Thompson merges a type of photography that is all but forgotten with the remaining stone markers that have lasted to modern times. Many of these children lived for such a short time so long ago that memories of them have faded into history.

We’re looking for a few volunteer bloggers to help us, writing film reviews, interviewing filmmakers and even screening short works here on the site!

If you’re interested, give us a shout at info [at] ottawatonite [dot] com.

And…..action!