Prairie Tales 11

Prairie Tales 12 Premieres Friday June 25 in Calgary

2010-06-21T00:23:00.001-07:00

Prairie Tales 12 has finally been assembled and will officially begin distribution this Friday at the Sled Island Film Festival in Calgary. The seventy-five minute program of animated, live action and experimental shorts screens at the Plaza Theatre at 7:00 pm June 25, 2010. Metro Cinema and the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society, with the support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, are proud to present this year's anthology featuring the following fourteen works:

s p a c e
Calgary 2010, 4:00, Dir: Caitlind r.c. Brown

An experimental work described as a frustrated love story about astronauts and rocket ships, spaces between people and the human desire for closeness.

Escape from Death Planet
Edmonton 2009, 7:00, Dir: James Cadden

Three research facility workers are left behind on a distant planet that’s been evacuated after an attack by never before seen life forms.

Tales from the Heart
Banff 2009, 2:57, Dir: Tyler Jordan, Saki Murotani, Price Morgan, Afshin Vahabzadeh

An animated fantasia taking the human heart as its theme offers a wild ride through the body, the gutter and the cosmos.

Tar Sand Pudding
Calgary 2010, 4:56, Dir: Xstine Cook

Three kids take on Alberta’s oil sands and create a holy mess of their own, complete with oil-drowned ducks, in this send-up of a cooking show.

A Dozen Ways
Calgary 2009, 5:06, Dir: Andrea D. Mann

A change of circumstances prompts a sweet and quirky young woman to abandon previous assumptions and embrace a more free and creative way of life.

Water Under the Bridge
Calgary 2009, 13:15, Dir: T.J. Lynch

A man scatters his father’s ashes from an old iron bridge and must confront tragic memories from thirty years before.

Coffee Stop
Calgary 2009, 1:00 Dir: Greg Doble

A man detached from reality seeks reconnection through a morning ritual at his local cafe.

Maverick
Calgary 2009, 6:46, Dir: Kyle Whitehead

An experimental rhapsody in Super 8 celebrating film as an artistic medium.

Punchlines
Edmonton 2009, 5:00, Dir: Trevor Anderson

The filmmaker examines an early motivation for becoming an artist in a piece that is shot entirely on an iPhone.

Glimpses of Injustice: The Annual Olive Harvest in Palestine
Onoway 2009, 7:57, Dir: Sheryle Carlson

A documentary about Palestinian farmers’ struggle to access their lands during the annual olive harvest.

Intergalactic Who's Who: The El Huge-O Maximus
Calgary 2010, 1:30, Dir: Kevin D.A. Kurytnik & Carol Beecher

An animated spoof about a strange creature that grows to giant proportions on its distant and dangerous, native planet.

The Empress
Calgary 2009, 8:25, Dir: Lyle Pisio

A wistful stop motion animation piece about loneliness and lost chances.

Greenwash Gang
Calgary 2008, 5:00, Dir: Ian Day

A group of money-launderers prepare themselves for their first attempt at a really big heist.

Would you believe it’s the end of the world, Kenneth?
Calgary 2009, 0:50, Dir: Jason Mosher

One night, the world just…ends.

Prairie Tales 12 Curation Results Coming Soon

2010-03-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Curating for Prairie Tales 12 has been complete for some time and we'd like to thank everyone who submitted works this year for their interest in the program. The jury had a great weekend watching and discussing the pieces.

We'd also like to acknowledge and apologize for the unusual delay in notifying everyone about the results. Prairie Tales has been renewed for another three years and we do expect to be mailing out letters to all applicants very shortly.

Prairie Tales 12: Call for Submissions

2009-11-27T21:03:00.000-08:00

PLEASE NOTE:
The deadline for submissions
has been extended to
February 5, 2010.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The Twelfth Annual Prairie Tales Media Arts Tour

Metro Cinema Society in association with amaas (Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society) invites filmmakers, videographers, documentarians, and animators to submit their recently completed works to Prairie Tales, an annual touring program of short works by Alberta media artists.

In its twelfth consecutive year, the Prairie Tales Tour celebrates the diversity of work created by artists in our province. In circulation over several months, Prairie Tales screens throughout Alberta and across Canada at media art centres, galleries, and schools.

You are eligible to submit your work to Prairie Tales if:

your work has been completed in the last 18 months
your work has a running time of 15 minutes or less
your primary residence is in Alberta

When submitting, please include a brief description of your work (including year of completion and original production format) as well as an artist's biography. Preview copies may be submitted on VHS or DVD only. Works must be submitted in final edited form. Prairie Tales 12 will be curated by the Prairie Tales tour coordinator and a peer jury. Artists whose work is included in the program will be paid the CARFAC rate for multiple film/video screenings. There is no submission fee.

Please note that while the Prairie Tales staff does its best to briefly test all submissions to make sure they play, the responsibility for ensuring that a submitted work plays properly from start to finish on a standard DVD or VHS player rests with the applicant. Submissions with playback problems during curation cannot be guaranteed consideration by the jury.

download APPLICATION FORM

The deadline for submissions has been extended one week to 5:00pm on February 5, 2010.

Please send your submission to:

Prairie Tales Jury

Metro Cinema Society

Room 632, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square

Edmonton AB T5J 2V5

If you have any questions regarding submissions or the Prairie Tales Tour, please contact the Tour Coordinator at prairietales@metrocinema.org or 780-425-9212.

The Prairie Tales Media Arts Tour is generously supported by:

Welcome to Prairie Tales 11

2009-08-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Prairie Tales breaks in a second decade with a strong collection of sixteen new Albertan works on film and video extensively reflecting the diverse, expanding and increasingly intermingling field now generally referred to as the media arts. Rather than describe the works in playing order, it somehow makes sense to introduce this year’s line-up grouped according to theme. Of course, each piece retains its own particular take on any general subject and is preoccupied with an assortment of ideas and concepts unique to itself - some or all of which may be far more important to it than any of the broad themes of renewal, communication and identity which I’ve managed to uncover.

On the notion of renewal, Ryan Tang’s Water Cycle begins in science class and ends with an emotional release that takes us back to its start with fresh understanding. Kimberley Anderson’s The Fall revisions a cherished creation myth, while Michael Peterson’s The Secret Lives of Robots warns us, tongue-in-cheek, that a revolution is nigh. Eva Colmers’ Luz describes a mysterious cycle we somehow understand is destined to repeat itself, and Hans Olson’s Baby Boots and Dave Morgan’s Prairie Torch Song are both about moving on from heartbreak.

A smaller but still significant clutch of works touch on communication and its breakdown. Deception, tongue-tied silence and honest sentiment feature in Adolfo Ruiz’s Kisses & Tears. Transient Bodies, by Ben Charlton and Jessica McCarrel, is an abstract portrait of the muddled tumult of voices on the Internet, while Paul F. Becker’s Video Game Players Union makes post-modern fun of technology, talk shows and the limited vocabulary that exists in video game culture. Finally, Corey Lee’s In Translation takes us step by step through the sometimes less than fine distinctions between text, subtext and body language.

When it comes to identity, you can’t get much more straight up than the title of Christopher Markowsky’s I Am, which proclaims an empowering aboriginal subject position, or for that matter, Carol Beecher and Kevin Kurytnik’s Intergalactic Who’s Who: The Vegetation of Zig 5, which offers a lesson in extraterrestrial botany. aAron munson’s Leaving Me turns the camera inward, probing the human mind’s delicate sense of self, while Lyle Pisio’s Visages explores facets of identity that are within our power to choose. The act of creating inevitably leads to self-discovery, and that act is the central subject of Scott Portingale’s Midnight Matinee. Similarly, and rounding out this third and final grouping, Trevor Anderson’s The Island is a queer creator’s response to homophobia.

Am I stretching things here to make them fit? Probably just a little. But, within reason, it’s a curator’s prerogative to take that liberty. Kevin Allen, Marsh Murphy and Jennifer Yates, the other curators who watched the over sixty submissions received this year by Prairie Tales, might well disagree with me. So might any viewer. To which I can only say, with acknowledgement to In Translation, “vive la difference”.

Ian Leung
Tour Coordinator
Prairie Tales 11

Colophon

2009-06-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

Prairie Tales is produced by Metro Cinema, in association with AMAAS (the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society), and with the financial support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Jury: Kevin Allen, Ian Leung, Marsh Murphy, Jennifer Yates
Film Descriptions: Ian Leung
Art Direction: Darcy Twarog
Mastering: aAron Munson
Opening Animation & Duplication: Studio Post
Printing: DeJong Printing

The Island

2009-06-17T12:02:00.002-07:00

Edmonton 2008, 5:23 min, Dir: Trevor Anderson

What would it be like if gay people had their own island? In response to a piece of “fan mail” he received from a rabid homophobe, queer filmmaker Trevor Anderson opens his rumination on that question with the image of himself tromping across a barren, snow-covered prairie. It’s a motif that at once illustrates the isolation of a mind in meditation, evokes the loneliness that must, more than in other places, characterize the gay experience on the prairies and foreshadows the logical collapse of the fantasy island proposition, even if that gay paradise is nevertheless brought to vividly comical, comic book life by the colourful animation of Jeff LeDrew.

Trevor Anderson is a self-taught, independent filmmaker who lives and works in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His films have been seen on a wide range of screens, from the Berlin International Film Festival to the Drumheller Federal Penitentiary to MTV. In 2007 he received the Lindalee Tracey Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto, presented to “an emerging Canadian filmmaker working with passion, humour, a strong sense of social justice and a personal point of view.” Trevor also plays in the rock and roll band The Wet Secrets.

Leaving Me

2009-06-17T12:02:00.001-07:00

Edmonton 2008, 6:45 min, Dir: aAron munson

In Leaving Me, a young man recounts his experience with mental illness and how it impacted life as he knew it. While we can barely make out what he’s saying, the matter-of-fact tone of his delivery survives director aAron munson’s deliberate distortion of the soundtrack. munson describes his film as “an abstract journey through the fabric of the brain, revealing the fragile elements of self that are contained within.” He layers images that appear to represent or recall ways we understand the brain and its connection to self: reflections that inform attempts to know ourselves but are inevitably tinged with uncertainty, concealed in shadows. Who are we? What is identity? Understanding this mystery has always been prevented in part by the challenge posed by our own subjectivity, by our inability to “leave” ourselves. The distortion of the young man’s words suggests we may never be able to fully appreciate his situation, yet it’s conceivable that his experience allows him unique insights into the puzzle of identity.

Edmonton filmmaker aAron munson has created twenty short experimental films over the last five years. Using Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm, his work explores the fine qualities of working with film while incorporating the use of other visual mediums. Employing a variety of different filmmaking techniques such as pixillation, timelapse, and stop-motion, aAron explores his own interpretation of the world around and within himself, and reveals the many layers of a universe yet unseen. With an emphasis placed on texture and tone, he relies on imagery and sound to communicate the meaning behind his films. His works have been screened at many film festivals and multi-disciplinary events. munson also collaborates with numerous audio artists both locally and internationally.

Intergalactic Who's Who: The Vegetation of Zig 5

2009-06-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Calgary 2009, 1:30 min, Dir: Kevin D.A. Kurytnik & Carol Beecher

This animated short parodying those old Hinterland Who’s Who commercials, gives us a rundown of the peculiar varieties of vegetation that cower on the distant planet of Zig 5. On that harsh world, where a lifespan can last mere minutes and vicious predators are everywhere, plants have evolved legs that enable them to take flight in order to survive. What makes this idea more than just amusing is that, from an ecological perspective, plants here on earth might be better off if they had legs too. Beecher and Kurytnik have made a number of Intergalactic Who’s Who vignettes about the flora and fauna of Zig 5; for fans of Prairie Tales 10, the fearsome Praepredatorprae featured in the episode from that year’s anthology makes an appearance here, setting off a stampede of terrorized vegetables.

Carol Beecher and Kevin Kurytnik are animators located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Carol is a native Calgarian, while Kevin was born in Norquay, Saskatchewan. Graduates of the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1987 they are self-taught filmmakers who describe themselves as “rabid fans and students of all film genres” and cite influences from Norman MacLaren to Looney Tunes. They are also influenced by their own “interests and experiences as visual artists, story tellers, animators, filmmakers”. Kevin got his major in Visual Communications and Carol in Ceramic Sculpture. Kevin is the Digital Media and Animation instructor at the Alberta College of Art and Design. Their animation studio is called Fifteen Pound Pink Productions, because that’s how much their cat weighed.

I Am

2009-06-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

Calgary 2008, 3:30 min, Dir: Christopher Markowsky

This music video of singer-songwriter Donna Kay’s I Am looks at the urban landscape through the eyes of an Aboriginal photographer played by Kay herself. She uses an old-fashioned camera, which underscores the inability of technology to accurately represent eternal and ineffable things, such as nature, or the land itself. Meanwhile, a recurring drum song suggests to us that the First Nations lived in closer communion with these things than we do in our office towers of glass, steel and concrete. When images of First Nations dancers begin to appear superimposed on pop-up cityscapes, construction sites and sidewalks, we’re forced to consider that civilizations, including our own, can come and go while the land and the spirit of those that live and have lived close to it - ghosts from the past, bodies in the present, and the progeny of the future – endure from breath to breath.

Christopher Markowsky was born and raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He attended the Alberta College of Art in Calgary and Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario where he studied filmmaking. Christopher worked for ten years in the film and television industry across Canada as a set dresser until 2004. In 2005, he produced his first short, the acclaimed comedy The Milk Crate Recovery Team. His other works include The Lifer (2009), Press the Button: A Documentary on the Youth Animation Project (2008), Postmark (2008) and Round Round Round (2006). His third project with songwriter Donna Kay, By the Water, is currently in production. Christopher lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Transient Bodies

2009-06-17T11:46:00.002-07:00

Calgary 2008, 7:00 min, Dir: Ben Charlton (with Jessica McCarrel)

Transient Bodies is an abstract representation of the Internet as a fog of linguistic confusion. The work began as a piece of hand-made animation, which McCarrel scored and dyed directly onto 16mm film stock. The result was transferred to a digital format that Charlton manipulated and distorted to achieve a feeling of chaos meant to evoke the confusing virtual plane of existence we know as the world wide web. Like the Internet, the visceral imagery of Transient Bodies refuses to coalesce into an ordered whole, yet it maintains a mesmerizing hold on the viewer. This version of Transient Bodies is actually a seven-minute edit of a fifteen-minute piece for video jam. That longer version is performed live, with Charlton and McCarrel layering yet more imagery over the existing projection while musician Owen Kalau provides a soundscape. Kalau’s contribution is still a feature of this segment.

Ben Charlton is an undead filmmaker living in Calgary, Alberta. During the production of his last film, a tragic betrayal became apparent when his preserved rats-turned-puppets revolted, infecting him with the Black Plague. Not content to let such foul treachery spell an end to his vision, he vowed to return from the dead to further spread his message of death and the afterlife (in fact, some would say that his new experience with death has only added further conviction to his beliefs). However, being a zombie in Calgary is hard, so when times are tough, Ben turns to the written word to further his mission.

Jessica McCarrel is a painter, art administrator, and deathrocker. She currently paints images of cadavers and works at The New Gallery.

In Translation

2009-06-17T11:46:00.001-07:00

Calgary 2008, 5:40 min, Dir: Corey Lee

Two thirds of the way through this compactly layered demonstration of the degrees of complexity and subtlety achievable in post-modern bedroom banter, a character briefly references a recurring dream in which a monkey keeps clapping two giant cymbals against his head. On one level, it’s a playful reminder that we’re not just watching two individuals negotiate a hump on the path of what appears to be an otherwise inevitable relationship. He’s an Anglo with a point of view about feminism. She’s French Canadian with a rather intimidating grasp of cultural studies. Yet somehow, they manage to make it work. Hmmm. On another level, all those navel references point to a frisky essay on the notion that everything is text. In Translation is Corey Lee’s third and final adaptation of a short story from John Gould’s Kilter: 55 Fictions.

Corey Lee has written, directed and produced the feature film Defining Edward as well as music videos and several short films, most recently, the award-winning Kilter trilogy, adapted from John Gould’s Giller Prize short-listed collection Kilter: 55 Fictions. Corey’s films have screened at prominent festivals and won numerous awards. The majority of them are archived in the National Collection at Library and Archives Canada. He is a regular instructor of screenwriting, directing and the filmmaking process at the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers. He also has a wide range of projects in development. Far too many for his own good.

Midnight Matinee

2009-06-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

Edmonton 2008, 9:34 min, Dir: J. Scott Portingale

Portingale’s black and white Photosynthesis was his first stop-motion piece about the nocturnal mischief makings of a capricious camera that comes to life while its owner is away. This sequel features the same snap happy hero on a similar exploit, only this time in full colour and supported by a swinging score. Midnight Matinee can actually be interpreted as a reference to Portingale’s own journey through the creation of his earlier film. Like Photosynthesis, the movie-within-a-movie fashioned by his camera for a midnight screening is black and white and uses everyday household objects (in this case, bath products) to tell a story. It might well be added that, like Photosynthesis, it also wins the admiration and accolades of peers. But Portingale moves everything up a notch or three in terms of vision, ambition, technique and fun with Midnight Matinee, creating an even richer sequel that gives a whole new meaning to the expression “flash of inspiration”.

J. Scott Portingale is an Edmonton-based filmmaker who is an excellent example of how self-initiative and creativity can sometimes belie the need for formal artistic training. His award winning films blend traditional and modern visual mediums and combine animation with live-action. A distinguishing feature of his work is a spirit of play and whimsical exploration from which his creativity springs.

The Secret Lives of Robots

2009-06-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Calgary 2008, 7:00 min, Dir: Michael Peterson

If this film ever achieves cult status, the phrase “Does your robot dance?” could very well be catapulted into common parlance in nightclubs everywhere. The Secret Lives of Robots turns the machines-take-over-the-world sub-genre on its head: it feels like it’s referencing the romantic teen comedies of the 80s to warn us that technology may not so much outsmart as out-feel us. Maybe that partially explains the black and white treatment and the imaginative use of cardboard and furnace ducts in place of the moulded plastic and fiberglass and CGI we’ve come to expect from ILM and its ilk. But the low production values serve the high concept with a handmade charm that makes us root for the human spark inside every robot.

Michael Peterson is an award-winning filmmaker who lives and works out of Calgary, Alberta. He has a Master of Arts in Documentary Film Theory and Production from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, where he completed a documentary about the first American combat group to enter WWII, Robinson’s Red Raiders: the Story of the 22nd. He then won an internship with director Ridley Scott’s development company, Scott Free Productions. Since then his work has included documentary and fiction films, commercials and music videos that have played and won awards at various national and international film festivals. He’s most proud of the AMPIAs he won for PSAs for the Humane Society (2007) and the Calgary Drop in Centre (2008). His next project is a feature length comedy. Oh, and this is his fourth short film about robots – with more to come, as he makes one every year.

The Fall

2009-06-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

Calgary 2008, 4:35 min, Dir: Kimberley Anderson

The Garden of Eden myth is re-visioned in this animated piece that begins from beauty, turns macabre and restores itself to beauty again, just like the original Divine Comedy. In place of Adam and Eve, however, animator Kimberley Anderson presents a single, genderless human as the primary ancestor, and at the centre of her garden, a wise and resilient Tree of Knowledge must contend with this first human’s dangerous ingenuity rather than its curiosity. As in Genesis, the revelation of nakedness is a consequence of consuming the Tree’s forbidden fruit, but for Anderson this discovery has nothing to do with all that sex stuff that so worries Catholics. Rather, it’s the vulnerability of mortality that’s realized and played out in a gruesome sequence in which the human dismembers and disembowels itself as if undressing. In exchange for death, however, the Tree bestows a deeper understanding of humanity’s place in the greater cycle of life.

Kimberley Anderson was born in Regina, Canada and moved to Calgary as a child. She attended the Alberta College of Art and Design, and transferred to Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec where she received her Bachelor in Fine Arts with Distinction in Film Animation. She has completed two short animated films, 2 and The Fall, which have screened at festivals around the world and won several awards. She is currently writing and painting.

Video Game Players Union

2009-06-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

Edmonton 2008, 2:25 min, Dir: Paul F. Becker

If video game characters had their own talk show it would probably look exactly like this stop-motion animated short. Created by Paul F. Becker and musician Cameron Dahl for a demo reel, it kind of makes you wish they’d pitch the idea to Teletoon. That channel would be mad not to pick it up and ask for 22 late night episodes. Anyone for Chad chatting up Lara Croft and 343 Guilty Spark with Hirokazu Tanaka as musical guest? Count me in, please.

Paul Felix Becker is a filmmaker and motion graphics designer who has spent the last two years learning the entire Adobe Creative Suite in an effort to expand his artistic capabilities. Video Game Players Union, a product of that effort, combines traditional stop-motion techniques with cutting edge compositing work. It also represents the intent of his collaboration with musician Cameron Dahl, which is to poke a post-modern finger at popular culture. Paul is now working on a number of small projects, focused mostly on the integration of live-action footage with CGI, but plans to start a new feature script this summer. Cameron, a multi-instrumentalist composer, turntablist and performer, has been hard at work editing, performing, and composing music.

Visages

2009-06-17T11:34:00.000-07:00

Calgary 2008, 15:00 min, Dir: Lyle Pisio

Visages is a study in contrast between the light and darker sides of identity. Director Lyle Pisio calls it a “cosmic battle” over a “choice between good and evil, reality and comfort, escaping and existing, addiction and coping” that manifests in the choices we make about identity. However you see it, the metaphysical journey of Ely, Pisio’s puppet hero (or anti-hero), is an adventure of self-discovery that has surprises in store for its protagonist and the viewer alike. Pisio’s attention to detail in what must have been painstaking stop-motion work successfully endows a wooden puppet with recognizably human clumsiness and tentativeness of movement that passes for symptoms of impairment and, at the same time, communicates the fear and apprehension of challenges beyond the normal ken.

Lyle Pisio started out in the early 1980’s as an alto sax player and founding member of no less than five Calgary-based bands. But in mid 2000 he bought his first digital camera and started making very short stop-motion animation films using objects found on the highway on long bicycle trips. With a computer program that he wrote himself – a technique he would return to again and again - he released his first film, Corpse, in 2002. TV and The Unholy followed in 2004 and 2006 saw Another Lost Soul, a timelapse film shot with a still camera attached to a reflective ball. By early 2007 he had quit his job as an instrument repair technician to pursue his dream of being an artist. He now lives with his wife and two cats in Calgary, where he has been all his life (mostly in the basement).

Prairie Torch Song

2009-06-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

Edmonton 2008, 4:30 min, Dir: Dave Morgan

While Dave Morgan describes his film as “an ethereal story of the five minutes before the shooting of a music video” it’s also a funhouse of mirrors because of course the five minutes before the shooting of the video is the video. If Wendy McNeill were actually to perform Cigarettes and You in whatever music video was ostensibly planned for the song – well, that would be giving the ex-lover who inspired it undue acknowledgement. Depicting McNeill walking from stage to stage through a studio set only to find the same grim reminder of love lost at every turn, Morgan mines the same grin-and-bear-it vein of humour Hoagy Carmichael exploited with I Get Along Without You Very Well. The difference here is that unlike Carmichael, McNeill appears to have moved way past the denial stage.

Dave Morgan was the Production Coordinator at the Film and Video Arts Society Alberta (FAVA) for 15 years, holding down the same office in the old Ortona Armoury his Navy Captain father used years before. Prairie Torch Song is the third part of an unintended trilogy with singer Wendy McNeill that started with Black Angus and moved on to Such a Common Bird. Dave is currently working on two Second World War documentaries, one of which is about his father. In all his work, Dave takes care to surround himself with good people and competent professionals.

Water Cycle

2009-06-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

Calgary 2008, 1:12 min, Dir: Ryan Tang

Ryan Tang writes that Water Cycle “blends science education with a sense of melancholy to form a commentary on the cyclical nature of life and, by extension, the renewal of emotional energy in time.” In its brevity, its simplicity and its momentarily incongruous assignation of a human quality to what we at first perceive to be a mere, inanimate cloud, his film resembles a zen koan constructed to remind us there’s wisdom to be found in nature: if we’re to maintain the balance and harmony we witness there, emotions are better released than held in. I particularly appreciate Tang’s simple but effective choice to subtly prepare us for the shift from scientific demonstration to a more human subject by making his cloud appear to breathe. The song on the soundtrack is Abandon, by Calgary musician Bearcraft.

Ryan Tang was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta where he currently attends the Alberta College of Art and Design. While he happily works with a variety of media, Ryan has carried on a torrid love affair with animation since seeing his first cartoon. Where he is not busy completing various projects, he can be found watching reruns of Iron Chef and Three’s Company.

Baby Boots

2009-06-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

Edmonton 2008, 14:41 min, Dir: Hans Olson

Hans Olson’s Baby Boots is a beautiful and bucolic piece about how innocuous events can often have profound impacts. David Bilodeau, who plays the film’s protagonist, has cerebral palsy, but Olson’s intention wasn’t to make a movie about disability, or to be overly careful portraying it. He knew Bilodeau previously and cast him for his generous character and quick, understated humour. What is it exactly about the arrival of a stranger on their farm that sparks change in a lonely father and son coping with the recent departure of the mother in their family? Olson leaves us with a few symbolic clues, but perhaps he’s merely reminding us that these turning points occur naturally as a matter of course; always and eventually, there comes a point when we’re ready to move on.

Hans Olson is originally from Armena, Alberta. He went to Augustana University College in Camrose and, after an internship in Guatemala, decided to pursue filmmaking. His first short film, Bronwen’s Ark, was made while taking FAVA’s Basics of 16mm Filmmaking workshop. After completing Langara College’s Film Arts program in 2007, Hans was excited to direct Baby Boots. While his narrative short films tend to take place against a rural Alberta backdrop, his first documentary, Where Credit Is Due, was filmed in Guatemala.

Kisses & Tears

2009-06-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

Edmonton 2007, 3:20 min, Dir: Adolfo Ruiz

An illicit encounter is brought to an abrupt end when an unexpected visitor knocks on the door. Adolfo Ruiz originally shot the brief action of this piece using a hand held mini-DV camera and employing long takes to create a more natural feel. He then took fifteen frames of each second of footage, transferred them to Flash and traced the film’s key images using a Wacom tablet. Ruiz and three other artists took approximately 500 hours to enhance the tracings over a three-month period, adding expressive line-work to each frame with a view to reinforcing the story’s dramatic content. The result is a hybrid of digital filmmaking and drawing that juxtaposes the recklessness of adult behaviour with the wisdom of children.

Adolfo Ruiz studied art and design in Spain, England and Canada. He maintains a multidisciplinary practice as an independent filmmaker and graphic designer. As a member of FAVA his film work has shifted between rotoscoped animations and 16 mm live-action films, of which he has created six since 2003. In terms of content he is often attracted to fictional narratives involving alienation and reconciliation. His work has been screened at festivals, art events and on CBC television. Adolfo has also worked with various organizations in Alberta including Grant MacEwan College, Mile Zero Dance and Quickdraw Animation.

Luz

2009-06-17T11:09:00.001-07:00

Edmonton 2008, 6:00 min, Dir: Eva Colmers

This experimental dance video features a solo performance by dancer / choreographer Tania Alvarado twitching and writhing sensually to the whims of a hanging light that rises from the floor, hovers for a period, then returns whence it came. While on the one hand the light energizes her, the exertion it inspires threatens to exhaust the woman completely. Balance is a delicate thing that must be learned. Luz is one of four films originally commissioned as an experiment in creative collaboration between dancers and filmmakers by the Film and Video Arts Society Alberta (FAVA) and Mile Zero Dance (MZD). Rather than commit an existing piece of choreography to film or even create a dance work exclusively for video, the project’s goal was to create a piece that represented true collaboration between artists: a work that could not possibly exist on its own in either discipline.

Eva Colmers is an independent filmmaker who has written and directed a dozen or so award-winning short films and documentaries including Luz (2008), End of the Rope (2007), Hand Sum (2006), Blink! (2005) and the NFB documentary The Enemy Within (2004). Her films can be seen on television and at film festivals around the globe. She has also melded her work with dance, music and theatre, most recently in ki 木 with Mile Zero Dance, Glad of the World with the St. Crispin’s Chamber Ensemble, and The Headless Cowboy for Broken Spoke Theatre. Eva is very active in Edmonton’s film and theatre community. She enjoys teaching filmmaking and directing, and loves photography, print making and travelling. She is presently developing a cut-out animation short film and a documentary about elder care for the National Film Board.

Screenings

2009-06-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

Upcoming Screenings

July 16 - 18
Times: TBA

South Country Fair
Fort McLeod, AB
Details to come

June 10 - 12
Times: TBA

Arts Without Borders Festival
Film Fest at Llyodminster Public Library
Lloydminster, AB
Details to come

May 29, 2010
Time: 8:00 pm
Lyric Theatre
227 Central Avenue North
Swift Current, Saskatchewan
306.773.6292
Admission: $5 membership fee applies

Visiting Artist: Kimberley Anderson (The Fall)

Past Screenings

May 2, 2010
Time: 7:00 pm

Winnipeg Film Group's Cinematheque
100 Arthur Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Admission: Free

March 19, 2010
3:00 pm
Room W731
Centre for the Arts
4401 University Drive
University of Lethbridge
Lethbridge, AB
Hosts: Trap Door Artist Run Centre & the University of Lethbridge Art Society
Admission: Free, and all are welcome to attend
Contact: info@trapdoorarc.com or artsociety@uleth.ca

Q&A Guest: Corey Lee (In Translation)

January 31, 2010
7:00 pm

Calgary Premiere!
Hosted by CSIF, emmedia, Quickdraw Animation
Plaza Theatre
1133 Kensignton Rd. NW
Calgary, Alberta
403.283.3636
Admission: General $10, Students & Organizational Members $8

Q&A Guests: Kimberley Anderson (The Fall), Ben Charlton (Transient Bodies), Corey Lee (In Translation), aAron munson (Leaving Me)

January 20, 2010

11:30 am - 12:50 pm

Grand Prairie Regional College Fine Arts Department
Rm D208
Grand Prairie Regional College
Grand Prairie, Alberta
Free to all GPRC students and the community
Contact: Fine Arts Office 780.539.2443

Visiting Artists: Paul F. Becker & Cameron Dahl (Video Game Players Union)

January 8,2010

Time: 9:00 pm

Firehall Films Series
Yukon Film Society
The Old Fire Hall
1st Avenue & Main Street
Whitehorse, YT
Contact: Yukon Film Society 867.393.3456

November 10, 2009

Time: 10:00 am

Motion Picture Arts Department
Red Deer College
Red Deer, Alberta
Admission: 3rd & 4th year Motion Picture Arts students

Visiting Artist: Trevor Anderson (The Island)

October 26, 2009
Time: 8:00 pm

Visual and Performing Arts Department
Keyano College
Fort McMurray, AB
Admission: Media in Art Students

Visiting Artist: Eva Colmers (Luz)

September 26, 2009

Time: 3:45 pm

Kaleido Arts Festival
Avenue Theatre
9030 11th Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta

School Screenings:

John G. Diefenbaker High School
Communications Technology Class
Calgary, Alberta

Alberta Arts Days Screenings

September 18-20

Banff Public Library
101 Bear Street, Banff, Alberta 403-762-2661
Friday September 18
2:00 pm and 4:00 pm

Sunday, September 20
4:00 pm
Edmonton's Metro Cinema
Zeidler Hall (inside the Citadel Theatre)
9828 101A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta 780.425-9212
Sunday, September 20
12:00 noon
Forestburg Public Library

4901 - 50th Street, Forestburg, Alberta 780-582-4110

Friday September 18
7:30 pm

Jasper Municipal Library

500 Robson Street, Jasper, Alberta 780-853-3652

Friday September 18
11:00 am

Saturday September 19
11:00 am

NUTV (University of Calgary Campus Network)
Channel 17: University Residences (with sound) & MacEwan Student Centre (no sound)Friday, September 18
9:00 pm

Saturday, September 19
9:00 pm

Sunday, September 20
9:00 pm

June 26, 2009

8:00 pm

amaas Conference
Edmonton Alberta
Metro Cinema

About Prairie Tales

2009-06-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

Now in its eleventh year, Prairie Tales is an annual touring collection of Albertan short film and video. We regularly include work from the shining lights of the Alberta media arts scene. Prairie Tales is produced by Metro Cinema in partnership with amaas and with funding assistance from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. For more information or to schedule a Prairie Tales screening, please contact:

Metro Cinema
Room 632, #7 Churchill Square
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 2V5
T: 780.425.9212
F: 780.428.3509
E: prairietales@metrocinema.org

About Metro Cinema

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Metro Cinema is a community-based non-profit society devoted to the exhibition and promotion of local, Canadian, international and independent film and video in Edmonton, Alberta. To this end, Metro exhibits an eclectic blend of film, video and media arts that would not otherwise screen in the city. Metro’s focus is on presenting a broad selection of innovative, cultural and educational works. The Society operates with the assistance of a large volunteer base, and produces a regular program, bringing in artists and facilitating discussion. For more information, please visit metrocinema.org.

About AMAAS

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The Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS) is a not-for-profit society dedicated to fostering the common objectives of Alberta’s diverse media arts organizations and artists in the areas of promotion and education. Recognizing the media arts’ vital role in the cultural fabric of the province of Alberta, AMAAS provides a forum for dialogue between the media centres, creating synergies and enhancing the abilities of the centres and their memberships to create and exhibit artistic works. For more information, please visit amaas.ca.

Thanks to our Funders

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