Above production still from FIG TREES (John Greyson / Canada / 2009 / 104')
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
While documentary is in itself an art form, often called "informational art," documentaries that focus on other art forms or artists working in various art milieus are uniquely positioned as works that examine art via art.
In recent years many such "art docs" have been produced in Canada, yet these films and videos remain mostly relegated to specialized festivals or special sections within festivals - ultimately diminishing their audience reach and their impact toward an understanding, appreciation and support of independent media arts and visual arts in Canada and elsewhere.
Outside of a short-lived festival circuit and inclusion within the academic spaces of cinema and art classes, a film like Marielle Nitoslawska’s Breaking the Frame, for instance, has a limited public presence. Other works that celebrate "activist artists" like ART IN ACTION (Magnus Isacsson and Simon Bujold) do not even enjoy much of a festival run, and outside of grassroots and activist screening initiatives, face equal limitations when making their presence felt in the social imaginary.
Yet Canada is also bestowed with a vibrant and robust network of art galleries, artist-run centres and art spaces that exhibit every kind of art all year round, from coast to coast to coast. While some of these spaces do show film and video installations, experience suggests that there is a disconnect where documentary is concerned.
Documentary was traditionally thought to only have resonance on television, but feature-length documentaries at commercial cinemas and film festivals have shown that there is a demand outside of broadcast media for the genre. Cinema Politica strives to offer an alternative network to commercial, broadcast and festival dissemination models, by showing film and video outside of this system, usually at campuses and at alternative community venues. One option we have only recently considered and that we have determined is an overlooked space for the genre, is galleries and art spaces in Canada.
To grow appreciation and support for non-fiction media arts, through our ArtDox program we work with several galleries across Canada to both screen and collaborate on community screenings of documentaries about art or artists. We are also enlisting the support of campus art and cinema departments in order to help publicize the screenings, and to help get arts students out to attend events.
Finally, we are working with galleries and art space organizers as well as artists to organize artists talks around the screenings.
ARTDOX PROGRAM 2013-2014
BONE WIND FIRE A film that captures the view through the artists' eyes.
BORN IN GAZA A poetic, visually stunning tribute to the children who work, play, dream and survive in the world's largest open air prison.
BREAKING THE FRAME A critical meditation on the relation of art to the physical, domestic and conceptual aspects of daily life and on the attributes of memory.
A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR AN EXECUTION A look at the role of documentary photography as art form and as social commentary.
FATHER An award-winning, stunning mixed animation film about the complex and troubling relationship between child and father.
INSURGENCE A collective interpretation of Quebec's Maple Spring, this super-charged doc will have you reaching for your red square and gas mask.
KREB An animation that mixes industrial detritus with everyday despair, delivering a story of eventual escape and redemption.
MA VIE RÉELLE Drugs, delinquency, dysfunctional families, abandonment, poverty: "real life" is tough for young people in Montréal-Nord.
MARS AT SUNRISE A stunning work of political fiction inspired by the real-life of a Palestinian artist.
OVER MY DEAD BODY A portrait of an artist facing death told through his danceworks, beautifully composed images, scenes from the hospital and operating room, interviews and text.
SHE SAID BOOM: THE STORY OF FIFTH COLUMN Uniting music, film and zine culture to challenge conventional art practice, gender roles and femininity.
SUZY LAKE: PLAYING WITH TIME An inspiring documentary on photography Suzy, one of the foundational feminist artists to evolve out of the heyday of the 1960's.
THIS IS A STEREOTYPE A film project motivated from an art exhibition by Cannupa Hanska Luger about the various misconceptions of the Native American.
TIMETRAVELLER This project re-orients the subjectivity of indigenous lived experience & fantasy through movie-making in a virtual environment.
ARTDOX PROGRAM 2012-2013
ART AND APATHY Treading the edges of controversial political conversations.
ART IN ACTION A documentary about the Socially Acceptable Acts of Terrorism from a Montreal street collective.
BREAKING THE FRAME A critical meditation on the relation of art to the physical, domestic and conceptual aspects of daily life and on the attributes of memory.
DURGA A poetic doc that explores gender oppression in India.
EAST HASTINGS PHARMACY The rituals, negotiations and confrontations of patients visiting a special pharmacy to receive their methadone doses.
E-WASTELAND A poetic film that traces electronic waste from the west to its toxic resting place in Africa.
INSURGENCE A collective interpretation of Quebec's Maple Spring, this super-charged doc will have you reaching for your red square and gas mask.
LA GRANDE INVASION An artistic response to economic failure.
MAXIMUM TOLERATED DOSE A poetic intervention in the debate on animal rights, this unique and exquisite film explores the psychic and ethical fallout from animal lab testing.
PORTRAIT OF RESISTANCE: THE ART AND ACTIVISM OF CAROLE CONDÉ & KARL BEVERIDGE As economic and environmental crises grip public awareness, the world is finally catching up to the ideas of two artists who make work for social change.
SHE SAID BOOM Uniting music, film and zine culture to conventional art practice, gender roles and femininity.
TERRITORIES A contemplation of occupation, exploitation, documentation and the role of the photographer and his art.
THE PARTNERS
The ArtDox program is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts & Conseil des arts et des lettres Québec.
THE CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS canadacouncil.ca
LE CONSEIL DES ARTS ET DES LETTRES DU QUÉ BEC
