Cinema Canada (Nov 1975)

has funny sections when the visual effects and the roar of the dinosaur work together, but it is too long, and it is not successful as a film. However, Franco Battista clearly has talent and managed the technical aspects better than anyone would have imagined was possible with neither a sizable budget nor experience. If he can achieve more control over the slightly ragged technical quality of this work and restrain himself on the length of his next project, he could really produce a first rate work. Dr. Climax, again from Sheridan College, is a variation on the Frankenstein monster theme. The character of Igor, a frightened, tiny monster, was a joy. I am surprised that neither this film nor the next one I will mention received the second prize for animation. Une aventure by Danyele Patenaude is a classical pixilation student film. The pixilation technique is used to produce a jerky, speeded up motion effect by filming a moving object one frame at a time instead of 24 frames per second. And in this film a biker riding an imaginary motorcycle frantically chases another guy through a park. There is a sequence of amusing encounters between these two and also between the guy and a very tough looking brute in drag as a mother with a baby carriage. The film is not so different in concept from many other student works, but it is well conceived and executed. It is clearly a student film, but it is a good student film. Rob Wallace’s Thursday Auction won both the first and second prizes for documentary films. The fifteen minute study of the Kitchener, Ontario stockyard shows the farmers, the animals and the auctioneer during the course of a day. The subjects are fascinating in the way that farmers and animals always are to city dwellers and, of course, the auctioneer’s chant is effective because of its sound. The film focuses on these interesting, but nevertheless somewhat predictable, characters at the auction and comes off as a very professional documentary. It is successful as a record of a disappearing aspect of Canadian life, but I found it lacking as a film. I sensed that the filmmaker’s goal was to achieve a National Film Board style of documentary and, I regret, level of dullness. This is a good N.F.B. film with the exception of the final sequence showing frantic pigs running through a maze-like series of pens to the accom paniment of country music. This final sequence redeems the film for me, and it hints that Rob Wallace may become more than just another professional documentary filmmaker. Two documentaries from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and another from Simon Fraser University have sequences which indicate to me that each of them could have been made into significantly better documentaries of approximately half their present length. Robert Freimuts’ Ice Cream is about the machines used to make ice cream. Close-ups of the automated production line are rhythmically edited to a jazz score. The result is a unique way of looking at machines; The movements of the machines become funny. But it continues too long and eventually becomes repetitious. The second Ryerson film is Bleecker St. by Ross Redfern. This is one of the few political films shown in the festival, and it makes a strong case against the eviction of tenants by unscrupulous landlords. There are powerful sequences showing demonstrations against the evictions and interviews with the landlord’s unctuous representative. These excellent documentary sequences were weakened to a considerable extent by placing them in a framework consisting of a badly read commentary and excessive dwelling on still photographs. S. Michael Checknik’s Sammy Sammy from Simon Fraser has a similar problem: Sammy is an eccentric, hard drinking, backwoods character who makes a fine subject for a documentary. The film captures Sammy’s spirit in a drunken session playing the accordion and in a beautiful sawmill sequence, but it also shows a number of extremely ordinary scenes such as an overly long one of him shaving. Perhaps it is discouraging to admit that a man as colourful as Sam my can only provide material for an intense film of ten minutes instead of twenty, but filmmakers have to learn that there is a great difference in what is interesting in the world and what sustains interest when put on film. The general issue raised by my comments about these three non-winning documentaries is whether intensity should be valued over completeness in a documentary. I choose intensity; these filmmakers choose completeness. Lorne Marin’s Second Impressions is the second prize film in the Experimental category. This 9 minute colour film shows a view of a room from a single camera position. First a black and white film is seen on a small screen located in the room; this film stops; the screen is taken down and carried back to behind where the camera is located. Next a black and white film is seen through the windows of the room. This is followed by the central part of the film which involves people entering the room, sitting on a couch and then leaving. Many of these people are seen in double exposure. Finally as the end approaches there is a sequence of 3 quick, repeated shots of the person who had taken the screen down (Lorne Marin) walking toward the camera. Second Impressions by Lorne Marin from Concordia University. What does Second Impressions mean? I don’t know from watching the film, but one of the most interesting things about the film is that it creates a mood in which these hazy, ethereal images seem appropriate. The soft classical music helps to achieve this, but it is the film itself which communicates that the audience should not expect some single narrative event to occur. The film doesn’t make any attempt at being a narrative or documentary film, so the audience never begins a futile attempt to discover a plot or a single meaning. Also the title hints at how the film should be viewed: These are ‘second impressions” of a room, films already made, and people. These are visual ‘impressions’, hence Impressionism in painting comes to mind and aids in understanding these nebulous, coloured images. Finally the time of the film and the mood seem dreamlike with the images appearing, disappearing and overlapping in ways which are only possible in dreams or films. Actually I do not think that an explanation of the film can be discovered by watching it. Lorne Marin may know what the film means, but my point is that the film succeeds admirably in creating an atmosphere which does not depend on interpreting the images, and this is quite an achievement. The second prize for a Scenario was awarded to two films: Glen Saltzman’s Her Decision and Ken Ilass’ Temporarily Confused. Her Decision is a 17 minute film made in the style of a film from the silent period. It is in black and white, uses titles between shots for the dialogue and has only november 1975 / 37