Redeeming Cinema

35mm Fringe Films at the Drive-in

Thursday, July 28, 9:00pm
Hanover Drive-In

by Phil Hoffman
The Grey Zone Collective is dedicated to the screening of Artists’ Film, and our annual screening of 35mm independent and experimental film has been an exciting artistic intervention into mainstream viewing culture. The Hanover Paramount Drive-in is a place where typically Hollywood films are screened through the summer, where cottagers and locals come together in the cinematic ritual where cars meet movies.

Over the past five years, due to the proliferation of the various digital platforms, 16mm production has declined in commercial cinema, which has severely and quickly cut the offerings of lab services in 16mm production. As a response to this, film artists have formed official and unofficial co-operatives, labs, and workshops in order to keep working collectively in celluloid. Artist-run labs like Niagara Custom Lab in Toronto, have picked up the slack and offer reasonable rates and dedicated care for the production of 16mm and 35mm processing and printing. As 35mm equipment is tossed out (literally on the street in some cases) artists have and will continue to recycle this production equipment, leaving opportunities for the production of very high quality and innovative 35mm cinematic offerings. Film Co-ops like LIFT In Toronto, and Double Negative Collective in Montreal, work in unison with the local artists’ labs (like Niagara Custom Lab) to facilitate shooting, editing, and specialized techniques like optical printing and camera-less animation all in 35mm. Film schools like the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, at Concordia University and the Film Department at York University still offer courses at the BFA and MFA level that teach Artists’ Film: with concentration on celluloid, 16mm hand processing, and in some cases 35mm production and DIY techniques like contact printing, animation and paint on film.

This movement of `fringe film’ (avant-garde, experimental, poetic) has an international stature.

Indeed, our festival typically has to draw heavily form European and American sources for the 35mm Drive-In program. However it is reassuring to note that in 2011, due to the abundance of strong work, we have been able to mount this program of sophisticated and beautiful films, from filmmakers working primarily in Canada (Quebec and Ontario). It is clear that this cinema, both nationally and internationally, will continue to be made and screened, ultimately having an influence on mainstream film and tv industries, and developing its own unique and circuitous route, carving out an alternative history of motion pictures.

Stochastics
(France, 2010, 7 min)
David Kidman

Strips
(Canada, 2010, 10 min)
Felix Dufour-Laperrier

Refraction Series
(Canada, 2008, 8 min)
Chris Gehman

Long Shadows
(Canada, 2010, 12 min)
Joshua Bonnetta

Sea Series #8 Landfall At Lilliput
(Canada, 2010, 4 min)
John Price

Three Hours, Fifteen Minutes Before The Hurricane Struck
(Canada, 2007, 5 min)
Christina Battle

Editorial
(Canada, 2009, 10 min)
Steven Woloshen

Trees Of Syntax Leaves Of Axis
(Canada, 2009, 10 min)
Daichi Saito

Mamori
(Canada, 2010, 8 min)
Karl Lemieux

Ville Marie
(Canada, 2010, 12 min)
Alexandre Larose