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A Diet of Obsessions
Saturday, April 24, 7 pm The Royal
Curated by Colin Geddes
It can be a habit, a hobby or an endless quest. Hours, days, months and
years can be lost within the realm of obsession. It can either invigorate,
elevate or extinguish one's energy. How do you prefer your object of
obsession? Casual or caustic?
This serving of celluloid obsessions tastes both sweet and
painfully bitter, revealing images that trace the outlines of our hidden desires of joy and sorrow.
Matt Smith, USA
16mm, 16 minutes, 1998
Canadian Premiere
Sprout, ripen, wither, die and be consumed. Just what is that strange fruit hanging from the boughs of a tree. Is it Uncle Bob or Grampa Bob? Little girls know the tasty rewards that harvest time brings. An eco-friendly version of Night of the Living Dead.
Matt Smith continues to go back into the woods of Oregon to make his movies. His previous short works include Go Bill, go and Hunting Earl.
Brothers
Paul Suderman, Canada
16mm, 14 minutes, 1998
Toronto Premiere
The tape to tape reels click off and on. Fluorescent bulbs hum. Vegetation creeps and animals scurry. Two brothers live in a cocoon they call home and never leave. Father warned them about the dangers of the outside world, but younger brother's curiosity is getting stronger every day.
Paul Suderman took every available film course from 1990-1995 at the University of Manitoba. Since then he has been involved in writing shorts, working on others films as well as his own.
Zoltar From Zoron
Eric Paesel, USA
35mm, 15 minutes, 1998
Canadian Premiere
Junior high is another world. It just helps if you happen to be an alien
stranded on Earth. Integration is futile, no matter what teachers, fellow
students or family members say. Rescue will come one day.
Eric Paesel grew up in Europe on American military bases. After college, he did social work, manual labor and eventually projects which started showing up in film festivals. He now resides in Los Angeles after just receiving his MFA from USC film school.
Robert Hardy and Charlotte Vincent, UK
35mm, 10 minutes, 1998
Canadian Premiere
"If you couldn't sleep, I would tell you a story. I would tell you about rain. I would tell you about the knot that we had to undo, I would whisper in your ear, go to sleep, go to sleep. I would wash the shit from my hands and touch you. Why all this rain? Why so cold? What kind of love is this?"
Robert Hardy is a Sheffield-based television director and filmmaker. Charlotte Vincent is a choreographer who founded Vincent Dance Theatre in 1994 to produce live, filmed and published work which challenges traditional values in dance and gender politics.
Dirt
Chel White, USA
35mm, 4 minutes, 1998
Toronto Premiere
Scrape the dirt from your fingernails and you have a tasty topping for any dessert. Ground steak is not as palatable as it sounds. Examine a man's strange obsession with dirt that starts from a childhood game and evolves into a lifestyle choice...
Chel White is a filmmaker from Portland, Oregon who has directed television commercials, music videos and also composes music and sound design for film. His film Choreography for Copy Machine (Photocopy Cha Cha) won awards at the USA Film Festival and the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Genesis
Nacho Cerdá, Spain
35mm, 29 minutes, 1998
Death. Loss. Grief. Plaster. Rebirth in exchange for devotion. An artist
exorcises the death of his wife through a series of sculptures in his
studio. But creative angst and desire make wounds that continue to bleed. Or is it the pain resulting from the gift of a new life? A hauntingly poetic and disturbing sonata about the consumption of loss.
Genesis is the third short film by Spain's Nacho Cerdá and has won over nine awards in Europe and North America. His previous works include the disturbing Aftermath and Dr. Curry.