About the screening
Digital Arts Resource Centre is excited to present our annual Resolution screening! Resolution is a public screening featuring a selection of works created by DARC members during the previous year.
Join us in Arts Court Theatre on Thursday, January 18th at 7PM. Artists will be in attendance to participate in a brief Q&A with the audience followed by a reception at Arts Court Studio.
RESOLUTION 2024 features works by Sarah Blumel and Anisa Cameron, Alexander Cruz, Jason Dai, Conor Devries, Chantal Gervais, Rachel Gray, Tyler Nykilchyk, Conrad Osei-Bonsu, and Miles Rufelds.
RESOLUTION 2024
Digital Arts Resource Centre (DARC) Annual Screening: A juried Selection of Members’ works created during the past year.
When: January 18th, 7PM EST
Where: Arts Court Theatre
Cost: Free Admission ($10 suggested donation)
Program Schedule
Doors: 6:30pm
Screening: 7:00pm
Q&A: 8:00pm
Reception: 8:30pm
About the WORKS
Joy and Eric/90 Seconds 'til Doom
This work was created for our exhibition, Cold Comfort for a Hot World at the Diefenbunker Museum until February 4, 2024. Multimedia clips were collected from the Diefenbunker Museum’s Archives, Creative Commons, and public domain sources. In this 7-minute video, Joy and Eric will try out some shelter techniques while we sing you a story of buying our way to safety during uncertain times. After that you’ll hear from the doomsday clock herself in a song we call 90 Seconds ‘til Doom.
This fun and exploratory musical creation uses joyful art to convey dark messages. An enjoyable experience to watch!
WIND UP RADIO
Wind Up Radio is Sarah Blumel and Anisa Cameron. We create original music and videos about the things that scare us the most: fire, flood, drought, famine, sentient AI, the breakdown of civilization, aliens, the rich abandoning the earth for mars; the future. Oh and also, it’s a good time.
I Don't Regret At All
I Don’t Regret at All is a music video directed and filmed by Alexander Cruz based on the song of the same title by River Wilson. The video is about the extreme grief of dealing with the heartbreak of a failed relationship, and the hope of transformation on the other side.
A beautiful song and performance by River Wilson meets with a beautiful cinematography in I Don’t Regret At All. A self reflection on the sense of love lost and what could have been.
ALEXANDER CRUZ
Alexander Cruz is is a Hull based filmmaker. He has made documentaries,
dramas and experimental works exploring addiction, nostalgia, and the idea of a
homeland. He’s skeptical of our blind faith in such things, but continues to be
inspired by them anyway. His most recent feature, Le genre qui tue (2023), had
its premiere at the Festival du film de l’Outaouais, and has won a number of
awards at other festivals. The drama is about a troubled woman who searches
for her sister’s killer during lockdown. His most recent documentary, Portrait of a
Songwriter (2023), debuted at the Mirror Mountain Film Festival where it was
nominated for Best Local Film. The film follows Luis Icaza, a struggling musician
from Nicaragua trying to find his bearings in the barrenness of Hull over the
course of ten years.
The Great Winds
A short drama film that that weaves family dynamics into Mahjong play.
Exploring family drama through a game of Mahjong, The Great Winds creatively uses gameplay terminology in relation to a tender family story.
JASON DAI
Jason is an emerging screenwriter and filmmaker based in Ottawa. He’s trained at the Digital Arts Resource Centre, Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University. He produced his first short film at the Digi60 2022 Film Festival.
The Legend of Ismael LBG
A short documentary film telling the story of local Ottawa Legend, Ismael LBG.
Both the subject and the documentary are a fantastic contribution to Ottawa culture. Brilliantly captured, the jury especially enjoyed all the sound effects, and the sense of community.
CONOR DEVRIES
Spinning Tundra's Fur
My dog Tundra died in 2019. For years I had been collecting his fur with the intent of spinning it into yarn. After his death the fur became my last physical connection to him and consequently took on much deeper significance. Since then, it has been central to my work as part of a commemorative process of mourning and recuperation in fond memory of my dear friend. Working with the fur has grown into a fruitful and ongoing multidisciplinary project which interweaves my current photo-based and video practice with fibre arts, allowing me to reflect on the importance and impermanence of life, mourning and the inevitability of change.
Contemplative and visually engaging processing of grief through the act of spinning. Mourning through crafting. We were gripped by the unique visual approach and meditative sound.
CHANTAL GERVAIS
Chantal Gervais’ photo and video works deal with representation, identity, human condition and the interconnections between memory and loss, presence and absence and the body and technology. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Canada and abroad. In 2014, she was awarded the Karsh Award and the Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography in 2002. Gervais’s photographs are part of private and public collections including the Global Affairs Canada, the Ottawa Art Gallery and the City of Ottawa. She received a BFA in photography from the University of Ottawa and an MA in Art and Media Practice from the University of Westminster (London, U.K.).
Into the Light: An Interpretation of Two Research Papers
Into the Light: An Interpretation of Two Research Papers is a short film written and performed by Jessie Huggett and Rachel Gray. The film was directed and animated by Gray and choreographed by Huggett. The film is an interpretation of the following 2021 research papers: “Projecting Eugenics and Performing Knowledges” by Evadne Kelly, Seika Boye, and Carla Rice, and “Elements of a Counter‐exhibition: Excavating and Countering a Canadian History and Legacy of Eugenics” by Evadne Kelly, Dolleen Tisawii’ashii Manning, Seika Boye, Carla Rice, Dawn Owen, Sky Stonefish, and Mona Stonefish. The film was funded by Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology, and Access to Life (a SSHRC Partnership Grant co-directed by Carla Rice and Eliza Chandler).
Jessie Huggett and Rachel Gray's thoughtful collaboration sheds light on the painful legacy of Eugenics in Canada. Informative, visually captivating expression of lived experience. Featuring beautifully executed line work and embodiment of one's selfhood through movement.
RACHEL GRAY
Rachel Gray is an interdisciplinary artist based in Algonquin Territory/ Ottawa. Navigating the world with Dyslexia has led her to explore art as a way to create customized language. Her projects are connected by an interest in drawing, performance, immersive installation, and storytelling. Her installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally including at City Hall Art Gallery (Ottawa) and in the AIRIE Nest Gallery as part of a residency in the Everglades National Park (Florida). Rachel collaborates with musicians, film makers, dancers and academics. Her animations and puppets have been featured in numerous films and productions.
Oneiros
“ONEIROS” is a mixed media journey of melancholic fear and the blurred lines between reality, dreams, and nightmares. This short film follows disjointed images of an arctic wolf through obscure boundaries of reality, using a mixture of digital video, 35mm film photography, cyanotype prints and animation. “ONEIROS” invites viewers to reflect on their own fears, and the captivating mysteries of the mind.
Oneiros is a creative take on dreams. A haunting, scattered, chaotically connected, surrealist trip through the dark side of nature.
TYLER NYKILCHYK
Tyler Nykilchyk is a queer, neurodivergent, interdisciplinary artist, working with photographic processes, filmmaking, drawing, textiles, and sculpture. He’s a recent graduate from the diploma program at the School of the Photographic Arts Ottawa (SPAO). Nykilchyk has exhibited at the Ottawa Art Gallery, Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival (Toronto, 2023), and has screened his short films in festivals in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Gatineau, and Ottawa. They’re interested in combining traditional craft practices with alternative processes and technology, resulting in a unique visual story. Nykilchyk’s work invites the viewer to intimately observe struggle, creating a vulnerable and thought-provoking experience that encourages self reflection.
Para, Para
‘Para, Para’ translates to “Money. Money” in Turkish which is what the film is about. When I got the chance to write and direct something new and original, and got the team on board to produce, I was very excited to tell a simple story with a hopefully clean twist. Mainly to showcase the actors’ chops, but to tackle this made up genre of ‘financial horror’. This film represents a very important time in my life. There wasn’t a budget so myself and the producer Eli planned everything before the shoot.
An intriguing twist on the classic murder-suspense thriller. The distinct filmmaker voice in this production makes it all the more captivating - the closeups, the sound design, the framing. Quite enjoyable!
CONRAD OSEI-BONSU
Conrad Osei-Bonsu is a filmmaker and producer currently living in Toronto. His newest short film is called “Para, Para”, and he has a background in comedy and documentary. His films are about everyday life with a bit of surreal.
It's Not Brakhage (Prelude)
“It’s Not Brakhage (Prelude)” is a parafiction essay film unpacking the story of a mysterious film reel believed to be a lost work by experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, made during a ruinous 1959 collaboration with the DuPont chemical company. Throughout the film, an unnamed narrator expounds on this film’s history, summarizing the bizarre episode between DuPont and Brakhage, and sifting through a patchwork of theories and speculations that have arisen since the film’s discovery. Mixing deep historical research with strategic threads of speculative fiction, “It’s Not Brakhage (Prelude)” attempts to think through the uncomfortable proxies connecting the histories of experimental film with military-industrial research, and serves as an introductory thesis to a larger research project currently in development.
It's Not Brakhage (Prelude), is a beautifully made exploration of archival legacies, speculation and a persistent narrator who guides us through a captivating soundscape. Keeps you on your toes.
MILES RUFELDS
Miles Rufelds is an artist, writer, and filmmaker based in Toronto. He holds a Master of Visual Studies in studio art from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Ottawa. With strong emphases on investigative research, conceptual strategies, and experimental forms of storytelling, Rufelds’ projects explore the interconnected histories of political economy, technology, and aesthetics. Rufelds has participated in exhibitions and screenings nationally and internationally, including the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the Blackwood Gallery, PAVED Arts, the Karsh-Masson Gallery, ArtworxTO, and the SIM Gallery. Rufelds is also a co- founder and co-director of Toronto gallery ‘the plumb’.
À portée de mots
Regardez autour de vous. Où que vous soyez — chez vous, dehors, dans une salle d’attente — vous avez fort probablement, dans votre champ de vision, des mots. Au moins quelques uns. Suffisamment de mots pour vous mettre à composer, consciemment ou pas, des poèmes ; pour vous mettre à effleurer des images inédites ; pour humer le bouillon poétique qui habite le lieu où vous êtes. Produit pour le Salon du livre de l’Outaouais
Earnest, intriguing, charming and very well paced. À portée de mots is a piece I'd happily watch more than once.
Marie-Ève Fontaine & Guillaume Saindon
Storytelling is at the heart of multidisciplinary artist Marie-Ève Fontaine. After completing a theatre degree at the University of Ottawa, Marie-Ève has participated in the development of countless theatre, storytelling and puppetry projects as a creator, author, actor, puppeteer and director across the country. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Marie-Ève has started producing videos featuring poetry, puppets and wild ideas. She collaborates regularly with accomplice Guillaume Saindon through their production company 2359. Guillaume works as a theatre and film director, video designer and software developer in live and interactive arts. His work has been presented across Canada and in a variety of festivals. After completing his B.A. in theatre at the University of Ottawa and a film degree from the Prague Film School, he went on to do an MA in Digital Narratives from the Internationale Filmschule Köln in Germany. He studied the contribution of digitality in live art forms. He then completed an M.F.A. in theatre directing at the University of Ottawa. His research and practice revolve around the notions of immersion, interaction, ludology and transmedia. He is now artist in residence at the Théâtre du Trillium and regularly works with Marie-Ève Fontaine through their production company 2359.
Untitled (Moiroloi)
Court exercice autour du concept grecque de “Moiroloi”, ou “lament”. Réalisé au tout début de la pandémie dans le cadre d’un séminaire de maîtrise, l’exercice aborde la perte de l’extérieur et de sens exacerbé par la pandémie. L’esthétique est inspiré du travail du vidéaste expérimental Japonais Takashi Ito.
Guillaume Saindon’s Untitled (Moiroloi) explores lamentation through repetition, immersive sound, and a great sense of rhythm.
Guillaume Saindon
Guillaume works as a theatre and film director, video designer and software developer in live and interactive arts. His work has been presented across Canada and in a variety of festivals. After completing his B.A. in theatre at the University of Ottawa and a film degree from the Prague Film School, he went on to do an MA in Digital Narratives from the Internationale Filmschule Köln in Germany. He studied the contribution of digitality in live art forms. He then completed an M.F.A. in theatre directing at the University of Ottawa. His research and practice revolve around the notions of immersion, interaction, ludology and transmedia. He is now artist in residence at the Théâtre du Trillium and regularly works with Marie-Ève Fontaine through their production company 2359.
Events in the tunnel
Drawn from Super 8 films in the artists’ personal archives as well as found amateur 8mm footage, Events in the Tunnel presents an absurdist abbreviated retelling of Canada’s colonial history as defined by that great colonial trope, the cross-country train trip. In the transitional void of a train tunnel, we witness familiar 19th and 20th century paradigms of white middle-class conformity as represented by images of travel, amusement, and domesticity, with Canadian culture embodied by a chimeric portrayal of the early 20th century painter Tom Thomson. Sound design by Chris Ikonomopoulos.
Penny McCann and Eric Walker deliver a great short for the small gauge fans out there featuring Super 8 footage.
Penny McCann & Eric Walker
- @penny.mccann2
- @pennymccann_1
- @PenelopeMC22
Events in the Tunnel marks the first co-directing project by life partners and artists Penny McCann and Eric Walker. Penny McCann’s body of media artwork spans thirty years and encompasses both narrative and experimental films and video. Her work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Ann Arbor Film Festival (Ann Arbor, Michigan), the Hamburg International Short Film Festival (Hamburg, Germany), the Ottawa Art Gallery (Ottawa, Ontario), and the Cinémathèque Québécoise (Montreal, Québec). Visual and media artist Eric Walker studied video art with Dara Birnbaum at the Nova Scotia College of Art in the 1970’s. His artwork is in numerous public and private collections including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Owens Art Gallery, and the Ottawa Art Gallery.
Resonance
RESONANCE is a short documentary film about memory. Sam Wood was 23 when he found an old photo album belonging to his father with photos taken of him at the exact same age. In the interview about the photo album that followed, Sam and his father discuss family history and their personal differences. This serves as a launching point to investigate larger themes of memory: what is preserved in our histories, what is discarded, and how complicated ‘memories’ really are.
Sam Wood
Sam Wood is a musician, videomaker, and occasional photographer based out of Ottawa. He received his BA in Music Studies in 2017, and his MFA in Film Studies 2019. Sam has performed music in venues across the province, and is pleased to have had the support of the Digital Arts Resource Centre to complete his first in-depth video project: RESONANCE. His main interests are in the documentary form and how it can be used to explore memory construction, concepts of truth, and fiction versus non-fiction. While not working on videos, you’ll find Sam around the city performing music or getting shots for his photography project (@ottstreetart on Instagram).
Dilatory Transmission
Filmed with a vintage vidicon tube camera, Dilatory Transmission is an experimental narrative short film depicting a retrofuturistic newscast exploring the alienating effects of the endless media and content under late-stage capitalism. Take a glimpse into the dystopian city of Monopolis through an evening spent watching the nightly news. Due to quarantine restraints, the film was developed in isolation solely by A. John Yates. With a unique approach to special effects, this film combines computer-generated imagery with the outdated technique of rear projection. Local musician Jacob Gonato elevates the film with a sensational score spanning from catchy jingles to improvised synth droning.
An endearing short from Aidan John Yates. Dilatory Transmission's dedication to pushing its aesthetic language and world building is strangely comforting.
Aidan John Yates
Aidan Yates is an amateur filmmaker, animator and sculptor who lives in Ottawa. His work explores themes of isolation, societal conformance and late-stage capitalism. He has a passion for experimenting with vintage technologies, favouring super 8 film and vidicon tube video. He is currently studying visual arts at Canterbury High School and aims to pursue film animation or production at the post-secondary level next year.
About the Jury
DEENA ALSAWEER
Deena Alsaweer is a Fulbright Scholar with an M.A. in Film/TV from the Savannah College of Art & Design. Since leaving her career in International Logistics nearly a decade ago, Deena has gone on to win several best screenplay awards and has worked with a range of production companies on TV, digital projects, and films for broadcasters such as TVOKids, CBC, Unis TV, Hallmark, and Bell Fibe TV1. Throughout her career, Deena has always been a passionate champion for underrepresented voices.
Ashford Sabastien Callender
Ashford Sabastien Callender is an Ottawa-based experimental digital artist, as well as a community educator and organizer. Inspired by psychedelic futurism, he uses his background in audio and video post-production within creative mediums such as web, film, and video to explore and create thoughtful, immersive, cross-cultural audio/visual experiences – one of his primary goals is to encourage people to see art, primarily, as a participatory space where we all have the power to alter our capacity for connection and understanding… and also encouraging people to peer into the technology side of art, to help inspire and create new visions.
Polina Teif
Polina Teif (1989, Minsk) is a filmmaker based in Toronto. She’s the director of two feature documentaries – Eulogy for the Dead Sea and Bittersweet Becoming. She received her BFA from the University of Toronto with emphasis on Visual Studies and Semiotics and completed an MFA in Documentary Film Production at York University. In 2019 she attended the Doc Institute Breakthrough Program and was awarded the Hot Docs Pitch prize and the 2019 Planet in Focus Green Pitch Award. in 2019 She participated in the Cannes Doc Corner Canadian Showcase and in 2020 she attended the Berlinale EMF DocSalon Toolbox Program and the 2020 Hot Docs Accelerator Program.
