COLLECTIVE WORK:

Experimental films from the Handmade Film Collective (Halifax) 

and the Lightproof Film Collective (Ottawa) 

Essay by Penny McCann

Experimental filmmakers tend to toil in isolation, creating works that exist on the fringe of moving image making. In recent years, the decline of film labs, production centres, and film’s increasing expense has been accompanied by a rise of interest in DIY analogue filmmaking, spurring the creation of community-based informal support structures.  This screening celebrates the output of two recently formed Canadian film collectives, one in Ottawa and one in the Maritimes, each of which seeks to support experimental analogue film practices. 
 
Formed in 2018, the Handmade Film Collective is a group of practicing, enthusiastic, analogue, handmade filmmakers who have come together to showcase experimental analogue handmade films and support other filmmakers working in this specialized genre. Three of the artists are based in Nova Scotia: Dawn George and Rena Thomas in Halifax, and Herb Theriault in Kentville. Todd Fraser lives and works in Fredericton, New Brunswick. 
 
Three of the four works presented by the Handmade Film Collective were created through the Plants on Film Commissioning project, a collaboration between the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative and the Handmade Film Collective. Over the course of four months, filmmakers were asked to create new 16mm films responding to the theme of plants and utilizing one or more handmade filmmaking techniques such as eco-processing, phytogramming, drawing or tinting. 

The Lightproof Film Collective formed in January 2020 with the mandate to foster experimental film practices in Ottawa through the creation and presentation of works on celluloid. The collective consists of eight members, all practicing filmmakers: Nicole Blundell, Cooper, Pixie Cram, Bridget Farr, Paul Gordon, Matthieu Hallé, Dave Johnson, and Penny McCann. In coming together as a collective, the filmmakers seek to foster community, exchange knowledge, and illuminate the largely invisible practice of experimental filmmaking in Ottawa. 
 
The films emerging from the Lightproof Film Collective incorporate a range of techniques such as hand-processing, tinting/toning, optical printing, masking and the use of found footage. Five of the eight works from the Lightproof Film Collective were created from a commissioning project undertaken by the collective to mark its foundation. The films by Pixie Cram, Matthieu Hallé, and Penny McCann were created independently of the collective but share the same strong DIY analogue ethos. 
 
Although all very different in approach and technique, taken together, the films in this programme speak to the power of collectivity to galvanize artists who work in analogue film and bring the dimly visible practice of experimental filmmaking into the light. 
 
- Penny McCann, Lightproof Film Collective