Kazik Radwanski is a filmmaker and co-founder of the MDFF production company who has shown his films both nationally and internationally. Radwanski has selected five works on VUCAVU that relate to the theme passages and the many forms that this can take. Read a interview about his film selection process with fellow film director and the co-founder of Bad Day Magazine, Eva Michon.
 
 
 
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Kazik Radwanski

Kazik Radwanski
Filmmaker


"PASSAGES"
Interview with filmmaker Eva Michon

Born in 1985 in Toronto, Kazik Radwanski co-founded the production company MDFF in 2008. His short films screened at the Berlinale Shorts Competition for three consecutive years. In 2012, Radwanski directed his first feature film Tower, which had its world premiere at the 65th Locarno International Film Festival. The film went on to screen at many festivals including The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), The Viennale, and the New Directors/ New Films presented by the MoMA. Most recently his second feature film, How Heavy This Hammer, had its international premiere at The 66th Berlin International Film Festival.

PASSAGES, curated by Kazik Radwanski 
Interview by Eva Michon

Eva Michon (EM): Why did you select Samuel M. Delgado and Helena Girón's film Neither God nor Santa Maria

Kazik Radwanski (KR): I love the colours, the muted pastels and how it’s hand processed on 16 mm film. It works so well with the witchcraft stuff - it is so mysterious. I saw it at the TIFF in 2015 and it was my favourite short.

EM: Why do you think they chose to have the print be messy and water-stained?

KR: Well, it’s a pretty common process in experimental film. Sometimes its a bit festishized but with this film it really works. It kinda matches the audio, right? Neither God nor Santa Maria feels likes it’s found, it’s excavated - a weird artifact. The colours, the mist on the island, the foggy ocean and the colours of the ocean, the distortion in the film: it all weaves together.

The colours, the mist on the island, the foggy ocean and the colours of the ocean, the distortion in the film: it all weaves together.
Still image from "Neither God nor Santa Maria",Samuel M. Delgado and Helena Girón, 2015 (CFMDC)

Still image from Neither God nor Santa Maria, Samuel M. Delgado and Helena Girón, 2015 (CFMDC) 

EM: With Alexandre Larose's film BROUILLARD - passage #14, did this film make you feel like you were on drugs, watching a memory?

KR: It’s really an incredible work, just so unique. It feels like a painting. Watching it feels like pointillism, with the dots. Apparently the Larose walked along the same path 120 times and superimposed the images.

EM: Maybe that makes it feel like a dream.

KR: Yeah, I felt that way about it - almost like it slows down for you too, where time becomes different as well. I think if there was audio it would distract you. This film doesn’t need it, it’s rich enough that you can just watch it.

I think if there was audio it would distract you. This film doesn’t need it, it’s rich enough that you can just watch it.
Still image from "BROUILLARD - passage #14", Alexandre Larose, 2014 (CFMDC)

Still image from BROUILLARD - passage #14, Alexandre Larose, 2014 (CFMDC)

EM: Do you think you would likely encounter Bridget Moser's work Memory Foam in a gallery?

KR: I don’t know. I’ve seen Moser perform live about a half dozen times, so I was happy to see her short video. I’d never seen one of her videos before and was happy to discover it.

EM: Does it remind you of the work of Erwin Wurm?

KR: Oh yeah! I didn’t think of that. I’ve seen Wurm's Red Hot Chili Peppers music video. I really like the way she works with different materials. Moser's Memory Foam is such a great title too. I like the multiple layers to her performances and the self-parody within it.

I like the multiple layers to her performances and the self-parody within it.
Still image from "Memory Foam", Bridget Moser, 2015 (VIDEO OUT)

Still image from Memory Foam, Bridget Moser, 2015 (Video Out Distribution)

EM: So tell me about Chris Chan Fui Chong's film Kolam (Pool). I assume you saw this at TIFF.

KR: I didn’t! It actually played the year before my film Princess Margaret screened at TIFF, and won. Kolam (Pool) was really important to me. This whole wave of filmmakers I like that lived in Toronto or studied in Toronto but were from somewhere else (China, Mexico and other places) and would make Canadian films that are set somewhere else. Chris Chan Fui Chong was the first of this group of directors that I noticed.

Kolam (Pool) is a beautiful film. He made this other film called Block B which is more formal, it almost feels like a Michael Snow film, about his housing block in Malaysia. It looks kind of like a film strip. It’s this single shot time-lapse, of different people on balconies and he is talking with people through different events. He also made a feature film called Karaoke that played at the Cannes Film Festival, which has a lots of scenes in karaoke bars and this really nice interplay between subtitles and karaoke lyrics.

This whole wave of filmmakers I like that lived in Toronto or studied in Toronto but were from somewhere else (China, Mexico and other places) and would make Canadian films that are set somewhere else.
Still image from "Kolam (Pool), Chris Chan Fui Chong, 2007 (CFMDC)

Still image from Kolam (Pool), Chris Chan Fui Chong, 2007 (CFMDC)

EM:  Martha Davis' film PATH is about a woman who charts a course and then walks around neighbourhoods and records what she sees. I thought is was almost a scientific exercise in "stop and smell the roses".

KR: I found it so engrossing to watch, the footage was so incredible. I think it was made in 1987, so I would have been 2 years old. I felt very nostalgic watching it. It felt like half-memories I have, or reminded me of looking at family photos. There’s this part when they’re walking past a construction site, or alleyway where people are working, and there’s this old fence, and there’s this a guy fixing a chimney and he waves. It was so incredible to watch.  

EM: This films feels like a time capsule. I’m noticing a theme of memory through your collection. Do you think that when people watch your films in twenty or thirty years, they will have that same nostalgic reaction?

Kaz: Yes, for sure. I want my films to be a bit disarming and to give you the realization that the aesthetic of the film is not entirely mine, that we are in lived spaces with actual people. My work involves a lot of close-ups, it is always a bit clumsy, a bit too close and flawed.

I felt very nostalgic watching it. It felt like half-memories I have, or reminded me of looking at family photos.
Still image from "PATH", Martha Davis, 1987 (CFMDC)

Still image from PATH, Martha Davis, 1987 (CFMDC)

Eva Michon is an award-winning film director based in Los Angeles. Born in Johannesburg, Eva grew up in Toronto, where she studied film at the prestigious Ryerson University. She began her career by directing music videos and fashion films before expanding into the commercial and narrative filmmaking world. Eva is also the co-founder of Bad Day, a creative biannual arts and culture magazine. She recently debuted a short film, Small Fry, it the Toronto International Film Festival, and is currently working on her first narrative feature film.