THE TREE OF LIFE

"THE TREE OF LIFE"
Film Review by Rébecca Mamane  

FILM MATTERS - GO TO KODAK AND HAVE YOUR SAY!

 

A MEDIUM FOR EACH ARTIST
By Nick Binetti

As a student of Carleton University’s film program, which is purely theoretical, and involves no hands-on practical work, and as a young filmmaker who has worked exclusively within digital mediums, I’ll attempt to present and discuss why film matters, based on my own unique perspective.

Since my early adolescence, the film industry, and indeed the world at large, has strived to move towards a digital landscape.  The rise of the internet and relative inexpensive cost of digital production has given countless filmmakers across the world a voice they otherwise would not have.  Growing up, I witnessed these results, these benefits, and found it difficult to believe that there were still people in the community clutching there Super 16mm, who felt that film was worth the time and effort for what now amounts to a near negligible difference.  I believed these people to be the contemporary equivalents of those who said that film wasn’t an art at the medium’s inception; those who believed the real cinema died upon the introduction of the talkie; those in the 1940s and 50s who viewed colour as too fantastical and brilliant to ever catch on in any major way; all the naysayers who have been slow to change in a world that never stops spinning.

Stan Brakhage

But there is one significant difference between these previous transitions and the move from celluloid to digital: while making a black and white silent film on celluloid might not garner the same audiences as, say, the next CGI dominant summer blockbuster (and, by extension, be less likely to be made), it was still possible for an artist to make a film true to their vision. With the digital revolution already well underway, it’s difficult to say if that will still be the case this time.

 

Professors in class have told stories of early Russian filmmakers scrapping images of film stock to recycle and reuse what little was available, and I fear this may be the future for all celluloid filmmakers. The number of manufacturers of good old fashioned celluloid film is dwindling, and who knows how available film stock will be 10 years from now?

Film and digital are completely different mediums, regardless of the fact that they’re often used for the same purpose.  The procedure of capturing a moving image on a physical film strip is substantially different than translating an image into binary, later to be interpreted by a computer program into a representation of the original image.  Celluloid requires much more finesse and dedication to get the shot you want, and the process in turn affects the product.  While, again, I can’t say for sure since I’ve yet to dabble in filmmaking outside of the digital world, I would imagine that the editing process - and the emotions the editor feels throughout - is drastically different when each frame in front of you is a physical picture that you had to measure and light meticulously for perfection - or conversely appreciating celluloid’s ability to occasionally capture the world in a completely different manner than we intended.

Film matters because it should be up to the artist, not the almighty dollar, to decide which medium he or she works through.  Art is very personal, and to have our cinematic options limited to digital, with constant codec and format issues, would be an atrocity.  The cinema will benefit most from an ecosystem composed of both celluloid and digital.  There is a place for both, we just need to remind people why film matters.

FILM MATTERS - GO TO KODAK AND HAVE YOUR SAY!

 

 

‘WAX POETIC’ – FILM!
By Patrice James

Film moves me, it grooves me, and it makes my thoughts flow.  
It’s natural, intense, filled with a luminous GLOW!
Those asking and questioning why, how, where, when;
have sold out to conformity; now keyboard NOT pen.
I was raised in a space and place fraught with trauma;
the medium of film allows me to expel and exorcize all my drama.

So, the question being posed, is why Film Matters?  Well, in this purportedly democratic world, where each person has a freedom of choice, why should certain things lose their appeal or relevance, just because the marketplace labels them as outmoded, unpopular or dare I declare OBSOLETE?  Well for me, an explanation for why film matters is not really necessary.  Art matters, and the independent artist’s ability to work within whichever art form or medium he or she desires as a form of creative expression is really what’s relevant.  There is not an absolute necessity for us to either apply meaning or worth to, or demand an explanation or a defense of all things; some things contain purely intrinsic value.   The medium of film is one such thing.

In a rapidly increasing consumerist, hyper digitized, fast-food, fast-paced, quick-fix, homogeneous environment/society which demands that everyone has access to everything, no matter their professional acumen.  It is extremely refreshing to have access to original mediums and technologies that STILL demand great discipline, respect for process, a commitment to detail, and a reverence for craftsmanship, and artistry.  In my opinion if we cease to learn, appreciate, and respect existing knowledge, I’m afraid we run the risk of ‘reinventing the wheel’!  And one of the most obvious problems facing us in this ‘free-for-all’ reality is that there is a true lack of understanding about the ethos of film.  New technologies and new technology users are obsessed with achieving a filmic look or experience, without first having any true understanding about the medium itself, its origins, and its historical and contemporary relevance in motion picture capture/moving images.  So the language of film has become appropriated, ‘dummied down’ re-interpreted to satisfy a hyper-digital, purely consumerist driven creation machine; and in order for this machine to thrive and excel; Film mustn’t MATTER!

By my understanding; great art has never been informed by popularity or what’s in mode; genuine art sets the standard by which all else must follow.  Artists are the true champions and orators of cultural appreciation, social accountability and as such need to be equipped with a variety of tools through which they can create, express, and comment.  Film is one of the most tangible, and evolved mediums; it allows for both an experiential and profoundly inventive creative experience.  And so, film matters, because IT IS, IT CAN, IT DOES, IT WILL!

FILM MATTERS - GO TO KODAK AND HAVE YOUR SAY!

HIGH ON D-76!
By Sasha Vreca

For sometime now I‘ve been involved with the analogue medium; experiencing both a strong love and respect for the craft as well as a slight perplexion at times. This sentiment is apparently somewhat mutually expressed by many passionate amateur and professional artists working within this classic medium. With the market takeover of digital technology however, there seems to be some pressure to explain why we still practice this traditional process.  

 I was asking that same question at an earlier time when I was first initiated to the process. “Why bother” I would tell myself while tossing and turning a container of D-76 Developer with my 35mm film in it.  “Why bother going through this long process of measuring, shooting, developing, washing and drying; only to fail and repeat the whole thing over again. Such labour for a few images I haven’t seen or approved yet!?…this is madness!”

I was fast to change my thoughts on the topic when I first witnessed my long awaited image appearing out of darkness before me. There was an interesting moment of bliss as the silver halide crystals were being transformed and the pellicule began showing its hidden content. Or I might have just been high on the chemical vapours, but I digress.

LIVING BREATHING FILM by Christine Blais

This constant debate that exists between film and digital media seems completely irrelevant to me. While there might be personal preferences, one is not superior to the other. The way I see it is that they are two entirely different mediums that operate in completely different ways. As I’ve dabbled in both worlds, I can’t help but wonder why we feel the need to prove the usefulness of analogue film. It has wonderfully strong points that digital will never have the capacity of recreating. You know why? Because it’s not the same medium. It’s that simple. My observation does not merely refer to the aesthetics of film but more so to the processes and the experiences of working with film. 

The experience of filming with a film camera and the manipulation the film material allows for is something that digital media will never be able to offer. Personally I find that the pleasure of film is in the physical manipulation of the plastic medium. You can expose it, cut it, dye it, draw on it or even stick things to it. The beauty lies within the fact that the craft is a direct result of your handiwork. It wasn’t created at the push of a button, by software that has stock functions. You have to work for it and physically make it happen. 

A filmmaker who I look up to is Stan Brakhage. Now he took advantage of what the film medium had to offer and made some really cool stuff out of it. For example, Mothlight is literally a film collage where moth wings and other materials were pressed between two clear strips of film. Each object has a level of transparency which allows light to pass through. In Brakhage’s words,  "I tenderly picked them out and start pasting them onto a strip of film, to try to... give them life again, to animate them again, to try to put them into some sort of life through the motion picture machine." which is exactly what film represents to me. It is a medium that lives and breathes.