All Bodies Dance Project: Trace

I recently completed another short teaser with the fantastic Vancouver-based dance company, All Bodies Dance Project, for their upcoming performance entitled “Trace”. It features choreography by Cherylann Buckman, Sarah Lapp and Harmanie Taylor, Diana McKenzie, and Adam Grant Warren and is directed by Naomi Brand. Performances May 18, 19, 20, 2016 at the Roundhouse Performance Centre in Vancouver.

Multiplié Dance Festival

I had the great fortune of having my short film, ALL BODIES DANCE: SEE AND BE SEEN, included in the Multiplié Dance Festival in Trondheim, Norway this year. With very generous support from DansiT, the organizing group, I was able to travel to beautiful Trondheim to attend the festival. This year, it was combined within the larger Minimalen Film Festival, a long running festival devoted to short form film-making.

I spent a week in Trondheim, watching an amazing selection of short films, exploring the stunning city, and spending time with my gracious hosts, Ingeborg Dugstad Sanders and Arnhild Staal Pettersen from DansiT. The two other members of the team, Eline Bjerkan and Tone Tronstad, were away during my visit.

I was able to attend and film a workshop, put on by DansiT, that involved two groups of dancers coming together with live musicians and a guest choreographer, Mia Habib, who took the all abilities participants through a range of activities and movements. I was moved by the incredible sense of enthusiasm and joy that she was able to bring into focus during the evening.

While in Trondheim I was interviewed by Anne Katherine Fallmyr, along with Ingeborg and Arnhild for the arts program Hovedscenen, for the Norwegian Broadcasting Company, NRK. With moments to spare in my tight timeline, I was able to shoot a short interview with Ingeborg that I hope to include in a longer version of ALL BODIES DANCE that I am working on.

I am very glad to have made the connection with DansiT, and learn about the activities they support in dance and film. I was particularly honoured to be included with such an incredible range of fantastic dance films in the program put together for the festival.

 

Stanley Park Ecology Society: Creative Upcycling Project

This film was commissioned by The Stanley Park Ecology Society to document the first part of their Creative Upcycling Project in Stanley Park, in Vancouver, Canada. Biologist Erica Forssman, shows volunteers how to remove invasive plants, such as Himalayan Blackberry and English Ivy from Blowdown sites, where sunlight has given these plants an advantage over native species. Environmental Artist, Sharon Kallis then helps to repurpose the removed material, that would otherwise be considered waste. With help from SPES Stewardship Coordinator, Sam Cousins, volunteers weave blackberry wattle fences and install ivy Bio-netting  to restore the eroded banks of North Creek, an environmentally sensitive site in the park.

Urban Cloth Project

I recently finished work on the film documentation of The Urban Cloth Project.

Sharon Kallis, Tracy Williams, Mirae Rosner and Rebecca Duncan worked together to make this project happen. It looks at how we can grow and process fibre to make cloth in our own community, and what is involved in the large-scale industrial production of clothing around the world.

Original music composed and performed by Clara Shandler.

Short Film Competition

The Storyhive Short Film Competition is in its final week. Thirty winners are given 10,000 dollars to complete their films. Please support my project “Mr Fire-man Builds a Horn Orchestra out of Wood.” You can vote once a day for the next week at: http://www.storyhive.com/project/show/id/907

Synopsis: David Gowman, aka Mr Fire-man, is the creator of “The Legion of Flying Monkeys Horn Orchestra.” Equal parts arborist, musician, craftsman, and agent-provocateur, his songs mirthfully take the piss out of consumerism, conformity and religion with hits like Aliens, Too Much Pie, and Zombies, played in clubs, festivals and community gardens of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He sustainably harvests a local Paulownia tree and other renewable crops to build his eccentric instruments. With his artwork, concerts and workshops, he activates both friends and community in ways that are thoughtful, provocative, and life-affirming. This is a story of one man who has turned away from mass-culture and consumption, and has built his own life in a sustainable way, enriching the local environment around him.

Mr Fire-man Builds a Horn Orchestra out of Wood

Vote for my film-pitch at http://www.storyhive.com/project/show/id/907

Between October 26 and November 8, 2015, you can vote once everyday to give me a chance to win 10,000 dollars to make this film.

Converse

This is the third and final film documenting the Conduit Project and Sun Yat Sen Park in Vancouver by the Art is Land Network. The three artists are Nicole Dextras, Haruko Okano, and Marina Szijarto

Buzzscaping

Here is a new short film I made about a community bee project.

BUZZSCAPING: BUILDING A POLLINATOR HOUSE IN STRATHCONA is a collaboration between eartHand Gleaners Society and The Environmental Youth Alliance. Funded by Artstarts in Schools and Vancouver Park Board’s Neighbourhood Matching Fund, the project brought together artists, bee experts, local volunteers, and students from Lord Strathcona School to creat a Pollinator House for local bees.

Willow Snake

This is a short film I made back in 2013.

https://vimeo.com/61314287
In 2013, the Community Arts Council of Vancouver commissioned artist and weaver Alastair Heseltine to create a green willow sculpture in honour of the Chinese year of the Water Snake. Built over a period of five days in January with the help of community members, the 60 foot snake was then paraded through Chinatown before being installed in the Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This short film documents the frenzied pace of construction, as a small army of volunteers work against the clock to shape a truckload of willow branches into cross-cultural symbol of power and regeneration.

Music by Kevin MacLeod

Concert

Here is a film I just completed that documents CONCERT, the second part of CONTOUR, a year-long installation at SUN YAT SEN PARK in Vancouver by the ART IS LAND NETWORK. The three artists involved are Fae Logie, Shirley Wiebe and Tiki Mulvihill.