Production Fund Films
2011
Square Dance Story
by Jason Karman
The patience of an outsider is tested when a square dancer holds him in contempt for his romantic advances.
An outsider enters a strange bar hoping to connect with people and instead finds a curious square dance troupe in the back. In the troupe, he pursues a mysterious square dancer only to be chastised as the square dance caller steps in order to save the troupe from fragmenting.
2010
Cup of Wine
With the aid of three expert dancers and the waters of the Fraser River’s Hells Gate rapids, choreographer Wen Wei Wang and I re-imagine five Tang and Song dynasty poems, with their Buddhist layers of reality and illusion, shifting nuances of human sentiment, and Taoist love of nature. To re-visualize these layered poems, we reduce the human body to elemental parts: hands, necks, backs. Dance, in this film, is pure, expressive human movement. And we allow one dancer to fly, as dancers did in Song dynasty cave frescos.
The Strange Case of Dr. Victor von Dictor
In this remarkable parody of early melodrama, a snake oil salesman finds money, romance and intrigue in a remote town when his "Miracle tonic" actually cure the Mayor's ailing daughter.
Poodle Dog Ornamental Bar
by Julia Feyrer
Julia Feyrer’s Poodle Dog Ornamental Bar was many things: a contingent art space, a film set, a historical recreation, a speakeasy, a party space, a site-specific installation, and a venue for music, readings, and screenings. Feyrer recreated an 1898 Gastown bar by the same name constructed out of cedar bark, flotsam and jetsam. In the present day version, you could buy a glass of homemade apple wine for a dollar. The Poodle Dog functioned as a space for just shy of two months and, while it lasted, it felt revitalizing. Contrary to the rumors circulating, it did not meet an untimely end due of the cruel, yet unfortunately legal, eviction of the residents of 536; the Poodle Dog was only supposed to last for the summer.
I’m in the Mood for Love
by Jason Karman
A singing telegram worker meets his ex boyfriend while having hot pot and learns to embrace his newfound bachelorhood through popular song.
2009
Replay
It's Kate Stewart's birthday. Open for anything --it's the unimaginable that arrives. Two young men are armed with a knife and driven by a need for her vintage car.
In an instant, she's bleeding, threatened with the possibility of more violence and planning her one opportunity for escape. Surviving will be a terrifying, hallucinogenic adventure that forever haunts.
2008
Just A Minute
by Allison Beda
A working single woman (dancer Jennifer Clarke), stuck in the rat-race of urban existence tries to leave her apartment. Just A Minute is the first in an infinite series created in collaboration by the collective 3√60
Poe - Last Days of the Raven
by Brent Fidler
This character-driven film paints a psychological portrait of the great American writer Edgar Allan Poe, exploring the extraordinary life experiences that shaped his fascinating imagination. By weaving through the ethnography of Poe’s dreams and nightmares, particularly the dying moments of himself and his loved ones, a complex plot line of past and present intermingles while Poe hovers near death in his hospital bed...
Girlfriend Experience
Why do men pay for sex? An entertaining peek into the world of prostitution from the client’s point of view.
Daniel doesn’t understand why he can’t have a relationship with his girlfriend Maddy and date prostitutes for fun on the side - a practice he calls GFE (Girlfriend Experience). But when Maddy dumps him and Daniel starts purchasing GFE from a mysterious prostitute, the lines between sex and love, fantasy and reality, begin to blur. Sometimes love can be a lot more expensive than sex.
"As a filmmaker, I simply want to reveal what is hidden - the john". Movies often portray sex-workers, but their customers remain well hidden – faceless and nameless. Girlfriend Experience calls attention to this bias, at the same time as it shifts the cinematic gaze onto the client.
Inside Passage
by Jeff Carter
Derived from a collection of Super-8 footage shot during extensive travelling along the ferry routes of coastal British Columbia. The images will be edited to a commissioned acoustic piano soundtrack. The result will be a sensuous and compelling visual and aural spectacle, capturing the rhythms unique to our part of the world.
2007
Awash
by Naoko Sasaki
Awash is a meditation on cleansing and renewal, a song for the mortal depicted through images of, within and around water.
DogBoy
Inspired by true events, DogBoy is the story of a little boy left to fend for himself on the streets of an anonymous city who is adopted and raised by a pack of feral dogs. When he is taken forcibly to a bleak state orphanage by government authorities, the boy must choose one way of life over another. With voice-over narration entirely from the perspective of one of the pack members, DogBoy is a lyrical, black and white short told without dialogue.
No Bikini
At seven years old, Robin decides to go without her bikini top at a summer camp – with surprising results!
2006
Flesh
by Tami Wilson
A character-driven documentary examination of what separates the women from the men in our meat-eating society.
Afternoon of the Chimeras
Shot on the isolated west coast of Haida Gwaii, the fourth in a series of 35mm experimental dance films.
2005
Divine Waters
An experimental six-minute dance film featuring Nadia, an androgynous sea creature who washes up on a deserted beach and transforms into human form.
Degradation
The film maker finds herself transformed into Pandora as she opens a reel of film and a clould of insects surround her. A single moth.delicately, invisibly, embedded in the substance of the film symbolizes original sin. The disbursement and repercussions of incest are reprsented by the excrement, cocoons, dead bodies of moths and their larva. We see how the insidious spread of disease and evil erupt through the mythological and historical defloration of woman.Thousands of moths were killed during the making of this film. Their bodies filled the frames and sprocket holes. Thousands of girls are raped daily, their lives and bodies treated as refuse.
2004
Lestock
Named after one of the last to be demolished wooden grain elevators, Lestock is a 30-minute experimental art film intended to draw attention to the alarming deterioration of architectural heritage of the Canadian prairie landscape.
State of Faith
by Jeff Carter
State of Faith was filmed and recorded by Milton Altwasser during a solo world-wide trek in the early 1990's, and later assembled after the filmmaker's untimely death. Filmed using a primitive Eastman 16mm spring-wound camera and a portable DAT recorder, this film embodies the DIY aesthetic which informs much independent practice. The soundtrack also highlights the filmmakers'considerable composing skills. Director Milton Altwasser was born and raised in Saskatchewan, studied film at Concordia, and, based in Vancouver, engaged in artistic collaborations at home and internationally. Ironically, State of Faith, which was to be a culmination of his collaboratory efforts – became, following his death soon after filming, principally the work of its author.
This is a film that attempts to understand the symbols of 'faith'...the viewer is given an opportunity to experience and possibly demystify the icons that have become more powerful than the actual beliefs and faiths they represent...It is the way in which the film is assembled that will stimulate the viewer to consider its subject."
"State Of Faith includes footage from various locations and sources throughout the world...I wanted to include perspectives from individuals other than like myself. It is a privilege to have a woman from Thailand relate her faith system to me in an interview,or to listen quietly to a Persian man sing a spiritual song into my tape recorder.When the Cameroonian student talked to me about the American Dream in front of an L.A. freeway I respected his insight,and when seven people debated fascism in Western Europe I acknowledged the severity of the issue.One does not have to travel to Japan to have someone speak to them about technology stifling the soul,however a perspective of the global implications of those issues make the journey seem imperative.My goal was to have contact with the people in the film,to be granted permission to film or record them...I am responsible for the images and sounds I have assembled."
-Milton Altwasser
7 Universal Solvents
A lush dance film exploring human transformation as dancers partner with physical, social and metaphoric solvents.
The Beast of Dulle Griet
A surrealist fairy tale, this black comedy is set in the 16th century, in a village built completely underground, where all the townsfolk live in mortal dread of a horrible monster.
2003
Interception
A hand-crafter abstract collage, this film is the second film in a series (insurrection c1999) that deal with the subject of rape and recovery, sexual violence and mythology.
In the Land of the Blind
Kent, a suspected pedophile, gets jiggy with Clara, a blind motorcycle courier.
How to Be a Model
by Allison Beda
How to be a model is a personal story about how it feels to be a model. (ironically structured as a 12 step plan) from the perspective of an ex-model turned film maker, Allison Beda. It is made with the help of her friends. Particularly her friend Peggi LePage who is about to quit modeling, and has decided to let Allison document her last year. The film takes place in New York, Paris, London, Toronto and Vancouver. And gets 'behind the scenes' with a lot of interesting models and fashion insiders, including Jill Sukenik an ex-model turned psychotherapist who now counsels models trying to make the transition to other careers. But the heart of the film lies in the unexpected results of Allison and Peggi negotiating the fashion industry, this film and each other!
2002
Dents In the Sky
An elderly painter comes to terms with the loss of his wife when he meets a new love interest while participating in a part-time painting class at a community college.
6 Possibilities
A 35mm dance film driven by biomorphic imagery. Shaped like a fugue, it expresses themes and variations, progressing from the simple to the complex in surprising but seemingly logical ways. Filmed in Haida Gwaii and in Barcelona, it makes use of in-camera superimposition, a method in which the negative is exposed, rewound, and re-exposed to yield two or more layers of images.
Bitten
A mysterious man meets a mother and daughter with some delectable secrets of their own. Featuring award winning performers Jane MacGregor (Flower and Garnet -WIFVV Artistic Merit Award) and Babz Chula. (Best Supporting Actress for a Short Film, NY Independent Film Festival) Director Award (Short Film), Audience Award, (Short Film ) – New York International Short Film Festival
2001
The Quirk
An aspiring poet and soundscape expert comes to grips with losing his hearing in the miniaturized cosmos of Nelson Park. "The Tuning of The World", the designing of the cinematic soundscape creates a comical world of imagination. With his pompous passion for Shakespearean poetry, the Poet fancies himself as soundscape design theorist. But now, he's middle-aged and losing his hearing. A hilarious juxtaposition of sounds follows, pointed out to him by pesky Bag Lady and Vaudevillian.
Monolethea
A channel surfing trance that explores personal myth, ritual and optically printed incantations. An experimental portrait of delusion and the tragic hero, emerging from motel revelations and into the asphalt of the desert landscape in search of the ultimate cosmic experience.
1999
Wild Wind
by Adriane Polo
Wild Wind is a feature length character driven drama about two women at life’s crossroads. A lyrical tale of two women in search of destiny.