August 31 2009

Monthly Reading + Discussion Group Exploring Cinema + Cinematic Practice Through Written Words

A monthly reading + discussion group, Thought on Film aims to promote critical thought around film product and practice through community-based discussion. Open to the public, Thought on Film fosters the close reading of texts confronting issues in contemporary, cutting-edge cinematic practice and philosophy.

Provoked by the presentation of Stan Douglas’s Klatsassin at the Vancouver Art Gallery [show runs until 13 September 2009], August’s meeting will feature Carol J. Clover’s essay “Her Body, Himself” taken from her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws.

Douglas’s video and photo installation “provocatively explore[s] the idea of historical record and narratives of location” by presenting a “non-linear or, what Douglas describes as a recombinant narrative of the events that initiated the so-called Chilcotin War of 1864.” Using the lens of horror cinema, Clover “explores the relationship of the ‘majority viewer’ [the younger male] to the female victim-heroes” as a way of getting at, in part, the politics of displacement. Douglas and Clover share an interest in questioning the conventional organizations of the cinematic apparatus: from complicating the idea of narrative, cinematic time and structural continuity; to muddling the idea of the lens as presenting a “mastering, voyeuristic gaze.” As a consequence, both Douglas’s Klatsassin and Clover’s interpretation of horror cinema present history/story as rendition or performance.

Experimenting with the form of reading groups and their discussions, this month’s selection will be read out loud by participants. No pre-reading required!

If you have any questions about Thought on Film, please do not hesitate to contact Programs Manager + Curator cheyanne turions at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

THOUGHT ON FILM XIX
reading Carol J. Clover’s “Her Body, Himself” from Men, Women, and Chainsaws
Cineworks [1131 Howe, back lane entrance]
31 August 2009, 6pm
Free