containR is a street installation at the nexus of video, public art and urban design, sitting at the cross roads of mountain and urban culture, art and sports cinema, embracing public art and sustainable design. By using reconditioned shipping containers integrating alternative energy sources, the installation references Vancouver’s rich history as a major port as well as a centre for green design.

containR opens at the SHAW Tower Court Yard (Thurlow/Cordova) in downtown Vancouver, February 12 through 28, 2010. containR is free and open to the general public from Noon - 7PM daily, with looped programming during open hours and live performances on the 27-28th. containR is an independent project presented by Springboard in partnership with Arts Partners in Creative Development, Bravo!FACT/CTV, Cineworks, SHAW, Host a City Happening Project, BCAC Unique Opportunities Grant, and EMMEDIA Gallery & Production Society.

The following films are included:

Paper Shredders | 4:00 min | 2008 | Canada

Director: Dave Mossop & Rocky Mountain Sherpa Productions

Paper Shredders is a live action and animated visual adventure exploring the links between skiing, snowboarding and their water and dry land compatriots. Beautiful videography is interspersed with animation telling the story of one individual’s daydream of the mountains.

The Holy Mountain | 2:55 min | 1926 | Germany

Director: Arnold Fanck

The Holy Mountain was shot at the Atelier Staaken studio in Berlin, Germany, and on mountain locations in Switzerland. Segments chosen for containR are an incredible study of snow jumping and skiing as practiced in 1926. The film was reconstructed in 2001 from two prints held by Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv and by Fondazione Cineteca Italiana.

Snowboarders | 2:36 min | 2009 | France

Director: David Coiffier

Dave Chappelle once remarked that hip-hop videos only looked good because they were shot in super slow motion. As the following video proves however, this statement holds true not only for jiggling breasts and spinning rims but for snowboarders as well. These images were shot with an I-Movix Sprintcam v1 for the experts. It’s mainly shot at 1000 frames per-second which gives both a myopic and poetic perspective to all the tricks in the pipe and the quarter.

Muybridge Piece | 0:50 min | 2008 | Israel

Video Director: Lavi Perchik | Archival photos: Eadweard Muybridge

Expressing music visually, the idea was to "paint" elements of Muybridge’s photographic sequences of human actions as if they were palettes of colors. Associatively matching Muybridge to music was a process akin to choosing the right tint of a color when painting. The notes in the music are generally played in a detached and distinctly separate manner, an articulation known as "staccato," just as Muybridge separates the flow of the human motion into distinct still images.

Olympia | 4:54 min | 1938 | Germany

Director: Leni Riefenstahl

Commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, Olympia was the first documentary film on the Olympic Games ever made. Controversial filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, who had made the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will in 1934-35, created Olympia. Many advanced motion picture techniques, which were groundbreaking at the time, were employed, including unusual camera angles, smash cuts and extreme close-ups. These techniques later became industry standard. The film techniques employed are almost universally admired, but the film is controversial due to its political content.

All in All | 5:00 min | 2003 | Norway

Director & Editor: Torbjørn Skårild

A man dives from a diving board. Through the use of rhythmic cuts, edits, sounds, and constantly changing perspectives, this video builds an almost cubist refraction of the simple act of diving into a pool of water. Gravity defied, a well-worn metaphor for freedom and joy, here the attempt itself the goal of the game. Beyond winning and losing, rhythm communicates and hypnotizes, like music, an abstract joy of repetition. And what danger lies below the surface if such weightlessness is achieved? Any kid can fly, few can land.

Beguine | 4:44 min | 2009 | The Netherlands

Directors: Douwe Dijkstra & Festina Lente Media

This cleverly animated and live action short is a music video of the song "Beguine," performed by electroacoustic, post-punk Dutch band, de Kift. Beguine journeys inward to explore the realm of quiet desperation thinly veiled by self-delusion, alcohol and a smile. Made by Festina Lente Media and Douwe Dijkstra. Based on a poem by Giza Ritschl (1869 - 1942).

A Day at the Office: The Runner | 3:58 min | 2006 | Canada

Director: Robert DeLeskie | Choreographers: David Danzon & Sylvie Bouchard

A day at the office. Five workers. Five fantasies. One incredible day at work. The secret fears, aspirations, and desires of five office workers take wing in flights of fancy during the course of a typical workday with humorous and poignant results. By the time 5 o’clock rolls around, nothing will ever be the same.

Her Morning Elegance | 3:35 min | 2009 | Israel/Berlin/NY

Director: Oren Lavie

Oren Lavie is a songwriter, director, and writer of funny books for sad children. Her Morning Elegance is a delightful exploration of movement captured via fragmented moments in time. The video animates the fantastic dream of a sleeping woman without ever leaving her bedroom, using her mattress as the canvas of the dream and the bed frame as the dolly of her journey.

Over 3,225 photographed still images are patched together through the visionary process of frame by frame animation. Her Morning Elegance is a YouTube sensation, with over 10 million viewers having seen it.

Advance | 2:00 min | 2009 | USA

Director: Mitchell Rose

Choreographers and Performers: Ashley Roland & Jamey Hampton

One dance. Two minutes. Fifty locations. Mitchell Rose is an American director of short films known for comedic work. He began his career as a choreographer and performance artist and became known as "the dance world's Woody Allen,” after being so dubbed by The New York Times. He then migrated to film and his works have won numerous awards. Music for Advance is by William Goodrum.

As I was Leaving My City | 3:30 min | 2007 | Iran

Director: Amirali Navaee

How does challenging political climate impact creativity? Navaee explores the pull between personal freedoms and cultural limitation. Is the lower half of a dancing man leaving his beloved city an objectification or personalization of the compromises made? He travels in the opposite direction of an arrow indicating that ‘heaven’ is the other way: follow his path as he dances out his answer.

Montevideoaki | 5:08 min | 2004 | Mexico/Spain/Uruguay/Japan

Director: Octavio Iturbe | Choreographer & Performer: Hiroaki Umeda

Against the dramatic city backdrop of Montevideo, Uruguay, Hiroaki Umeda’s fluid and subtle solo flickers against the hard lines of the buildings. A study of the human body in the urban landscape. The piece is based on Umeda’s solo for the stage While Going To a Condition. Octavio Iturbe, a Spain-based director and editor, is particularly known to the world audiences by his collaboration with Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus on the film Roseland.

Crutch | 4:00 min | 2006 | USA

Co-Directors: Sachi Cunningham & Chandler Evans

Choreographer & Performer: Bill Shannon

For eight years, filmmakers Sachi Cunningham and Chandler Evans followed Bill Shannon (aka Crutch Master) across the US and around the globe to record the story of his rise from an obscure street artist to an internationally acclaimed performer, choreographer and provocateur.

With over 300 hours of original footage, the filmmakers unravel a complex narrative about an ambiguously disabled, multi-disciplinary artist who defies both definition and gravity. This four-minute film represents a brief and inspiring glimpse into the mind-altering world of Crutch.

Skaterdater | 2:45 min | 1965 | USA

Director: Noel Black

An award-winning visual essay, Skaterdater is an early example of the skateboard movement and how it entered popular culture. This opening sequence excerpt from the longer, eighteen-minute film is an example of how sport can be re-imagined in media with visual flow and style. Academy Award Nominee - Live Action Short.

Human Skateboard | 0:32 min | 2008 | USA

Director: Michel Gondry - PES

Human Skateboard is a dynamic example of the collision of art and advertising. In this advertisement for Sneax skate shoes, rider and skateboard perform flips, jumps and acrobatics. In Human Skateboard, PES uses a process of pixilation where the human form is used as a stop motion prop. By highlighting the speed and the impact of the ride on the body, the viewer is given an impression of the effects of g-forces, the grind of the road surfaces, revealing both the danger and the exhilaration of the ride.

Ghost | 3:18 min | 2009 | Canada

Director, Choreographer & Editor: Patricia Kim

Inspired by urban culture, technology and martial arts, Ghost contrasts the human and the machine.  A contemporary dance film featuring one male dancer (Leif Nygaard), Ghost experiments with light and shadow, following one man’s struggle and determination to express the inexpressible that resides within us all.

Flow | 4:00 min | 2009 | The Netherlands

Director: Ruben Broekhuis

Flow depicts the art of free running against the backdrop of architectonic Rotterdam. Three free runners roam the deserted city with casual acrobatics to the rhythm of a rustic soundtrack.

SUBWAYS: 5 Variations on a Theme by Rilke | 11:30 min | 2006 | Canada

Director: Daniel Conrad | Choreographer: Crystal Pite

Filmed in the vast, exquisite subways of Prague and choreographed by Crystal Pite, Subways is based on a poem by Rilke about a caged panther at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. With performances by Canadian and Czech dancers, the film conjures a world of humans trapped underground, organizing and reorganizing in response to captivity.

Papiroflexia | 2:30 min | 2007 | USA

Director & Animator: Joaquin Baldwin

Papiroflexia (Spanish for ‘Origami’) is an origami tale of a skilful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands. Fred is a chubby man with a passion for paper folding, wanting to change the world with his art. Papiroflexia was originally written as a poem by Joaquin Baldwin, and later developed into an animated film at the UCLA Animation Workshop, with music by Nick Fevola.

Evelyn’s Farm | 8:10 min | 2009 | Canada

Director: Brian Johnson | Choreographers & Performers: Katy Harris-McLeod & Mara Branscombe - The Tomorrow Collective

Evelyn’s Farm is a dance film that explores distance, time, repetition, environment and human connection. The two female characters repeat sequences of movement in the stark landscape of a theatre, a vast open field framed by low mountains and a muddy river. Evelyn’s Farm lets the moving body be the story-teller and demonstrates the connection and separation between two individuals.

Slacklining | 2:15 min | 2005 | UK

Director & Producer: Posing Productions

Brace yourself for some mind-bending cinematography as Timmy O’Neil gets on the highwire – with footage taken from Return2Sender. Cutting edge on site rock climbing, spectacular high-wire slack lining, crazy B.A.S.E. jumping, expedition adventures and a climbing dog, this has the lot.

‘One of the best climbing films ever made.’ – Rock & Ice Magazine

Newton’s 3^rd | 3:00 min | 2008 | The Netherlands

Director: Bas Hesen

A short puppet-play between a dancer and a machine. But who is actually in control?

An animated short film that explores the teetering relationship between dance and heights.

Dust & Bones | 3:23 min | 2009 | USA

Producer: Freeride Entertainment

Dust & Bones is the final chapter in the epic saga known as New World Disorder. You’ll witness the ultimate throw down segment by Darren Berrecloth, unbelievable back flip combinations from Greg Watts and the new school styles of Graham Agassiz. Follow the Clump, Stumps and Jumps Tour as they jam the west coast and entertain a Giants baseball game from the Hell Barge in San Francisco Bay. Pile in the rest of the top freeriders, dirt jumpers and slopestylers and this world-class film will have you reeling.

Edison Motion Pictures: Bicycle Trick Riding no. 2 | 1:00 min | 1899 | USA

& Sandow | 1:16 min | 1899 | USA

Director: Thomas Edison

"I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion...." --Thomas A. Edison, 1888. These shorts are examples of the most common form of early filmmaking called ‘actualities,’ which are short non-fiction films. After the initial ten-year heyday of actualities, Edison and his contemporaries moved on to drama and comedy.

Innocence On Ice | 2:51 min | 2004 | Canada

Director: Astra Burke

A tribute to the movement and talent of figure skater Petra Burka, this short uses 1960s footage and original music inspired by the performance to create a moving design, etched on ice.

Innocence on Ice premièred at the Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video 2004, where it received an Honourable Mention for direction. “Using minimal resources, this film managed to recreate the innocence of sport from a very different time.” -Astra Burke

Figures | 3:00 min | 2010 | Canada | containR commission

Director: Miryam Bouchard

Commissioned by Springboard, Bravo!FACT, Cineworks and Arts Partners in Creative Development for containR 2010. Upon hearing about figure skating, my first thought was about ice. Water turned ice, water moving, flowing like the skater. It can be gracious and powerful. Before turning to ice, the water is alive. Before skating, the athlete puts on its uniform – it’s that moment that fascinates - the last intimate moment before a public performance.

Horses Never Lie | 4:48 min | 2003 | Canada

Director: Kathi Prosser | Choreographer & Performer: Caroline Richardson

Performer Caroline Richardson spent a year healing her back lying on the back of her horse. This sensual film delves into mythic concepts of metamorphosis as Richardson portrays the restless spirit of a horse trapped within a stable: fear - a personal journey inward; recovery - weakness becomes strength; and strength - the boundless reward of confronting and conquering fear. Winner of the 2003 American Choreography Award (Los Angeles).

Bataille de boules de neige | 0:50 min | 1896 | France

Director:  Louis Lumière

Louis (and brother Auguste) Lumière are credited with the world's first public film screening on December 28, 1895. The Lumière brothers are noted pioneers of both technical and creative attributes of the moving image, primarily taking scenes form everyday life. Bataille de boules de neige, shot in Lyon, is but one example of over 1,425 short films that the brothers produced, now considered seminal precursors to documentary filmmaking.

Sit On It | 5:39 min | 2010 | Canada | containR commission

Directors: Murray Siple & Christian Begin

Commissioned by Springboard, Bravo!FACT, Cineworks and Arts Partners in Creative Development for containR 2010. Sit On It features Canadian sit ski champion Josh Duek, the World Champion paralympic sit skier as he puts everything he is into winning gold at the 2010 Winter Paralympics. Filmmakers Siple and Begin capture the unbelievable speed and intensity of an athlete at the pinnacle of his ability. Sit On It reveals sit skiing in all it’s heart stopping velocity and awe inspiring technique, as the truly extreme sport that it is. Clocked at speeds reaching 120 kilometres an hour, it's Josh's confidence, courage, and fearless dedication to his sport that not only delivers the message of what is possible regardless of disability but powerfully demonstrates the true power of the Olympic spirit.

 “The only difference between possible and impossible is one’s attitude.” –Josh Dueck

Land | 3:44 min | 2007 | Canada

Director: Freya Olafson

Land is part of the New Icelander series, drawing parallels between cross-cultural experience of 19^th century ancestors with Olafson’s present-day identity; manipulating visual imagery and stories within this ‘saga.’  Land explores her ancestor’s settlement, Nes, along the Icelandic River in Manitoba. Nes became an unmarked graveyard for over 80 Icelanders who died of smallpox within the first years of settlement (1875-76). Upon a personal visit in 2006, Olafson was surprised to have direct encounters with unearthed graves and bones - gradually being dragged to the basin of the river. The imagery in Land is a result of this serendipitous connection with history resurfacing both symbolically and literally.

See What I See | 4:25 min | 2008 | Canada

Director: Runway Films

Runway Films is a snowboard video production company, rider-driven by the most influential female snowboarders in the world. With the momentum that the female snowboarding market has right now, Vancouver-based Runway Films was created to reach audiences internationally both in and out of the action sports industry.

Rugby & Jelly | 2:55 min | 2009 | France

Director: David Coiffier

Dave Chappelle once remarked that hip-hop videos only looked good because they were shot in super slow motion. As the following video proves however, this statement holds true not only for jiggling breasts and spinning rims but for bouncing jelly shots and sporting events as well. These images were shot during the 2008 O’Neill Evolution in Davos with an I-Movix Sprintcam v1 for the experts. It’s mainly shot at 1000 frames per-second which gives both a myopic and poetic perspective to the match.

Falling | 5:54 min | 2010 | Canada | containR commission

Directors: Marlene Millar & Philip Szporer

Choreographer & Performer: Jeff Hall

Commissioned by Springboard, Bravo!FACT, Cineworks, Main Film and Arts Partners in Creative Development for containR 2010. Based on the true events of Jeff Hall’s journey after taking a life changing fall that left him unable to walk, and his subsequent fight to regain his physicality, Falling gives us a peek into the emotion, the struggle and the pure intent of focus that can bring a man back from such an event. Yet it cannot help but its leave its mark, the man is indelibly changed, and the story is forever written in the body. The film celebrates this history of the body, the challenge of losing then re-finding movement, and the subversive, absurd and sometimes tragic ways physicality weaves itself through our lives.

Jeff Hall is a Canadian contemporary choreographer known for blending spectacular athleticism with artistic eclecticism and bringing humor, dialogue, and physical performance together on stage.

Outside In | 14:10 min | 1993 | UK

Director: Margaret Williams | Choreographer: Victoria Marks

Outside In is an unusual kind of journey along tracks and pathways both real and imaginary. It is a voyage of discovery and surprises; a witty and affectionate exploration of physicality, identity and movement that transforms our understanding of dance. Featuring the Candoco Dance Company.

Drop ‘till you Shop: Freestyle Bowling | 4:53 min | 2008 | Canada

Directors: Frédérick Pelletier & Olivier Tétreault

This playful Bravo!FACT film features the antics of Montréal-based dance group, Les 7 Doigts de la Main, as they move in without announcement and take over a bowling alley. In amidst the performance of incredible acrobatics with bowling balls, very passable bowling seems to take place, winning over even the purists in the alley’s patrons. 

Girls Fencing Practice in Croatia | 1:06 min | 1944 | Croatia

Director Unknown

Historical footage of unknown origin depicting the ‘rigor’ of fencing classes for women in 1944. A beautiful and unintentional choreography unfolds within every movement, duplicated tenfold by the class as they prepare and fence in incidental synchronization. 

Gold Diggers of 1933: Pettin’ in the Park | 1:11 min | 1932  | USA

Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Choreographer: Busby Berkeley

Busby Berkeley is one of the founders of dancefilm, with his elaborately choreographed sequences for dancers that are found in many of the big Hollywood studio films from the 1930s and 1940s. He was particularly famous for his overhead ‘kaleidoscope’ effect, seen in this excerpt from ‘Pettin’ in the Park,’ a song and dance number featuring a snowball fight. Gold Diggers of 1933 is one of the best showcases of his outrageously lavish choreography, seemingly endless chorus lines, fluid camera work and dizzying overhead compositions.

Hockey T’Nite | 2:12 min | 2010 | Canada | containR commission

Director: Mark Adam

Commissioned by Springboard, Bravo!FACT, Cineworks and Arts Partners in Creative Development for containR 2010. Hockey T’Nite presents an immaculately shot, ‘first person’ perspective of the world of Hockey as seen from the ice. This community-based boys’ hockey league is treated by the camera reminiscent of vintage broadcasts of ‘Hockey Night in Canada.’

Supermundane | 3:31 min | 2010 | Canada | containR commission

Director: Kathleen Smith

Commissioned by Springboard, Bravo!FACT, Cineworks and Arts Partners in Creative Development for containR 2010. This brief film is a meditation on the mundane, repetitive aspects of training the body and one woman’s drive to transcend the mundane and achieve perfection. The perfect moment, the perfect line, the perfect run – it’s all in a day’s work. It was shot in the Rocky Mountains near Lake Louise.

Snow | 8:00 min | 2003 | UK

Director: David Hinton in collaboration with Rosemary Lee

Archival footage of winter antics from the 1890s to the 1960s is cut and re-combined to create a rhythmic choreography of gesture and action, on the slippery sidewalks and slopes of a bygone era. Originally commissioned by Arts Council England, the BBC and NPS for the last Dance for the Camera series, the film is created from fragments of black and white archive footage from the 1890s to 1960s of ordinary people moving on the snow or ice.

Edison Motion Pictures: Hockey Match on the Ice | 0:36 min | 1898 | USA

Director: Thomas Edison

"I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear, which is the recording and reproduction of things in motion..." --Thomas A. Edison, 1888. These shorts are examples of the most common form of early filmmaking called ‘actualities,’ which are short non-fiction films. After the initial ten-year heyday of actualities, Edison and his contemporaries moved on to drama and comedy.

The Sweater | 10:21 min | 1980 | Canada

Director: Sheldon Cohen

In the 1940s, in the rural village of Saint Justine, Quebec, listening to the hockey game on the radio was a Saturday night tradition... and so was rooting for the Montreal Canadiens. The boy in the story outgrows his hockey sweater, so his mother writes to ‘Mr. Eaton’ for a new one. But instead of the coveted red, white and blue of Les Canadiens, the company sends a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey.

Flame | 4:00 min | 2010 | Canada

Director: John Bolton

A unique collaboration between athletes, musicians and film artists, Flame is a classical music hockey film by John Bolton, based on the composition ‘Flame’ by composer Jordan Nobles, as performed by the Turning Point Ensemble, and featuring the 2009-2010 University of British Columbia Women’s Hockey Team.

Limited Ice Time | 1:07 min | 2009 | USA

Icing the Puck | 1:30 min | 2009 | USA

Director: Mike Conti

Mike Conti straps on his shoulder pads, tightens up his laces and prepares for the game of his life. Teammates nowhere in sight, coach gone AWOL, this solitary player insists on a game whether he's skating the biggest ice in the land or he's bringing his own. Just one more slapshot, ice time is at a premium in this land where the clock runs on glacial time. These short videos undermine the myths of both Alaska and the Sports Hero. The player’s choice of venue makes no sense, and like Buster Keaton he strives against the impossible to sad and comic results.

The Competitionist | 0:45 min | 2003 | USA

Lee Walton

Lee Walton spends an afternoon at the track and competes with the locals. Often regarded as an Experientialist, Walton’s work takes many forms- from drawings on paper, game/system based structures, video, web-based performances, public projects, theatrical orchestrations and more.

See more information about the project here: www.containr.com

Cineworks is excited to support Safe Assembly 2010, in collaboration with VIVO Media Arts.

Since 1973, VIVO Media Arts Centre (aka Video In, aka Satellite Video Exchange) has facilitated an archive of dissent. Providing a space for dialogue and community building is the core of our ambition. In order to preserve our history as a place for artists to engage in a culture of critical action, VIVO has chosen not to participate in the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. We intend to use the clarity of our position outside of this spectacle to operate as a hub for analysis, skill sharing, production, and collaboration. We want to create a space for artists to consider their own production in relation to the events and systems around them. The forms this questioning will take are speculative. For some this will involve bearing witness with camera or microphone, for others it will be a period of digestion, a time to observe, create questions, and build an understanding. We look forward to asking how might we act politically? Given the polemical nature of this time, how do we move beyond didacticism, to produce new thought and action? For others who have always taken the open, subtlety of art for granted, we look to precedents, to those who have not shied from the term political artist. We can use this moment to examine the tropes of the past, and produce a solidarity that branches into personal practice or opens to produce new forms of collaboration.

While the Olympics clothe aggressive urban restructuring with a party, privileging an atmosphere of celebration over adverse political-economic effects upon local communities, we want to engage the cultural logic that justifies its continued development despite grave social costs. The power of artistic discourse to intervene in this process—registering dissent, producing new forms of protest, and amplifying its meaning—is its use value. Art opens thought, complicates the official story, and articulates a lineage of solidarity — it functions as both a force of heterogeneity and lasting register of political impressions. Long after the event is over, cultural expressions continue to emerge, as markers of the time, and reflections of individual and collective experience. We might challenge the old antagonisms and use the energy of this moment to facilitate a new start, simultaneously building a community to produce this shift.

AFTERNOON SCHOOL consists of both planned and spontaneous seminars, with examples of skill sharing, media activism, screenings from the Video Out archive with its rich history of protest in Vancouver, and discussions using critical theory and contemporary art to produce a counter-public. Click here for more information.

The EVENING NEWS is a series of discussions and presentations that will include a forum for participants and audience members to show highlights and ephemera from what they have gathered throughout the day. These presentations will contribute to a larger conversation and archive around the cultural meaning and social impact of the Olympics. Click here for more information.

We will be operating a RADIO transmitter during the last two weeks of February. Our signal will also be streaming online. Our range will be humble, and thus situated.

The SOCIAL PROPAGANDA MIXING MACHINE is an open call for participants to create sound or image propaganda. Click here for more information.

COVERING UP will be a street action photo/video-documentation project.

We also invite people to collaborate with our performance troupe, THE WHITE PILLOWS, to create responses to the day-to-day tensions of the event and site-specific performances that deal with public presence.

SAFE ASSEMBLY 2010 intends to facilitate cultural expressions that arise from the community in a lineage of solidarity. If you are interested in participating please come visit us this month.

SAFE ASSEMBLY
12-28 February 2010
VIVO Media Arts Centre [1965 Main Street]
Free