Guest Speakers
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der KolkStuck in the Past When he returned for his appointment, I eagerly asked Tom how the sleeping pills had worked. He told me he hadn’t taken them. Trying to conceal my irritation I asked him why. “I realized that if … Continue reading
Curator
Jorge Lozano: Reports (Ottawa, 2018)Café Ex, Ottawa, June 21, 2018 Screening and book launch of the new Canadian Film Institute/Pleasure Dome publication Jorge Lozano Reports, edited by Mike Hoolboom, designed by Alexandra Gelis, with contributions by many luminous writers. Discontinuity 5:08 minutes 2017 A … Continue reading
Interviews
Enemies Into Music: an interview with Jamie Dunn (April 2018)Enemies Into Music: an interview with Jamie Dunn (The Skinny, April 2018) Jamie: How did you go about choosing your four subjects for Aftermath? Mike: Each one is an artist, and each has a special relation to illness and mortality. … Continue reading
Books
Jorge Lozano Reports (2018)Check out the beautiful volume, designed by Alexandra Gelis, here. Published by Canadian Film Institute and Pleasure Dome in 2018. Contents Introduction 12 1970s Theatre of It by Jorge Lozano 16 EVENT 1 by John Greyson 18 1980s Untitled by … Continue reading
On Artists
Dennis DayGetting It: an interview with Dennis Day (2013) Mike: You’ve been at work in the video fields for so long, watching its many forms and incarnations. It’s hard to imagine that video was once rare, with expensive, difficult-to-use machines requiring … Continue reading
On Artists
Amanda Dawn ChristieFallen Flags: an interview with Amanda Dawn Christie (2010) Mike: Can you tell me about Helen Hill? Amanda: I met Helen Hill shortly after moving to the big city (Halifax is the big city for anyone growing up in the … Continue reading
Curator
Frances Leeming (Toronto, 2018)The Orientation Express by Frances Leeming Eyeblink: Smash the Patriarchy (Younger Than Beyoncé Gallery, Pleasure Dome, Gardiner) Gardiner Museum, Toronto, May 18, 2018 Let’s begin with a distinction too crude to be true. There are two kinds of artists. The … Continue reading
On Artists
Elida SchogtSilent Songs: an interview with Elida Schogt (2013) Mike: Your earliest work in film seemed already fully formed, and arrived as a trilogy of personal Holocaust tales, strained through the family. Can you talk about what led you to pick … Continue reading
Essays
The Right Question (June 2018)After the endless hand-twisting debates around race in Canada’s artist movie portals – in production co-ops, in distribution joints, in cinematheques and fests – why are they still so very white? This was a question posed at an official gathering … Continue reading
On Artists
Ali KazimiShooting Indians: An interview with Ali Kazimi (2010) Mike: What role did film play in your formative years? Ali: My father was the General Manager for Kodak’s New Delhi operations, so I grew up in a middle class, largely English-speaking … Continue reading
