A Retrospective in Four Parts by Arjon Dunnewind ((Impakt Catalogue, 2003) )

Published in the Impakt Festival Catalogue on the occasion of a four part retrospective in Utrecht, Holland, 2003.

With more than forty intriguing and sometimes brilliant films behind his name, Mike Hoolboom is one of Canada’s most important filmmakers. In his films, Hoolboom at times can be a fervent agitator and other times show warm engagement. His work is animated and intelligent, and forms a pleasant oasis in the present-day production of independent film. Most of Hoolboom’s films have been constructed from archive material, home movies and fragments from feature films. By means of montage, voice-over and virtuoso application of various editing techniques, Hoolboom bends the material to his will and uses it to shape ideas around basic themes such as life and death, eroticism, civilization and memories. Other recurrent themes in Hoolboom’s films include the significance of (cinematic) images in our society, the boundaries between public and private images and the search for stories hidden in home movies, in particular. These elements lurking under the surface of the film material also play an important part in the three new films by Mike Hoolboom which will premiere at the Impakt Festival: In the Dark, Jock and Carol.