Stream Sessions from the Film Lab Gathering

In order to facilitate those who weren’t able to register or visit Toronto, we will be live-streaming the daily Community Discussion Sessions courtesy CFMDC.tv

Please follow this link to watch online: www.lift.ca/livestream

The following will be live streamed (and available for re-viewing at a future time):

FRIDAY MAY 26

Film Labs/ Introductions

11:00–13:00 EDT
Presenters: Simran Ankolkar, Tsen-Chu Hsu, Luciana Decker, Miglė Križinauskaitė-Bernotienė

In the first group discussion session of the gathering four participants will speak to the status of analogue filmmaking in the context of where they are practicing, India, Bolivia, Taiwan and Lithuania, respectively. Each presenter will share information about the initiatives they are part of and the questions they are asking as they work to develop labs. This session is meant to help us collectively understand the diversity of perspectives and experiences for participants in the gathering. After the presentations we will open the floor to all other participants interested in sharing information about their own labs and practices.

SATURDAY MAY 27

Colour Reversal
11:00 – 12:00 EDT
Presented by Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative

Colour Reversal is an analogue incubator by and for BIPOC artists, prioritizing a gender diverse cohort. This panel features five artists who participated in the hybrid lab-residency hosted by the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative in March 2022. The lab was inspired by alternative analogue spaces in so-called Canada such as Philip Hoffman’s Independent Imaging Retreat (Film Farm), Berny Hi’s Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative Film Retreat, and most especially, conversations between prairie womxn filmmakers Rhayne Vermette, Heidi Philips and Amalie Atkins about the lack of analogue incubators that worked to redress gender disparity in the medium. Colour Reversal was conceptualized by Rhayne Vermette and Hagere Selam “shimby” Zegeye-Gebrehiwot as a place for prairie artists to gather and experiment with analogue film supported by a web of art aunties/elders such as Lindsay McIntyre, David Garneau, Niki Little, Alyssa Fearon, Elder Alma Poitras and organizations from our local arts ecology. The project was made possible by the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts through a Sector Innovation Grant.

SUNDAY MAY 28

Analogue Film Festivals and The Future of Projection
12:00 – 14:00 EDT
Facilitator: Nicolas Rey

Filmmakers who are part of the Film Labs Network have access to labs that are equipped with the means to process and print film. These labs represent an important source of contemporary film material to be projected, from original reversal stocks in 8mm and super-8 all the way to combined sound prints in 16mm and 35mm. Apart from the case of filmmakers traveling to project their own material on their own equipment, this production involves the existence of a network of venues and organizations ready to show these works, with operational projection equipment and trained projectionists. Film archives and festivals willing to show heritage prints, alongside venues and organizations interested and active in keeping the knowledge and the projectors around, all share the issues about maintenance and know-how that makes this practice uncertain in the long term. Beyond the existence of the ‘filmprojection21.org’ website that has tried to survey the network of ‘those who care about photochemical film projection’ and of ‘sprocketschool.org’ as an on-line resource for projection
know-how, or the publication in 2019 of ‘The Art of Film Projection: A Beginner’s Guide’ by the George Eastman House, what concrete tools can we give ourselves to strengthen our chances to see this practice endure?

MONDAY MAY 29

Ecology and Film Panel
Time: 11:00 – 13:00 EDT
Presenters: Labodoble

This discussion session will center around the topic of ecology and film. The environmental impact of toxic chemicals used in photochemical filmmaking is front of mind for many filmmakers, especially those whose practice deals with the subject of ecology. There are a variety of ways in which filmmakers experiment with and adapt conventional photochemistry to mitigate this environmental impact. The facilitators will approach ecology as a domain of eco-systems implying multiple ecologies among which the most crucial ones would be ecology of perception, knowledge and work. Alexandra Moralesová will be joined by Phil Hoffman, Franci Duran, Robert Schaller, Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie in person, as well as Georgy Bagdasarov and Kim Knowles virtually.

TUESDAY MAY 30

Growing Membership, Growing Community
10:00 – 12:00 EDT
Facilitator: AgX Film Collective

AgX Film Collective will collaboratively lead a group discussion on the topic of growing membership and community through labs, informed by their own experience of working with students and faculty from surrounding institutions in the Boston-area. They will invite in other gathering participants to share their own experience of methods of growing a film labs community in their own cultural contexts.