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Performing Arts Direction & Production

loop, print, fade + flicker

the moving images of david rimmer

by (author) Mike Hoolboom & Alex MacKenzie

Publisher
Anvil Press
Initial publish date
May 2009
Category
Direction & Production
Recommended Age
15
Recommended Grade
10
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781895636987
    Publish Date
    May 2009
    List Price
    $15

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

The Pacific Cinémathèque Monograph Series was initiated to explore the spectrum of contributions and innovations of Western Canadian filmmakers, videomakers, and fringe media artists. Monograph Number One focuses, fittingly, on David Rimmer, one of Canada's foremost experimental filmmakers.

Praise for Loop, Print, Fade + Flicker:

"There is no better way to start off Pacific Cinémathèque's Monograph Series, celebrating West Coast filmmakers, than with the work of David Rimmer. Mike Hoolboom's essay tantalizes us with a romantic myth that contextualizes David, while Alex MacKenzie's interview lets the artist speak for himself. Both offer a unique insight into the art practice of one of the most influential Canadian filmmakers of the 20th century." (Ann Marie Fleming, independent filmmaker and visual artist)

"For David Rimmer, film is a way of seeing, a way of experiencing life. And there are no two better filmmakers to take us on this journey of coming to understand Rimmer and his practice than Mike Hoolboom and Alex MacKenzie. Before there was even the awareness of a filmmaking culture in Canada, one 'more concerned with dramatics,' Rimmer was breaking the rules as they were being made. Working with film as a canvas, Rimmer's works are technical experimentations incorporating found footage, optical and contact printing and hybrid film and video forms. Like that other Economics major turned self-taught filmmaker, Guy Maddin, Rimmer is a seminal Canadian filmmaker and a must-study for any student of Canadian cinema." (Cecilia Araneda, Executive Director, Winnipeg Film Group)

"... experiencing David Rimmer is more like listening to free form jazz than it is to going to the movies.This is the artist's greatest strength, as well as his most stringent commercial constraint.

"To a large extent, Loop, Print, Fade + Flicker can most profitably be read that way as well. It is more a collection of minutely observed details and fleeting memories than it is a traditional movie monograph." (Canadian Literature)

Praise for Rimmer's work:

"The most exciting non-narrative film I've ever seen ... images become polarized into grainy outlines, like drawings in white or colored chalk which gradually disintegrate and disappear. The film [Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper] resembles a painting floating through time, its subject disappearing and re-emerging in various degrees of abstraction." (Kristina Nordstrom, The Village Voice)

About the authors

Alex Mackenzie was founder and curator of both the Blinding Light Cinema and the Vancouver Underground Film Festival. He is past editor of Workprint, 250W and contributed to a variety of publications including Take One Magazine and various gallery and festival catalogues and imprints. His media work has screened throughout Europe and North America. He is also an accomplished graphic designer, having worked with, among others, Infinity Features, the National Film Board of Canada, Tabata Productions, Omni Film, and a broad range of film publicity and music CD packaging concerns.

Mike Hoolboom's profile page

Alex Mackenzie was founder and curator of both the Blinding Light Cinema and the Vancouver Underground Film Festival. He is past editor of Workprint, 250W and contributed to a variety of publications including Take One Magazine and various gallery and festival catalogues and imprints. His media work has screened throughout Europe and North America. He is also an accomplished graphic designer, having worked with, among others, Infinity Features, the National Film Board of Canada, Tabata Productions, Omni Film, and a broad range of film publicity and music CD packaging concerns.

Alex MacKenzie's profile page

Librarian Reviews

loop, print, fade + flicker: David Rimmer’s Moving Images

This brief introduction to the career and thinking of Vancouver filmmaker David Rimmer includes an essay by filmmaker Mike Hoolboom and an extended interview with media artist Alex MacKenzie. The essay provides critical responses to some of his most important work (Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper, Migration and Canadian Pacific) and outlines his education and career. Rimmer explains how his technical skills evolved from his eclectic interests and the needs of particular projects. The book includes an extensive filmography and videography of Rimmer’s work.

This is the first in a series on Western Canadian filmmakers, videomakers and media artists put out by Pacific Cinémathèque.

Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2009-2010.