‘The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers.’ – Man Ray

Welcome to the world of fringe movies. Here, artists have been busy putting queer shoulders to the wheels, or bending light to talk about First Nations rights (and making it funny, to boot), or demonstrating how a personality can be taken apart and put back together, all during a ten-minute movie which might take years to make.

In Practical Dreamers, twenty-seven artists dish about how they get it done and why it matters. The conversations are personal, up close and jargon free, smart without smarting.

Mike Hoolboom talks footage recycling with Alessa Cohene (Supposed To) and Jubal Brown (Life Is Pornography); investigates the documentaries of Donigan Cumming (My Dinner With Weegee); looks at the Middle East with Jayce Salloum (This Is Not Beirut); discusses identity with queer Asian avatars Richard Fung (Dirty Laundry), Midi Onodera (The Displaced View) and Ho Tam (The Yellow Pages), and First Nations vets Kent Monkman (Blood River) and Shelley Niro (Honey Moccasin); and addresses the visions of Peter Mettler (Gambling, Gods and LSD).

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