Sickness and Strength: The Golem as Diva in Chloë Lum and Yannick Desranleau’s What Do Stones Smell Like in the Forest?
“How bad must it be to be pain / instead of pain adjacent?” So asks the chorus in Chloë Lum and Yannick Desranleau’s 19-minute, two-channel video opera What Do Stones Smell Like in the Forest? This half-interested, half-mocking query sets the stage for a unique and radically affirming exploration of chronic illness. Stones, first shown […]
Feminist Anti-Psychiatry: The Other Side of Underneath
Made in 1972, Jane Arden’s The Other Side of Underneath was the only British film of the decade to be solo-directed by a woman. A boldly feminist film in its engagement with, and rejection of, the contemporary place of women in British society, the film is also unique for its take on mental illness. Arden’s […]
A Complicated Dualism: An Interview with Patricia Rozema
Patricia Rozema comes by her interest in dualism naturally. Raised in a Calvinist home in southern Ontario, religious fables — dealing in warring virtues and identities — formed the criterion of her childhood. Mindful of the efficacy of these tales, her directing career has stood in opposition to convenient symmetry. For Rozema, discord — between […]
Anne Émond: Exploring Identities Through Women’s Bodies
“What do you see when you look in the mirror? I see the scar above my lip from chicken pox, my mother’s smile and I hear my high school friend screaming out my nickname, ‘cheekbones.’ When I look in the mirror I see my crooked teeth and my hairy arms. I strain to see my […]
Laugh at the Face that Eats You: Cecelia Condit’s Possibly in Michigan
“I’m someone who’s had more dead bodies in my closet than most people.” Cecelia Condit attempts to hide the smile accompanying this enigmatic statement, disclosed during a recent screening of her video shorts featuring works spanning over 30 years. Moments later, describing her “luck” in sourcing two sisters fluent in trauma to shoot a recent […]
Single Take/Infinite Views: La Casa Muda
Gustavo Hernández’s low-budget Uruguayan horror film La Casa Muda (2011) stands out for two novelties: it’s based on real life grisly events and was made to appear as if it was shot in one continuous take. While the first has a salacious appeal, it’s the latter formal element that becomes suggestive of something far more […]