To A Summer When..
Early Monthly Segments celebrates its 100th screening—and the last in its monthly residence at the Gladstone Hotel—with a screening of the 8mm films of Tom Mitchell (shown digitally). A regular audience member at EMS over the years, Tom has been quietly working away on a beautiful body of work that we’re happy to show together for the first time (including a few films finished just for this program). Tom shot the majority of these films during the 1970s, freshly inspired by his initial exposure to the films of Kenneth Anger, David Larcher, Malcolm Le Grice and Michael Snow as a young Art College student in England. Changing technologies after a thirty-year career in various casinos delayed the completion of these projects, but Tom has been able to return to his original footage in the last few years to create meticulously edited films that combine the energy of youth with the wisdom of age and a committed affinity with rock and roll.
“I had thought that my 8mm celluloid had become obsolete technology until I discovered LIFT, with whose help I have been able to finish off some of what I started. I had labeled myself an ‘Experimental Filmmaker’, but as the ‘experiments’ are in the cutting-room bin, I now defer to my found language, the language of painting: ‘old master’ values have become my default visuals; composition, balance, colour harmony, focal interest points, structure – the criteria that make for accomplished paintings.
The visual language is not necessarily easy: like poetry, it strives for the ceilings of comprehension and feeling. Once in a while, I think I get close.”—Tom Mitchell
Programme:
New York Postcard, Tom Mitchell, UK/Canada, 1978/2017, Super 8 edited digitally, 5 min.
There & Back, Tom Mitchell, UK/Canada, 1977/2017, Super 8 edited digitally, 4 min.
Town Market, Tom Mitchell, UK/Canada, 1977/2016, Super 8 edited digitally, 3.5 min.
Clouds Over Dundry Hill, Tom Mitchell, UK/Canada, 1982/2016, Super 8 edited digitally, 4 min.
Front Room, Tom Mitchell, UK/Canada, 1975/2011, Regular 8 edited digitally, 3 min.
To A Summer When…, Tom Mitchell, UK/Canada, 1974/2010, Regular 8 edited digitally, 8 min.
Home Town, Tom Mitchell, UK/Canada, 1974/2017, Regular 8 edited digitally, 8.5 min.
Summer, Tom Mitchell, Canada, 2016, MiniDV, 3 min.
@ Gladstone Hotel, Ballroom, 1214 Queen Street West
Monday, November 13, 2017 | 8:00 PM screening | $5-10 suggested donation
After tonight, EMS will become a more occasional series. Keep your eyes out for future events.