Toronto International Film Festival (aka tiff.), being one of the biggest cinema events worldwide and one of the most attractive industry meeting places, annually presents to us a wide selection of recent works of know as well as newly discovered names. Many of those have been viewed and reviewed by MMM as well. While we are waiting for the next edition of the festival, TIFF continues, introducing us to a retrospective of multiple artists from around the world throughout the year as well. This time TIFF presents the complete retrospective of the film works of Canadian avant-garde Michael Snow, titled WYSIWYG: The Films of Michael Snow, which opens on January 31st with the artist in attendance at many of the screenings. Snow is considered one of the most influential experimental filmmakers and is the subject of retrospectives in many countries. The artist also works in the spheres of painting, sculpture and music! Being a jazz musician and especially interested in improvisations, he has played a number of concerts worldwide, both – solo and with other musicians, released a number of albums, as well as known for his soundtrack for his own film ‘New York Eye and Ear Control’, which is also included in the retrospective program.
A few more words about collaboration between TIFF & Snow: five of the films by the artist have premiered at the festival, as well as he was one of the commissioned filmmakers to create shorts for the 25th anniversary of TIFF in 2000. This retrospective is a great opportunity for those who enjoy seeing a rare art from an artist like Michael Snow. Within the framework of Michael Snow’s retrospective at TIFF Bell Light Box, five programs are planned. The full schedule can be found below:
· Prog. 1 Saturday, January 31 at 1:00pm (Free)
1. Snow in Vienna –documents a rare solo piano concert by Michael Snow at Vienna’s Wiener Konzerhaus in 2012
2. Wavelength – Michael Snow’s groundbreaking avant-garde classic was hailed as “The Birth of a Nation of Underground Films.” Michael
Snow’s Wavelength consists of a single, fitful zoom across his New York loft space.
· Prog 2. February 21 at 1:00 PM (Free)
1. Reverberlin– Snow creates a hypnotic visual collage to accompany the audio recording of a 2002 performance by his free music collective, CCMC
2. New York Eye and Ear Control – Snow’s first long film is the ‘Summer of The Walking Woman,’ a series that the artist had worked on since 1961.
· Prog. 3. Thursday, March 12 at 6:30 PM (Free)
1. Back and Forth – an exploration of interior space and the particulars of camera movement.
2. Breakfast (Table Top Dolly) – Michael Snow`s wryly humorous, and subtly unsettling short,which illustrates the potential violence innate to the film camera.
· Prog 4. April 23 at 6:30 OM (Free)
· La Région Centrale – Michael Snow`s tour de force is a meditation of the purity of vision, landscape, and movement.
· Prog 5. May 17 at 1:00 PM (Free)
1. Dripping Water – Snow, and his then wife, Joyce Wieland, create a disjunctive audiovisual experience using only the sink in their NYS loft.
2. One Second in Montreal- with temporal variations creates a push/pull between duration and observation in this clever minimalist short.
3. See You Later – Au Revoir – a simple ten-second action film becomes a walking reverie as it is slowed down and elongated to a quarter of an hour.