{"id":5051,"date":"2012-06-12T14:32:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T18:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=3238"},"modified":"2012-06-12T14:32:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T18:32:00","slug":"packaged-goods-girls-on-film-tiff-bell-lightbox-programmer-rae-ann-fera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5051","title":{"rendered":"Packaged Goods: Girls on Film + TIFF Bell Lightbox Programmer Rae Ann Fera"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The latest installment of Packaged Goods<\/a> at the TIFF Bell Lightbox features works directed by women, with short films, TV ads, music videos and animated shorts comprising the roughly 60-70 minute programme that\u2019s become a bi-monthly series.<\/p>\n

Curated by Rae Ann Fera<\/a>, the series has featured themed programmes on gaming, interactivity, the year\u2019s best, and 3D films (not to mention the upcoming spotlight on editing<\/a>), and while some be critical of a gender-specific spotlight, there\u2019s a simpler way to approach Girls on Film: just watch them.<\/p>\n

Pretty much seconds into any production within GOF, the gender and ethnicity of a filmmaker pretty much go out the window; either the film works, or it falls flat on its face, and in none of the selections does gender matter because it\u2019s always the story, style, and message that matters. Women directors are under-represented in commercial production, but the curated samples of their work simply reinforces the quality of work that exists in all spectrums \u2013 artists just have to be considered for their skills instead of gender.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the cleverest aspect to the series is the interpolation of animated shorts among flashier components like music videos and glitzy ads, and the most memorable is Kirsten Lepore\u2019s \u201cBottle,\u201d which becomes extremely touching once \u2018bottled\u2019 cultural exchanges between anthropomorphic sand and snow figures separated by an ocean develops into a friendship, kinship, and hunger to physically meet. It\u2019s a beautifully little story, and Lepore\u2019s storytelling is carefully nuanced, gradually adding details to her characters until the moving blobs of snow and ice are almost human.<\/p>\n

Julia Pott\u2019s \u201cBelly\u201d is equally impressive for its outright surreal style, and peculiar story where a youth learns to let go of a best friend in order to rescue his brother. That\u2019s pretty much all one needs to know, since the moral tale is a metaphor for all kinds of child, teen, and adult issues with parting from someone (or some thing), be it a teddy bear, a toy, a favourite sweater, or a relationship that\u2019s holding things back.<\/p>\n

Among live action shorts, Jessica Edwards\u2019 \u201cSeltzer Works\u201d is a compact yet informative little portrait of a slow-dying business \u2013 the packaging of seltzer water \u2013 that used to be hip & common & fondly regarded until bottled fiz by soft drink companies stole the thunder (or, er, fizz). Edwards makes great use of the small factory\u2019s innards, filming a bevy of mechanical details and intercutting movement and machines with straight docu commentary by the owner of Gomberg\u2019s Seltzer Works, who describes a product once enjoyed by generations. As he amusingly quips, valve-sealed seltzer \u201cshould hurt the back of your throat,\u201d not tickle the way screw-cap soda water does.<\/p>\n

Elisha Smith-Leverock\u2019s \u201cI Want Muscles\u201d is a similarly compact portrait of female bodybuilder Kizzy Vaines<\/a>, and the camera is exclusively trained on Vaines\u2019 in a small set, with blazing red colours giving off a plastic seventies style, and a risqu\u00e9, aurally erotic end credit sequence<\/p>\n

The Onion\u2019s \u201cMissing Friend\u201d is a spoof of morning talk show crap where two teens keep digressing from pleas to their missing friend to come home to trash-talk gossip.<\/p>\n

The music videos are (naturally) clever, with OK Go\u2019s \u201cSkyscrapers\u201d comprised of two ballroom dancers (see teaser pic at top) moving through two-tone panels with matching outfits; Broken Social Scene\u2019s gory \u201cThe Sweetest Kill\u201d fixating on amputations, and writhing in rose garden topsoil after a fresh burial; Rat v. Possum\u2019s \u201cFat Monk\u201d applying Busby Berkley choreography to practical kaleidoscopic patterns and movements (with an unsubtle nod to the old 20 Minute Workout<\/a> series); Gotye\u2019s \u201cSomebody That I Used to Know\u201d using body painting to accentuate the world\u2019s worst breakup; and Breakbot\u2019s \u201cBaby I\u2019m Yours\u201d which combines rotoscoped performance footage with psychedelic colours and animation reminiscent of Ralph Bakshi and Sesame Street countdown and alphabet vignettes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The last two stars in the series of shorts (which span 1-8 minutes) are Kathryn Bigelow\u2019s \u201cSurf\u201d ad for Chanel, where a surfer comes as close as biologically possible to merging with ocean water; and HTC\u2019s ballsy ad for their new mobile phone. Titled \u201cOne, Freefall,\u201d it chronicles the filming, editing, and uploading of an ad using the phone\u2019s HD camera from the time the camera crew & cast leap from a plane and land on desert soil. The making of<\/a> Sara Dunlop\u2019s video is online, as are further details of HTC cinematographer Nick Jojola<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Packaged Goods: Girls on Film<\/a> screens Wednesday June 13th at 7pm at the TBL, and will featuring directors Yael Staav, Claire Edmondson, Aleysa Young, and Kathi Prosser for a post-screening Q&A.<\/p>\n

Part of the fun is seeing these shorts on the big screen instead of the idiot box and online, and in my podcast interview<\/a> with curator Fera, we discuss the series genesis and characteristics that make this bi-monthly showcase so unique.<\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interview with TIFF Bell Lightbox Programmer & Curator Rae Ann Fera regarding the June 17, 2012 installment of the bi-monthly series Packaged Goods: Girls on Film, featuring a collection of commercials, music videos, and animated short films directed by women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[927,1360,658],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1jt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5052,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051\/revisions\/5052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}