Programmed by Amy Kazymerchyk

The gestures in John Price’s films — a hazy body in the throes of a ragged dance, a child nestled in a blanket on a beach rock, or a woman in a brown trench coat and high heels tweaking out — are not for us. They have no message, no promise, and no delivery. They are the impressions of a man watching his life closely and intuitively; following each moment with a flickering shutter. Alone in the darkroom with cheap expired reels and industry tail ends, Price mixes chance with chemistry to work out the tones, tints, and grain. The images may fall off altogether, but he doesn’t care. The intimacy of the alchemical process will remain and he will remember it. The films presented in “Film Diary” touch central themes in Price’s archive: The City, The Family and The Sea. After Eden (2000) and Nine + 20 (2001)  are part urban ethnography and part excavation: the journey of a traveler in search of faith amidst a landscape of concrete and lost souls. Ten Thousand Dreams (2004) marks the birth of Price's first child and his shift to witnessing the the city and the landscape through his children's eyes. Selections from his Sea Series #1- 10 (2008-2011) map Price’s children locating their footing along the shores, spits, and bays of the Great Lakes chain.

PROGRAM

Nine+20, 16mm, 10min, 2001.
After Eden, 16mm, 30min, 2000.
Ten Thousand Dreams, 35mm,  6min, 2004.
Sea Series #5 Georgian Bay: a survey of littoral recreation, 35mm, 6min, 2010.
Sea Series #8 Landfall at Lilliput, 35mm, 4min, 2010.
Gun/Play, 35mm, 8:45min, 2006.
The Sounding Lines are Obsolete, 16mm, 10min 2009.
Sea Series #6 Landfall at Métis-sur-Mer, 35mm, 4min, 2010.

John Price is a Toronto-based Canadian independent filmmaker who has been making experimental documentaries, dance, and diary films since 1986. He has also created film projections for opera and dance, and is active as a cinematographer, working with such directors as Bruce Macdonald, Peter Lynch, Annette Mangaard, and Mike Hoolboom, among others.