Last weekend I attended an evening of events at Video In Studios, here in Vancouver, for the annual Signal + Noise Festival. Included in admission were installations with live performance, video projections and audio works. I found one of the strongest pieces included a multi-projection on fabric concerning car accidents. A good use of availble space, and tires to augment the finished piece.

I sat in on a few audio pieces which were mixed live with a surround sound of eight speakers. The experimental audio pieces were only fair in quality, as it was pointed out by my musician companion, the artists used mostly stock sound from identifiable audio programs. This to me is the audio version of using stock filters in Photoshop which any person familiar with the program will easily identify. It smacks of either lack of creativity or sheer laziness. Unfortunate.

The annual festival of Signal + Noise is held once a year at Video In Studios and receives thousands of submissions from around the globe. The event usually takes place over three days, this year encompassing April 27 - 29, 2006.

Now a regular monthly event by Vancouver's Cue Up Collective, CUE UP is an evening of open screenings, guest talks and socializing. Producers of video/film and new media are invited to bring finished or work in progress, no longer than 15 min., on Mini DV, VHS or DVD for presentation in an informal setting. Work is accepted on a first come first serve basis at 8:00 pm, with screenings starting at 8:30pm at Video In Studios, 1965 Main Street. There are no artist fees and the general public is encouraged to attend. Socializing follows screenings.

Thursday, April 20, 2006
No theme or guest this month ONLY
Location:: Video In Studios, 1965 Main St.
Submissions 8:00pm and screenings 8:30pm
Socializing to follow
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For more information about Cue Up please email:
cueup@videoinstudios.com
or visit our forum at http://www.videoinstudios.com/cueup/

Received confirmation from Sweden about "Film9," the upcoming group video show I'm in for Jan 14 to Feb. 12 at the Arbetets Museum in Norrkoping concerning works having to do with identity by women artists from nine+ countries. If I didn't have to start school Tuesday I would have sent off an application for a travel grant to make it to the show opening in a couple of weeks. That would have been nice as it's only one and a half hours south of Stockholm and I could have seen a friend of mine. The museum where the show is taking place looks pretty cool as I think it used to be a textiles factory at one time. According to the website, the vast majority of the other women in the show are from Estonia, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Norway and Denmark. I'm the only one from Canada.

Can anything else be said about WWII to enlighten a new generation? I think so, with two new movies I recently rented at the local video store, "Downfall" and "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary."

There is a particular fascination with Adolf Hitler's life and final time spent in a bunker in Germany, which is the basis of an Academy Award Nominated movie called "Downfall," 2004. The details of what happened in the final days of April 1945 in the bunker were based on interviews with sole survivor, Traudl Junge, Hilter's young secretary. This detailed account of parties, marriage, infanticide and defiance is laid out in a step by step fashion creating an unnerving punch, along with the knowledge that nothing was fabricated or enhanced in a Hollywood fashion. The unflinching acceptance of inevitable fate is not overplayed or overdramatized as we watch final preparations with the allied forces advancing outside. The portrayal of Hitler, by Bruno Ganz, is nothing less than impressive, as we see him skillfully accentuate characteristics of the man and not the image, so feared by many. We are left seeing this Oliver Hirschbiegel movie as something close to a documentary, or as close to one which could ever have happened.

A nice addition for a double feature would be to take out the documentary, "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary," 2002. An oral history, up close and personal with the woman, in her eighties, who was Hitler's personal secretary from 1942-45 is the basis of this documentary. Speaking of her day to day life before and after accepting the job, after a silence of some sixty years, Junge creates one of the few personal portraits of a man who will remain vilifide throughout history. Shortly after the premiere of this movie Junge passed away at the age of 82 having relieved her conscience of her role in history. This documentary is highly recommended as an addendum to "Downfall" as to the final days of the Fuehr.

While no new information can really be gleaned from the events of WWII, it is important to introduce two movies, one based on the interviews of the other, which will educate future generations to the factual final days of Adolf Hitler.

Now a regular monthly event, CUE UP is an evening of open screenings, guest talks and socializing. Producers of video/film and new media are invited to bring finished or work in progress, no longer than 15 min., on Mini DV, VHS or DVD for presentation in an informal setting. Work is accepted on a first come first serve basis at 8:00 pm, with screenings starting at 8:30pm at Video In Studios, 1965 Main Street. There are no artist fees and the general public is encouraged to attend. Socializing follows screenings.

Thursday, November 24, 2005
Guest presentation:: Desiree Lim
Independent filmmaker, presenting on the theme
gender and sexuality
Location:: Video In Studios, 1965 Main St.
Submissions 8:00pm and screenings 8:30pm
Socializing to follow
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A culturally diverse hybrid growing up in Malaysia and Japan, Desiree