Syndicate: IMAGES Festival

[czegledy@interlog.com (Nina Czegledy)]

Dear Syndicalists:

Images Festival of Independent Film and Video.
April 23-May 2 1998, Toronto, Canada
http://www.interlog.com/~images

Last Thursday the Images Festival opened in Toronto with a big buzz. The
Festival screens  211 works (including four installations) during its ten
day run. In addition to curated programs,the screenings include 17 "New
Screens",  showing 110 works from 26 countries. The works were chosen from
600 entries by a selection committee and reflect the dedicated search for
unusual, independent work by programmers Paul Lee and Stefan St-Laurent.The
festival brings "Deadpan" an exquisite installation by UK artist Steve
McQueen and screens Crewmaster 5 (filmed in Budapest)by Matthew Barney and
Johan Grimonprez's dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y. In contrast to these spectacular
pieces, Frozen by Wu Ming(No Name)banned in China and The Red Rag, a most
unusual documentary from the Netherlands, will also be shown at Images. The
traditional student programs: V is for video and F is for film are,
augmented this year with the addition of A is for Animation.

The increasingly international profile of Images, is reflected in the
programming of works from the media landscapes of East Europe. Olga
Samolevskaya came from Kiev with two of her videos: Stabat Mater and
Momento Vivre. Also included are Rusalochka(The Mermaid) and the Axe, by
Volodymir Tykhij, also from the Ukraine, Chastie (Paradise) by Sergey
Dvortsevoy from Kazakhstan, Elixir from Irina Evteeva, Russia. Deep in the
catalogue, we find the works of two Hungarians:  Berlin Retour by Berlin
based Gusztav Hamos and Black Flag by Istvan Cantor of Toronto.

Recent Finnish works will presented by Tapio Makela as part of the
Finnish/Canadian exchange collaborative project with Nina Czegledy.
Shortcuts:Transforming Narratives and Bodies will be shown Wednesday evening,
and Imaging Male Bodies on Thursday. Finnish New Media Presentation will
take place Saturday at the Interaccess Gallery and we intend to establish a
live link
with Helsinki that afternoon.

Tapio arrives this evening and together within the next few days, we will
send an update of our Festival impressions.

best regards
nina czegledy