Stranger on the Land (Michael Stecky)

Throughout 2017 Canada has been celebrating its sesquicentennial, marking 150 years since confederation joined the British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Reflecting on that erasure of borders as well as the still-existent borders that define the current nation-state this program assembles a series of films that examine partitions and boundaries more generally, both physical and metaphorical. A direct engagement with the Canadian landscape and legacies of settler-colonialism remains a consistent theme and point of inquiry.

Modlitwa (A Prayer) (Sofia Bohdanowicz, 2013, Canada, 7 min)
Modlitwa follows a widowed woman caring for her home as she meditates on God, labour and nature.

A Stranger on The Land – A Ghost Story (Michael Stecky, 2012, Canada, 11 min)
Shot during an extreme Arctic blizzard, the film recounts a true story of a man hopelessly lost while traveling and his mysterious rescuer.

Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper (David Rimmer, 1970, Canada, 9 min)
Rimmer repurposes a fragment of NFB footage depicting a female factory worker shaking out large sheets of cellophane into something wondrously alchemical and almost otherworldly.

Niagara (Shelley Niro, 2015, Canada, 5 min)
A simple story of love and loss. Niagara: originally called Ongniaahra, a Mohawk word, from the Haudenosaunee Nations.

Rat Life and Diet in North America (Joyce Wieland, 1968, Canada, 16 min)
Joyce Wieland’s whimsical fable follows a band of gerbils as they escape from their cage and make their way across the 49th parallel to the progressive ecological utopia of Canada.

untitled (eleven years) (Scott Miller Berry, Canada, 2015, 6 min)
A posthumous coming out film diary to the filmmaker’s mother. Shot October 11, 1988, Bethel Memorial Park, Detroit.

The Shirt (Dana Claxton, 1994, Canada, 6 min)
A visual study of a white shirt that gets washed ashore, bringing with it concepts of time, money, the written word, church and oppression.

Dalsza Modlitwa (Another Prayer) (Sofia Bodahnowicz, 2013, Canada, 6 min) The film explores the filmmaker’s efforts to recreate a memory of her grandmother.