How film shapes art
A new course offers students, who are not enrolled in the Faculty of Fine Arts, the chance to explore how film can shape the experience of other arts such as dance, music, painting, photography and performance. Special Topics in Fine Arts, Films on Art examines the presentation of art through documentary, experimental and fictional film, says lecturer Nicolas Renaud.
“The screenings and lectures will explain the multiple ways in which film shapes other arts,” he says. “It’s not about discovering art through film, like going to a museum, but discussing how a film can shape the experience of other arts … the insights we may get into the creative process of art through film and the critical discourse it may offer.”
As an example, Renaud points to the works of legendary documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles. The brothers produced several films that documented the creative process of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the couple famous for their environmental works of art.
The Maysles’ film, Running Fence, which immerses viewers in the creative process of stretching a fence of white fabric across the hills in California, will be one of the screenings in the course.
“The film is about the artwork but also about the culture, economics and social reality,” says Renaud. “You see how the artists dealt with local politicians, engineers and the social network involved in putting this artwork together.”
Other topics to be discussed include the role of the National Film Board (NFB) in Canadian culture and film industry. During the 1940s, the NFB produced films about Canadian artists, including Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson from the Group of Seven.
Not only did these films contribute to documenting modern Canadian art, but “they provide an important look into the technological history of filmmaking,” adds Renaud.
The NFB used 16mm Kodachrome, which was unusual at the time when most films were shot in black and white. Showcasing Thomson’s colourful works in black and white would never have carried the same impact, says Renaud.
Manufactured Landscapes by Jennifer Baichwal is also on the screening list. This feature-length documentary highlights the work of artist Edward Burtynsky who makes large-scale photographs of manufactured landscapes such as factories, oil sands and dams.
The visually attractive photos raise questions about ethics and aesthetics by showing how “progress” and pollution have destroyed or eliminated natural landscapes, explains Renaud.
In the film, Baichwal follows Burtynsky as he travels through China photographing the impact of the country’s massive industrial revolution.
“The film is interesting, in Super-16mm film, having an aesthetic appeal that extends beyond the photos,” says Renaud. “There are large lines of factory workers — endless lines of factory workers — that extend our gaze beyond and inside the photo, moving through it, without breaking the visual continuity between the still pictures and the moving images.”
Special Topics in Fine Arts, Films on Art, is an elective course that leverages a partnership between Concordia University and the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA). Students will have free access to some of the screenings during the festival and be required to write one related assignment.
FIFA celebrates its 30th edition in 2012. Events will be held from March 15 to 25 at various venues around the city, including Concordia.
To register for this new course, visit the MyConcordia portal and search for the code FFAR 298S in the Undergraduate Class Schedule. The course is offered Tuesdays, beginning January 3, from 8:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. It is open to students who are not enrolled in the Faculty of Fine Arts and cannot be applied to a BFA or any Fine Arts specialization, major or minor program.
Related links:
• MyConcordia portal
• Undergraduate Class Schedule (information only, not a secure site for registration)
• FIFA