HOW TO BE A CANADIAN
AN EVENING OF VIDEOS.
- Curated by: Astria
Suparak and Brett
Kashmere.
- Videos by: Jeremy Bailey, Daniel Barrow,
Dorion Berg, Shary Boyle, Peaches, and Kara Blake, Jubal
Brown, Paige Gratland, Brett Kashmere, Jake Kennedy, Jim Munroe, Jon Sasaki,
Tom
Sherman.
- Total running time: 70 minutes.
All Canadian Parliamentary decisions are made under a structure named
The Peace Tower. On summer nights the nation's capital invites citizens
and tourists alike to sit on its barricade- free front lawn. A spectacular
sound and light show commences, detailing Canadian mythologies and first-person
perspectives. Astonishingly, also selected for giant, projected broadcast
on the government walls are admissions of Canada's historical flaws and
bureaucratic errors in judgment. The evening ends with a heartfelt promise
to make Canada the ultimate socially responsible, peaceful and welcoming
country that so many of its residents proudly speak of.
The second largest country in the world, Canada houses a population less
than California's 34 million. The birthplace of You Can't Do That on Television,
Tom Green, and the inspiration for American Pie, Canada has been a chief
exporter of adolescent gross-out comedy for two decades. No MTV, Madonna,
Mister Roger's Neighborhood or melting pot, but Much Music, Alanis Morissette,
Mr. Dressup's tickle trunk and government-mandated Multiculturalism.
The videos of Jake Kennedy, Jim Munroe and
Jon Sasaki propagate popular images of the
well-mannered, sportsmanlike Canadian. But this is only part of the story.
The self-inflicted pain and chronic angst of Jubal
Brown's Deathday Suit and the real-life, vengeful ice capades
in Brett Kashmere's When Canadians Attack
evidence a hushed violence. The weepy protagonist of Daniel
Barrow's A Miracle and the webcam community in Tom
Sherman's HALF/LIVES delicately construct loneliness in
a socially liberal state.
Paige Gratland's Shoe Squishing Food Project
and Sex by Shary Boyle, Peaches and
Kara Blake dress up and act out domestic
perversions. Jeremy Bailey (Video Paint
1.0, Strongest Man) and Daniel Cockburn
(Metronome) portray themselves as underdogs with a feeble narcissism.
Dorion Berg (ASCII Alphabet) and Jubal
Brown (The 6th Day) condense the culture of image to split-second
beats in their scratch video compositions.
Utilizing artistic (re)enactment, telepathetic aesthetics, manual animation,
performance and a grab bag of low-end high technologies, these videos
question traditional representations of (Canadian) identity and gender.
How To Be A Canadian is the third and northernmost installment
of Eyebeam's NAFTA- inspired Panorama
screening series.
Notes:
- Canadian Multiculturalism Act. R.S., 1985, c.24 (4th Supp.) - http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/multi/policy/act_e.cfm
- Statistics Canada- http://www.statcan.ca
- Famous Canadians, Harvard Business School's Canadian Club - http://sa.hbs.edu/canadian/html/famous.html#athletic
-- Want to immigrate to Canada? See if you qualify: Ski lled Worker
Self- Assessment: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/skilled/assess/index.html
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