Prairie Tales 13

Prairie Tales 14: Extended Deadline!

2012-01-31T16:13:00.000-08:00

Are you an Albertan film or video artist? Did you make a short film last year? Submit your work to Prairie Tales 14!

Note the new extended deadline is February 15 (not postmarked-- please have your DVD and forms at our office by then).

More information and forms available here.

Prairie Tales in Grande Prairie

2012-01-17T14:37:00.001-08:00

The Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune wrote up a nice preview of the screening tomorrow! The screening takes place at the Grande Prairie Regional College at 11:45 am.

Call for submissions: Prairie Tales 14

2012-01-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The Fourteenth Annual Prairie Tales Media Arts Tour

Metro Cinema Society in association with AMAAS (Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society) invites filmmakers, videographers, documentarians, and animators to submit their recently completed works to Prairie Tales, an annual touring program of short works by Alberta media artists.

In its fourteenth consecutive year, the Prairie Tales Tour celebrates the diversity of work created by artists in our province. In circulation over several months, Prairie Tales screens throughout Alberta and across Canada at media art centres, galleries, and schools.

You are eligible to submit your work to Prairie Tales if:

your work has been completed in the last 18 months
your work has a running time of 15 minutes or less
your primary residence is in Alberta

When submitting, please include a brief description of your work (including year of completion and original production format) as well as an artist's biography. Preview copies may be submitted on DVD only. Works must be submitted in final edited form. Prairie Tales 14 will be curated by the Prairie Tales tour coordinator and a peer jury. Artists whose work is included in the program will be paid the CARFAC rate for multiple film/video screenings. There is no submission fee.

Please note that while the Prairie Tales staff does its best to briefly test all submissions to make sure they play, the responsibility for ensuring that a submitted work plays properly from start to finish on a standard DVD or VHS player rests with the applicant. Submissions with playback problems during curation cannot be guaranteed consideration by the jury.

Please send your submission by January 31, 2012 to:

Prairie Tales Jury

Metro Cinema Society

8712 109 Street

Edmonton AB T6G 1E9

If you have any questions regarding submissions or the Prairie Tales Tour, please contact the Tour Coordinator at prairietales@amaas.ca

Click here to download the submission form.

Prairie Tales at Alberta Arts Days

2011-09-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

So far, there are 23 venues showing Prairie Tales 13 during Alberta Arts Days, September 30-October 2, 2011. Here they are! Check local listings for specific times and locations:

September 30:

Airdrie

Edmonton (Stanley Milner Library; visiting artist Kyle Armstrong with workshop on October 2)

Banff (visiting artist Stefanie Wong and TBA)

County of Strathcona (visiting artist TBA)

Sundre

Rocky Mountain House

Milk River Elementary School (visiting artist Zoe Slusar)

Hinton

Hays School

October 1:

Airdrie

Calgary Public Library

Lethbridge

Didsbury (visiting artist Chris Markowsky)

Edmonton (Whitemud Crossing Library, artist Michael Pedruski)

Edmonton (Film and Video Arts Society, artist Trevor Anderson)

Fairview

Chestermere

Bonnyville

Okotoks

Hinton

Coaldale

St. Paul

October 2:

Didsbury (visiting artist Chris Markowsky)

Airdrie (visiting artist Zoe Slusar)

Grande Prairie

Other venues:

St. Albert (visiting artist Zoe Slusar)

Fairview

Spruce Grove

Wabamun

Prairie Tales 13 Premiere

2011-07-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

Prairie Tales 13 premiered on June 24th at the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society's (AMAAS) annual conference, which this year took place from June 23-26 in Hinton, Alberta. Conference delegates and members of the Hinton community gathered at the Firebay Studio at The Guild on 821 Switzer Drive for the 7:30 pm screening. The show was followed by a Q&A session with four directors whose work is featured on the program. The directors were Janna-Marynn Brunnen (Little Heart), Dominique Keller (The Interrogation),Christopher Markowsky (The Lifer) and Stefanie Wong (What Remains).

Prairie Tales’ thirteenth annual program of live-action, animated and experimental works has a running time of 80 minutes and features the fourteen works listed below. Prairie Tales 13 is also available in an abridged, 32 minute version aimed at young audiences aged twelve and up. Works on the Prairie Tales 13 for Young Audiences program are marked with an asterisk (*).

High School Brawl
Lethbridge 2010, 4:46, HD Video, Live Action. Dir: Aaron Kurmey

High school punks get more than they bargained for when they gang up on a lone man in a stairwell.

Suckathumb
Calgary 2010, 9:15, HD Video, Live Action Comedy-Horror. Dir: Xstine Cook

A child’s imagination runs wild in the woods, fueled by a book of horrific bedtime tales.

Felt Up!
Edmonton 2010, 1:35, 2:51, 2:52, SD Video, Comedy. Dir: Simon Glassman

Puppets re-enact true stories told by real people.

Little Heart*
Calgary 2010, 6:43, Animation. Dir: Janna-Marynn Brunnen

A young woman journeys to a new understanding of love after her first heartbreak.

Nature’s Library*
Black Diamond, 2010, 3:10, HD Video, Live Action Drama. Dir: Zoe Slusar

A young girl discovers a mysterious tree while walking in the forest. 

Maybe Film Dreams
Calgary 2010, 3:19, Super 8, Experimental. Dir: Murray Smith

A whimsical, experimental eulogy for celluloid film.

The Head
Calgary 2010, 5:00, HD Video, Experimental. Dir: Aran Wilkinson-Blanc

A young woman experiences an altered state that reveals the fluid natures of identity and perception.

i close my eyes and they disappear*
Edmonton 2010, 6:00, Super8, 16mm, HDSLR, Experimental. Dir:Kyle Armstrong

An experimental depiction of the border zone between waking and dreaming.

Dragon.Love*
Calgary 2010, 2:34, Animation. Dir: Haleigh Toney

A humourous new take on the story of the knight in shining armour who rescues a damsel in distress.

What Remains*
Calgary 2010, 4:20, Stop Motion Animation. Dir: Stefanie Wong

Fiona discovers a strange room filled with objects from her past and must link them with the present before returning to the real world.

A Prairie Love
Edmonton 2011, 3:14, Animation. Dir: Michael Pedruski

An elderly, hospitalized woman recalls her past in rural Alberta’s Kalyna country.

The Lifer
Calgary 2009, 8:00, HD Video, Live Action Comedy. Dir:Christopher Markowsky

A postal worker must choose between a promotion and his dream of becoming the world’s best marine biologist ever.

The High Level Bridge
Edmonton 2010, 4:39, HD Video, Documentary Essay. Dir: Trevor Anderson

The filmmaker drops his camera from Edmonton’s High Level Bridge in memory of those who have jumped from it.

Just Can’t Trust a Drunk Ninja*
 Calgary 2011, 2:00, Animation. Dir: Greg Doble 

A cautionary tale about the dangers of mixing alcohol and the martial arts.

The Interrogation*
Calgary 2011, 7:00, HD Video, Live Action Comedy. Dir: Dominique Keller

A late evening drive home from the office takes an unexpected turn when Gloria is pulled over by the cops.

The Interrogation

2011-07-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

The Interrogation

Calgary, 2011

6:53

Dir: Dominique Keller

HD Video

Live action comedy

Young Audiences Program

Take a mother and daughter clash of generational values on the question of babies, cross it with a police procedural, then throw in a healthy measure of Three Stooges mayhem and you may have a fair description of Dominique Keller’s The Interrogation. Except that the experience of watching it never even approaches the strangeness you might expect from such an odd brew of classifiers. Maybe it’s because The Interrogation is so darn funny. Or maybe it’s because Keller’s metaphors so accurately depict the subconscious battleground on which arguments about some life choices are waged between parents and their progeny (from the progeny’s point of view, anyway). And maybe that subconscious aspect is actually a better starting point from which to make any attempt to encapsulate the film: The Interrogation is kind of like Keller saying, “Funny you should mention babies - last night I had this crazy dream in which my mother was dressed like a cop...” and continuing from there. However it’s best described, the film manages to be absurdist, symbolic, surreal, even expressionistic - not to mention hilarious fun - all at once.

DOMINIQUE KELLER

Dominique Keller is an award-winning director known for a distinct visual style and biting narratives. Her recent filmmaking honors include representing Canada at both the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and at the Shanghai 2010 World Expo. Her independent films have screened and won awards at over fifty film festivals worldwide.

Just Can't Trust a Drunk Ninja

2011-07-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

Just Can't Trust A Drunk Ninja

Calgary, 2011

1:55

Dir: Greg Doble

Digital stills, hand drawings

Animated Comedy

Young Audiences Program

Who among those of us who regularly take public transit hasn’t got at least one or two amusingly horrific stories involving inebriated or otherwise unpredictable fellow passengers? That’s what makes boarding the bus or taking the LRT so exciting: anything really can happen when you ride the Rocket or hop the Blue Line. Greg Doble takes this urban nightmare to an amusingly absurd extreme with Just Can’t Trust a Drunk Ninja. His rather delicately limbed figures accentuate that certain sense of vulnerability we feel in situations where questionable strangers share a seat beside us in closed quarters. Doble’s choice of a blue-grey palette also recalls the dingy, discomforting and vaguely unsatisfying colour schemes of institutional spaces. But I think my favourite thing about this short, bizarre vignette is the fact that most of its sound effects are made by a human voice growling, whooshing or making other assorted noises in order to mimick the gears of a bus grinding or a ninja kunai whipping through the air. It’s a touch that gives the characters - and the creator - of this otherwise silent short a subtle voice.

GREG DOBLE

Greg Doble, a new media artist based in Calgary, is currently a fourth year student at the Alberta College of Art and Design in the Media Arts and Digital Technologies Program. Favouring illustration, animation and photography in his work, he likes to focus on the mundane as well as on interesting interactions between people, and he often elaborates on everyday experiences in fantastic ways. Doble describes his work as narrative-based and characterizes his style as light-hearted with a carefree sentimentality.

The High Level Bridge

2011-07-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

The High Level Bridge

Edmonton, 2010

4:39

Dir: Trevor Anderson

HD Video

Essay

In this latest documentary essay, Trevor Anderson points his camera at an iconic Edmonton landmark then chucks the piece of equipment off its edge to plummet, still recording, into a snowy bank beside the cold North Saskatchewan River. Over a five-minute montage of beautifully composed shots of the High Level Bridge and the views from its walkways during a bleak and chilly winter, Anderson peppers his customary, droll patter with historical factoids about his subject. Between these humorous, true anecdotes, almost Becketian in their absurdity, he also reveals the bridge’s uglier history – a dirty secret omitted from the tourist brochures that everyone in Edmonton eventually comes to know one way or another: for the suicidal, the High Level Bridge is the jumping spot of choice. Anderson’s connection to all this, besides being a resident Edmontonian, is that two of his own friends have leapt to their deaths from its height. In spite of its tragic subject matter, The High Level Bridge is not a hopeless film; the point of view feels that of someone with much to live for. Nor is his final act – all too fleeting to absorb as an experience – a voyeuristic exercise; rather, it’s an honest memorial to those who have jumped – and perhaps, too, a small defiance of the High Level’s enduring potential as a facilitator of self-destruction. Director of photography Fish Griwkowsky’s excellently composed frames capture in the bridge and its environs an atmosphere of grim brittleness, evoking the fragility of a human psyche that never fails, whenever looking down from any great height, at least to think about jumping from it.

TREVOR ANDERSON

Trevor Anderson is a self-taught, independent filmmaker. His short films have screened at many international film festivals, including Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, SXSW, Outfest, AFI Fest and the Los Angeles Film Festival.

At Hot Docs, Anderson won the inaugural Lindalee Tracey Award, presented to “an emerging Canadian filmmaker working with passion, humour, a strong sense of social justice and a personal point of view.” He also plays music in a band, The Wet Secrets, whose song Secret March was named by Grant Lawrence of CBC Radio 3 as one of the Best Songs of the Decade.

The Lifer

2011-07-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

The Lifer

Calgary, 2009

8:00

Dir: Christopher Markowsky

HD Video

Live action comedy/drama

While the popular expression “to go postal” takes its origin from a deeply disturbing event, for better or worse the phrase is now used quite casually to describe any egregious loss of composure, particularly in reaction to the inhuman pressures exerted by the modern workplace or by “the Man”. Which is why Christopher Markowsky’s choice to set The Lifer in a privatized post office in some fictional dystopia (or a Canada of the not too distant future) is an inspired one. Glen Atwal may dream of becoming the world’s greatest marine biologist ever, but his ambitions are slowly being drowned as he puts in the hours at the Regal Post Corporation in order to pay the bills. Almost everyone watching The Lifer can probably identify with Atwal and his disaffection with the rat race of modern daily life even as he’s presented with an opportunity to make his way up the corporate ladder. Watch for the cheap plastic throne in which one of Glen’s co-workers expires during a nightmare sequence, and the use of the digit zero as a recurring motif. But as Glen’s dream suffocates and his nightmare progressively becomes reality, there are fortunately a lot of laughs to be had. The performers ably deliver the satire in Markowsky’s script, and co-producer and lead performer Teddy G Alexander gives a sympathetic performance as Glen. On a technical note, The Lifer is one of two works on this year’s program shot using a RED Camera, which delivers a high resolution picture that is, so far, the closest video gets to reproducing the look of film (the other RED Camera piece is The Interrogation).

CHRISTOPHER MARKOWSKY

Born and raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Christopher Markowsky attended the Alberta College of Art and studied filmmaking at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. He worked across Canada as a set dresser in the film and television industry for ten years until 2004. Then in 2005, he produced and directed his first short film, the acclaimed comedy The Milk Crate Recovery Team. His other works have screened for Olympic athletes in Turin and Athens, and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian as well as at film festivals around the globe. The Lifer is his most recent film. Christopher lives in Calgary with his wife and son.

A Prairie Love

2011-07-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

A Prairie Love

Edmonton, 2011

3:14

Dir: Michael Pedruski

Digital Stills animation of charcoal, graphite and ink drawings

If uncompromisingly bleak in tenor, A Prairie Love is nevertheless an extremely affecting short. Like Haleigh Toney’s Dragon.Love, this simple animated work is built using a sequence of more or less still images, in this case depicting a stream of memories, intercut with captions. Here the static nature of animator Michael Pedruski’s black and white hand drawings works exceedingly well because their subject is a harsh prairie winter, possibly occurring during the Great Depression. Snow driven vistas of field and town in east central Alberta’s Kalyna country are brought to life by the agitation of Pedruski’s charcoal and pencil strokes as differently shaded versions of the same scene are presented from frame to frame. Judiciously chosen sound effects, gleaned from the creative commons, play an equal role in eliciting a sombre mood. The chalkboard scrawl of the captions, sometimes hard to decipher, appears to be that of a personal hand, yet the writer’s anonymity amplifies a sense of alienation in the viewer. Inspired by Pedruski’s own family history, A Prairie Love, on another level, examines the loss of cultural memory as descendants of ethnicized immigrants increasingly assimilate into mainstream Canadian culture.

MICHAEL PEDRUSKI

A distant descendant of European immigrants to what is now Canada, Michael Pedruski is a hobbyist animator/ filmmaker from Edmonton. He currently studies community ecology at McGill university in Montréal.

What Remains

2011-07-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

What Remains

Calgary 2010

4:20

Dir: Stefanie Wong

Digital Stop Motion

Animation

Young Audiences Proram

In an earlier experimental short, With You in Mind, Stefanie Wong explored identity and transformation by filming a woman cutting her hair and rending her clothing. She appears to continue her fascination with the same theme and materials in What Remains. In this strange and whimsical stop motion piece, a young girl named Fiona discovers a mysterious intersection of the real and imaginary worlds while putting away some balls of wool in her living room. In a hidden closet she finds shelves lined with wig stands and a chest full of hairpieces – objects Wong describes as a “physical embodiment of history and memory”. Putting them in some kind of order appears to create a restorative link or balance between Fiona’s past and present, as well as the real and the imagined. Throughout, whether it’s the trail of little heart-shaped pillows that lead her to this chamber of memories, the wiry wigs (that could be symbolically linked to Fiona’s introductory activity of stowing yarn in a basket), the furry monkey that appears or the material Fiona is both constructed with and clothed in, Wong’s interest in working with textiles and fabrics is obvious. The camera conveys the feel of these materials, and their connection with identity via their association with clothing arguably reinforces her themes by evoking memories and stirring up personal associations with identity in the viewer.

STEFANIE WONG

Stefanie Wong obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honours from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2008. Since graduating, she has maintained a diverse art practice but often returns to combining textiles, film and animation in her work. She likes to explore the use of material and its manipulation in order to reveal labour intensive processes through time and movement. Wong’s films have been screened across Canada at various festivals. Without question, her greatest inspiration is her 7-year-old daughter.

Dragon.Love

2011-07-18T17:36:00.000-07:00

Dragon.Love

Calgary, 2010

2:24

Dir: Haleigh Toney

Digital Stills of Hand Drawings

Animated Comedy

Young Audiences Program

This humorous revision of the myth of the knight-errant starts in typical storybook fashion and quickly takes an unexpected turn. Perhaps Dragon.Love is meant as a modern-minded demonstration of the virtues of negotiation over the evils of violent coercion.

Or maybe it’s just a new take on the triumph of love. In either case, Dragon.Love’s graphic novel approach to animation is in keeping with its satiric tone. It’s also a reminder that while we tend to think of film – and often refer to it – as a moving or motion picture, it’s essentially about using photography (or composition) and montage to create a time-based structure, in this case a conventional narrative. Haleigh Toney created her fairy tale over a period of approximately three weeks. She spent a full half of that time animating the first nine seconds during which the knight trots through the forest on his horse – the sequence involving the longest continuous motion in the piece. The remaining two-and-a-half minutes is made up of more or less static images cut together to tell a story with the help of captioned dialogue. In all, Toney made about five hundred drawings on sheets of regular printing paper. She then photographed them with a digital camera, processed them in Photoshop, and put the whole sequence together using Adobe AfterEffects and iMovie HD.

HALEIGH TONEY

Haleigh Toney is a young animator/storyteller who lives in the windy city of Calgary, Alberta. A recent graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, she spends her time hunting down fantastical tales of monsters, romance, awkward conversations and unexpected consequences. She is a big fan of classical animation, and often uses a combination of hand-drawn techniques and digital programs such as Photoshop and Adobe After Effects to create her films.

When she is not animating, she spends her time seeking inspiration while reading, watching cartoons and playing video games.

i close my eyes and they disappear

2011-07-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

i close my eyes and they disappear

Edmonton, 2011

6:00

Dir: Kyle Armstrong

Super 8, 16mm, HD video

Experimental

Young Audiences Program

Experimental filmmaker Kyle Armstrong describes this work as “a non-narrative dream film” that explores “the thin membrane between waking and sleeping”. He juxtaposes urban environments, in which artificial light is arguably the subject because of its inability to adequately penetrate the darkness around it, with naturally lit rural spaces, in which we can make out trees and fields, yet nothing is ever quite in focus. Images of intersections - bridges, crossroads, horizons, shorelines - recur. A hanging light bulb, swinging aimlessly, is caught by a hand and slowly turned towards the camera. What appears to be a mannequin head is finally consumed in flames. That dreams are remembered as visual experiences in spite of the fact that our eyes remain closed throughout them suggests that the mind’s eye, with all its flawed assumptions, is ultimately our chief organ of sight. Like Wilkinson-Blanc, Armstrong is exploring the use of DSLR equipment here, intercutting sequences shot on a High Definition SLR camera with hand altered 16mm and Super 8 footage. The soundtrack is from the B-side of Remove the Need, a cassette recording of two live, improvised guitar performances by experimental musician and producer Jim O’Rourke.

KYLE ARMSTRONG

Kyle Armstrong is an Edmonton-based filmmaker whose work is predominantly non-narrative in nature. He recently completed seven one-minute “post-consumer” films titled Revision: Decay as well as a no budget film that premiered on Pitchfork.tv for sound artist Mark Templeton. In 2010 he quit his job to spend a month in Winnipeg working on and directing short films for Guy Maddin’s Hauntings project. Kyle is currently in pre-production on an aurora borealis film with auroral scientist Dr. Trond Trondsen. Jim O’Rourke, who produced albums by Gastr Del Sol, Sonic Youth and Wilco, will score the new piece.

The Head

2011-07-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

The Head

Calgary, 2010

5:00

Dir: Aran Wilkinson-Blanc

HD Video and Still Images

Experimental

There are three distinct sections to this glossy and very creepy experimental piece by Aran Wilkinson-Blanc. In the opening sequence, a young woman sits in a chair while unidentified persons in white suits and masks prepare to make a plaster casting of her head. The images move in fast motion, skipping through time so that we can watch her face be gradually covered by white goo and swaths of gauze. In the second section, the woman appears to wake up in an enclosure of plastic curtains surrounded by darkness. Is it an expression of her state as she sits speechless and unable to move under the plaster? An apparition appears on a nearby television monitor. Elsewhere, what look to be identical twins watch her intently with without expression as they devour the Eucharist. A second pair of women in gothic make up and wigs lurk with a more menacing air; one of them, who appears for all intents and purposes to be the paralyzed woman’s double, traces lines on the her neck with a pair of scissors and consumes green gelatin from a chalice on which a fly is engraved. A fifth female penetrates the curtain and begins to apply make-up to the hapless woman’s lips. In the third and final segment, there is another awakening inside the plastic

enclosure; this time it’s that of the woman’s death mask. The casting opens a pair of paper eyes that begin to focus on its surroundings: a paper fish, a mirror. Suddenly we hear a door open and close. Who leaves? Who is left behind? Is there a resurrection? A transformation? A death? All three? According to Wilkinson-Blanc, The Head depicts

a state of sensory deprivation that sets off an exploration of the fluid nature of identity and perception.

ARAN WILKINSON-BLANC

Aran Wilkinson-Blanc is a Calgary based photographer, filmmaker and animator who embraces and works with a variety of formats and media to achieve his creative goals. The Head is the second in an ongoing series of shorts that explore, with increasing complexity, the technical potential of digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras in the making of films.

Maybe Film Dreams

2011-07-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

Maybe Film Dreams

Calgary, 2010

3:19

Dir: Murray Smith

Black and White Super 8

Experimental

Kicking off a trio of experimental works is this lighthearted tribute to celluloid film in an age when cheaper and more convenient digital media are starting to take over both the industry and the art. Murray Smith shot Maybe Film Dreams on black and white Super 8 during a CSIF workshop introducing participants to such methods of personalizing film footage as hand processing, optical printing and photograms. Smith’s playful imagery is largely preoccupied with old-fashioned special effects applied to images of aging technology like the analog telephone, handwriting and film projectors. He also seems to find some symbolic motif in their circular properties: phone dials, film reels and analog clocks. He narrates his montage in the person of a satiric character who dislikes celluloid film, particularly its black and white variety, because it looks “crappy”. Subsequently he turns the soundtrack over to audio samples from films by Richard Linklater, including Slacker, Waking Life and Before Sunset, and splices in excerpts from Jacques Tati’s 1967 film Play Time, which was shot in colour and then processed to make it look predominantly black and white. These references to the work of an American director known for a European penchant for philosophical dialogue and a European master’s work about the failure of the modern world to accommodate human unpredictability play foil to his narrator’s taste for IMAX blockbusters in which increasingly inhuman action sequences are made “realistic” using digital technology. “Did you know,” writes Murray of his piece, “an increasing number of underprivileged film reels sit perpetually dormant? So mightn’t they spend this time dreaming?” Let’s hope we never lay them entirely to rest.

Murray Smith describes himself as a critical thinker and a film formalist. His interests and influences include philosophy, holography and holism, contrast, ambiguity, film noir, surrealism, David Bohm, Jacques Tati, Robert Altman, Richard Linklater, and Stanley Kubrick. He is passionate about photography, writing, film theory and, especially, film editing. While he believes the new media

MURRAY SMITH

and digital cinema are positive developments that bring new meaning to the term cinematic “depth”, he retains a fond appreciation for celluloid film and the experience of watching movies in an actual theatre, along with the post-viewing discussion it engenders. He loves to experiment in all things, from formal writing to tournament paintball and hobby electronics. Smith received a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies from the university of Calgary in 2011 and works as the Administrative Coordinator and webmaster for the Calgary Cinematheque. He volunteers frequently within the local film community and otherwise loves to learn, philosophize and develop and design web sites and systems.

Nature's Library

2011-07-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

Nature's Library

Black Diamond, 2010

3:10

Dir: Zoe Slusar

Digital Video

Live action drama

Young Audiences Program

This morality tale about a young girl who discovers a mysterious evergreen that sprouts books can be interpreted on a number of levels and is simply and economically told in a brisk, direct fashion. Nature’s Library also effectively varies its pacing over the short course of three minutes. Zoe Slusar, who wrote and directed the piece, is also its performer and as such does just enough so that her inner psychology remains a mystery to the viewer. Is it ignorance, thirst, greed, Pandora’s curiosity, or some other motivation that drives her to ultimately abuse the Tree of Knowledge? The books on the branches appear to be mostly volumes of popular wisdom and self help and include The Education of Little Tree, On Death and Dying, and Life After Life. The most prominently recognizable volume, along with Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize winning novel The White Tiger, is the first she picks from the tree and the one she buries beneath it toward the end: don Miguel Ruiz’ The Four Agreements. Make what you will of that.

ZOE SLUSAR

Zoe Slusar is a 22-year-old creative artist based out of Black Diamond, Alberta. She began acting, writing and directing in the theatre and

commercials at a very young age, and moved into filmmaking during her final year of high school. She wrote and filmed a number of her own shorts and fell in love with cinematography in the process. Slusar enjoys the creative freedom of writing, directing, acting in, producing and editing her own works in part because it allows her to appreciate and gain experience in all areas of film production. In 2006 she co-founded untitled Productions with her partner Bailey Kerluke and since then has been striving to create refreshing and unique films that offer thoughtful studies of human nature and the world while entertaining and inspiring their audience.

LIttle Heart

2011-07-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Little Heart

Calgary 2010

6:43

Dir: Janna-Marynn Brunnen

Digital Stills of Hand Drawings and Paintings

Animation

Young Audiences Program

This remarkable first film from Janna-Marynn Brunnen aptly and enchantingly describes a journey to an altered understanding of love starting from its destruction, along with the idea that it lasts forever, through the subsequent fallout, eventual healing and finally to epiphany. Brunnen hand drew, painted and photographed over 4800 images to bring Little Heart to the screen. Moments of humour emerge as her film’s protagonist tries to process her emotional wounds. There are also inspired images - not least the depiction of love as a soaring and tumbling joyride on the back of a great bird that swoops through the clouds. Brunnen’s use of paint - characters in quivering acrylic lines, backgrounds in ephemeral, shifting watercolours – and the thematic development of her red, blue and yellow colour scheme are, ultimately, beguiling. And the simple piano and percussion soundtrack she composed and performed herself is admirably apropos.

JANNA-MARYNN BRUNNEN

Janna-Marynn Brunnen grew up in and around Calgary. At the age of eighteen she attended Alberta Theatre Projects’ Youth Playwriting Program and it’s Apprenticeship Program. In 2003 she graduated from the Technical Production Program at the National Theatre School of Canada and, over the years, has worked in Canadian theatre as a Lighting Designer, Sound Designer,

Technical Director, and Stage Manager. Little Heart, her first animated short, was made possible by the National Film Board of Canada/Quickdraw Animation scholarship for study and production, which she received in 2009. It premiered in Canada at the International Festival of Animated Objects in 2011 and has since premiered in the uS at the Palm Beach Women’s International Film Festival 2011 and won the Gold Kahuna at the 2011 Honolulu Film Awards.

Felt Up!

2011-07-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

Felt Up!

Edmonton, 2011

2:51, 2:52, 1:35

Dir: Simon Glassman

SD Video

Live Action/Puppetry

Comedy

There are a lot of things you can do with a puppet that no self-respecting human performer would ever agree to. There’s also more a puppet can get away with because, hey, it’s just a puppet. Simon Glassman submitted as a single piece five segments from an ongoing series of web shorts entitled Felt Up!. Two of them, hilarious as they were, were just too raunchy to be part of the collection. Happily, he agreed to let us spread the other three throughout this year’s program. The idea behind Felt Up! is simple: take audio recordings of people recounting anecdotes too juicy not to tell (except perhaps that they constitute an embarrassment to the storyteller) and employ puppets to reenact the events on video using the source material as both script and soundtrack. Glassman and his team employ a large roster of puppets, donated by performance artist Randall Fraser and Edmonton’s Rapid Fire Theatre, to great and often hilariously incongruous effect to portray the people and events in Felt Up!. Aside from helping to re-popularize puppetry for North American adults – even if part of the series’ perverse appeal comes from watching what we generally regard as children’s toys in the context of very grown-up situations – Glassman’s approach allows ribald chestnuts to reach a wider audience while permitting kissers who wouldn’t otherwise tell to remain anonymous. Whether or not Parker, Connor or Torrie’s names have been changed to protect the innocent (and not-so-innocent), their tales of bathtub gluttony, bad Samaritans and menstrual mishaps, as performed by puppets, are alternated with the next two works on the program.

SIMON GLASSMAN

Simon Glassman is an Edmonton filmmaker who also works at the Vistek Audio Visual supply store. He created the web series Felt Up! while going to school, shooting it with classmates and friends. Currently he spends most of his energy outside of work seeking out and recording new, interesting stories from locals and looking for the right camera lens to articulate the perspective of puppets.

Suckathumb

2011-07-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Suckathumb

Calgary, 2010

9:15

Dir: Xtine Cook

HD Video

Live Action/Animation

Horror

If you watch closely and manage to hold it in your mind’s eye for about nine minutes, you’ll notice the opening shot of Suckathumb – a miniature camp with a figure seated by an open fire - foreshadows its ending. Of course it does so without giving away what’s in store, thank goodness. But the inescapable cycle suggested by this bookending only contributes to Suckathumb’s chilling effect. As a child, writer- director Xstine Cook owned a book of cautionary poems by Heinrich Hoffman that included The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb. Presumably this film is her way of exorcising the gothic demons left with her by that little volume. Hoffman may have written Poetry for the Four, Five and Six Year Old more to amuse adults than to instruct children, and Cook’s piece certainly is not for the young and impressionable. Suckathumb is a lushly coloured and richly textured mix of puppetry, animation and live action with an engaging and amusing performance by Cirque du Soleil clown performer Mooky Cornish. Cook herself, with the help of some fantastical make-up, plays three roles including the Tall Tailor, who as far as I’m concerned completes, with the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz and The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, an unholy trinity of unforgettable film characters designed to keep children awake all night.

XTINE COOK

A mask and puppet maker and experimental theatre artist for over twenty years, Xstine Cook’s new primary art practice is the making of short films. Cook studied mask and puppetry in Bali, Italy, France, California, and on the West Coast of Canada with Tsimshian carver Victor Reece. She trained at the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre in California and is infamous as the co-founder of Green Fools, of which she was co-Artistic Director for thirteen years. Currently, Cook is the Artistic Director of the Calgary Animated Objects Society (CAOS), which she also founded, and Curator of the International Festival of Animated Objects, a biennial celebration of mask

and puppetry in Calgary.

High School Brawl

2011-07-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

High School Brawl

Lethbridge, 2010

4:36

Dir: Aaron Kurmey

HD Video

Live Action

You know a long take has paid off when you don’t really notice it. Or if you’re an aficionado who keeps an eye open for feats of cinematic virtuosity, you don’t notice until you’re well into it. It’s an indication that this challenging shot choice is serving the movie and not just a case of the director showing off. Aaron Kurmey and his team took two days to choreograph and rehearse a close quarters brawl that put the cameraman right in the thick of things. It took two more days to get the whole sequence on tape in a single, swirling, weaving, three-and-a-half minute take. Throughout, performers and cameraman had to be in perfect synchronization in order to capture all the desired details of the bang up: all the angles had to mask the fact that no one was actually hitting anyone else, touches of blood had to get smeared on accurately and quickly while the camera was looking the other way, everybody had to remember their moves and, of course, fall without getting hurt. And that doesn’t even begin to cover the acting part. Kurmey and his team finally got it on the twentieth take by treating the combat as a dance, which might be just one reason why the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata, with its languorous repeating triplets, works so well as a score. For whatever reason, brutal violence was a very prevalent theme in the works submitted to Prairie Tales this year. This unabashed tribute to the action sequence was tempered by Beethoven, clever dashes of humour, and a punch line (no pun intended) that pays off.

AARON KURMEY, RYANN HATT & GRAHAN HIRANO

High School Brawl is the collaborative effort of director/producer Aaron Kurmey and producers Ryan Hatt and Graham Hirano. The three have worked together on several other films, including Hoodoo Voodoo, a feature length action movie directed by Kurmey and starring Hatt and Hirano, and Making It, a comedic mockumentary about a failed film project. To choreograph the fight scene that makes up most of High School Brawl, Kurmey, Hatt and Hirano worked closely with the other cast members, conceiving the dust-up after the fashion of a dance in which each step in the sequence of moves counted as a beat. The trio continues to work together under the banner of Rambunxious Entertainment, and is currently in pre-production on a sci-fi war mockumentary called The Medic.

Prairie Tales for Young Audiences Program

2011-07-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

This year, Prairie Tales is also available in a shorter version designed to fit into a 50-minute school period and aimed at audiences aged 12 and up. Prairie Tales 13 for Young Audiences presents a mix of entertaining animated, live-action, and experimental shorts selected from the main anthology which introduces students to the range of genres and approaches to film and video making. Schools and other exhibitors that book a screening of this abridged collection are eligible for free visits made by Prairie Tales artists. To learn more about our visiting artist program, please contact the Tour Coordinator at prairietales@metrocinema.org.

Prairie Tales 13 for Young Audiences is 32 minutes in length and features the following works:

Dragon.Love (dir. Haleigh Toney)

Just Can't Trust a Drunk Ninja (dir. Greg Doble)

Little Heart (dir. Janna-Marynn Brunnen)

What Remains (dir. Stefanie Wong)

i close my eyes and they disappear (dir. Kyle Armstrong)

Nature's Library (dir. Zoe Slusar)

The Interrogation (dir. Dominique Keller)

Curator's Notes

2011-07-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

The past and the present; the real and the unreal; memory and choices; these are some of the more prevalent themes of Prairie Tales 13. During its curation, the jurors and I also watched a fair number of submissions depicting some rather brutal violence. Why, we're not sure, but on the premise that artists hold the mirror to our nature, I always think these trends are worth reporting. Perhaps it has something to do with our nation's growing hawkishness, or maybe it's a signal typical of a country that's quietly at war. The members of this year's curating jury were Edmonton-based experimental filmmaker Lindsay McIntyre, Emmedia Executive Director Peter Curtis Morgan, Banff Centre Executive Director of Film and Media Kerry Stauffer, and I.

A high school English teacher of mine once suggested that Shakespeare began Romeo and Juliet with a violent brawl because he was a master dramatist who knew a free-for-all was a failsafe way to grab an audience's attention right off the bat. I've never forgotten that, nor have I found another play by Shakespeare that starts with a rumble. Regardless, this year's program kicks off with High School Brawl, which should keep you riveted for its prodigious three-and-a-half minute opening shot, if for no other reason. No less intense in its own way is Xtine Cook's comic horror Suckathumb, in which a child's imagination runs wild in the woods thanks to her mother's bedtime gift of a book of gruesome stories by Heinrich Hoffman.

Next up, the first of three segments from Felt Up!, a web series in which puppets take their cues from audio recordings of real people telling risque anecdotes. Felt Up!'s second and third segments are alternated with two contrasting works: Little Heart, animated by Janna-Marynn Brunnen, traces a cathartic journey from heartbreak to a deeper understanding of love; in Nature's Library, Zoe Slusar invents her own Tree of Knowledge, and the consequence of consuming the fruit implies more room for choice that then familiar Eden myth allows.

Three thematically related experimental works form the middle section of the program. Murray Smith's Maybe Film Dreams is a tongue-in-cheek eulogy for celluloid film, which he suggests is doomed to slumber while the world goes increasingly digital. On the other hand, Aran Wilkinson-Blanc is concerned with exploring new technology as much as he is with examining the uncanny in his trippy The Head. And Kyle Armstrong embraces both celluloid and digital media in i close my eyes and they disappear, his evocation of the liminal world between waking and dreaming.

A fourth leg of the program groups together a trio of quieter, animated works. In Dragon.Love, Haleigh Toney fashions a novel conclusion to an old fairytale when a knight attempts to rescue his lady from a free-spoken dragon. The heroine of What Remains, a stop-motion piece by Stefanie Wong, discovers a strange room filled with manifestations of her past that she must reconcile with her present in order to return to reality. And in Michael Pedruski's A Prairie Love, a woman lies in hospital and recalls the moments of a harsh life in Kalyna country.

The program's final section begins with Christopher Markowsky's The Lifer, a black comedy about a man forced to choose between keeping his dream alive and a promotion at his day job. Trevor Anderson's The High Level Bridge is an engaging memorial to all, including two of his friends, who've jumped from that structure. Can't Trust a Drunk Ninja by Greg Doble is an animated cautionary tale about the dangers of mixing alcohol and the martial arts. And we close with a hilariously messy generational clash on the question of when to have babies, and for whom, in Dominique Keller's The Interrogation.

Enjoy.

Ian Leung, Tour Coordinator

Prairie Tales 13

Contact Prairie Tales

2011-07-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

Staff
Prairie Tales' staff consists of a part-time Tour Coordinator supported by the Metro Cinema's administrative personnel. The Tour Coordinator may be contacted as follows:

Mari Sasano
Tour Coordinator

prairietales@amaas.ca

Mailing address:
c/o Metro Cinema
8712 109 St
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 1E9

Phone: 780.425.9212
Fax:780.428.3509

Thanks to our funders

2011-07-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

Alberta Foundation for the Arts

AMAAS

Colophon

2011-07-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

Prairie Tales is produced by Metro Cinema and AMAAS (the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society), with the financial support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Jury: Lindsay McIntyre, Peter Curtis Morgan, Kerry Stauffer, Ian Leung
Film Descriptions: Ian Leung
Art Direction: Marie Hohner
Mastering: Studio Post
Opening Animation & Duplication: Studio Post
Printing: DeJong Printing

About AMAAS

2011-07-15T18:14:00.001-07:00

The Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS) is a not-for-profit society dedicated to fostering the common objectives of Alberta’s diverse media arts organizations and artists in the areas of promotion and education. Recognizing the media arts’ vital role in the cultural fabric of the province of Alberta, AMAAS provides a forum for dialogue between the media centres, creating synergies and enhancing the abilities of the centres and their memberships to create and exhibit artistic works. For more information, please visit amaas.ca.

About Metro Cinema

2011-07-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

Metro Cinema is a community-based non-profit society devoted to the exhibition and promotion of local, Canadian, international and independent film and video in Edmonton, Alberta. To this end, Metro exhibits an eclectic blend of film, video and media arts that would not otherwise screen in the city. Metro’s focus is on presenting a broad selection of innovative, cultural and educational works. The Society operates with the assistance of a large volunteer base, and produces a regular program, bringing in artists and facilitating discussion. For more information, please visit metrocinema.org.

About Prairie Tales

2011-07-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

For 13 years Prairie Tales has offered a selection of some of the year's best short films and videos made by Albertan media artists in a feature-length compilation. This anthology showcasing work from the shining lights of the Alberta media arts scene is distributed and screened across Alberta (and beyond) until the end of August the following year.

The most current edition, Prairie Tales 13, will be in circulation until August 31, 2012. Prairie Tales 12 will be withdrawn from distribution after August 31, 2011.

Prairie Tales is produced by Metro Cinema and amaas and with funding assistance from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

You can find out more about Prairie Tales by clicking here to visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.

For even more information or to schedule a Prairie Tales screening in your community, please contact the Prairie Tales Tour Coordinator at:

Metro Cinema
8712 109 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 1E9
T: 780.425.9212
F: 780.428.3509
E: prairietales@amaas.ca

FAQ

2011-07-15T17:54:00.000-07:00

Prairie Tales Frequently Asked Questions

Below are answers to some common, general questions about Prairie Tales. If you're an exhibitor with specific questions, click here to see Frequently Asked Questions from Exhibitors. If you're a media artist who would like to submit a work for consideration for Prairie Tales, click here to see some Frequently Asked Questions from Media Artists. If you're a distributor or exhibitor interested in the work of a particular Prairie Tales artist, please contact the Prairie Tales Tour Coordinator.

Frequently Asked Questions (General)

1. What exactly is Prairie Tales?

The straight and simple answer to this question is thatPrairie Tales is a feature-length movie comprised of short films and videos made by artists based in Alberta. A new edition of Prairie Tales comes out each year, put together by a jury that curates the program out of dozens of new shorts submitted by Albertan film and video makers during the winter months. Prairie Tales programs usually run from seventy to ninety minutes in length and contain about fifteen short works.

Prairie Tales is also a program - the initiative sense of the word - that promotes Prairie Tales anthologies for screening at libraries, schools, colleges, universities, community halls, galleries, media arts centres and cinemas across the province of Alberta and beyond.

In addition to securing bookings of the shorts feature, the Prairie Tales program also pays for artists who've made the works in the anthology to visit organizations that have booked an exhibition in order to give workshops or talks or simply to introduce the program and answer questions from the audience afterward. These visits are funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts' Travelling Exhibition Program, which pays for the circulation of many different kinds of art and artists through communities across the province each year.

2. Are all the shorts in Prairie Tales about the prairies?

No. To find out more about what kinds of films and videos you'll see in a Prairie Tales program, go to the next question.

3. What kinds of films and videos will I see in a Prairie Tales program?

You'll always see many different kinds of films and videos.

In any given year, a Prairie Tales program will probably feature animated shorts of all sorts - including conventional, hand-made, computer generated and/or stop motion. There are also usually live-action drama and comedy films and videos, as well as more challenging, experimental works. Prairie Tales collections have also included documentaries, essay films, music videos and dance on video and film and even video jams.

Shorts featured in Prairie Tales programs may be made using a wide variety of media, including 16mm, 35mm or Super 8 film, standard and high definition video, digital video, iphones - and combinations of any of the above.

4. How long has Prairie Tales been around?

Prairie Tales has been around for twelve years, which is why the most recent (2010) anthology is known as Prairie Tales 12. Each edition of Prairie Tales is numbered that way.Prairie Tales 11 came out in 2009, Prairie Tales 10 in 2008, all the way back to the first Prairie Tales, which came out in 1999.

5. Who's responsible for Prairie Tales?

Prairie Tales is produced jointly by Metro Cinema Society in Edmonton and the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society(AMAAS), which is currently based in Calgary. Metro Cinema provides administrative support to the program, which receives funding from AMAAS and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) through its Travelling Exhibition Program.

Back to top

Frequently Asked Questions from Media Artists

1. Do works submitted to Prairie Tales have to be about the Prairies?

Absolutely not. The name “Prairie Tales” loosely refers to where our media artists are based (the prairie province of Alberta). It does not at all dictate what the stories must be about. Works can be of any genre and on any theme and may take place in any locale in any language (although if your work is not in English and you want your dialogue to be understood, please include subtitles). And no, there is no special consideration favouring films that do reference or highlight the prairies or Alberta.

2. When can I submit my film or video?

The call for submissions usually goes out in late November or early December of each year. The deadline to submit is usually in late January. Please do not submit works before the call is announced.

3. Can I submit more than one work?

Yes. However, it should be understood by all artists submitting work that in the interest of including a multiplicity of Alberta voices in the anthology, it would be an extraordinary circumstance for the jury to include more than one work by the same media artist in any one Prairie Tales program.

4. If I've been in Prairie Tales once, can I be in it again in subsequent years?

Yes.

5. Can I submit a work that is almost finished?

No. Regrettably, it’s impossible for us to fairly judge complete works against incomplete works. Accepting incomplete works into the program also leaves both Prairie Tales and the artist in question wide open to too many production liabilities. If your film requires very minor corrections, such as adjustments to the credits or cleaning up a sound flaw here or there, that’s fine. If it’s missing a soundtrack, still has scenes to come, or is in the form of a rough edit, please wait until next year to submit it.

6. What makes my work eligible or ineligible for Prairie Tales?

There are three basic eligibility requirements:

Your work must have been made within the eighteen months period leading up to the submission deadline (usually the last Friday in January).
Alberta must have been your (usually the creator-director’s) primary residence when the work was made and completed. If you feel you or your work qualifies as Albertan on other grounds, please make those clear in your application. The decision of the Tour Coordinator as to its eligibility in such a case is final.
The start to finish (credits included) running time of your work must be 15 minutes or less.

And that’s it, other than a few commonsense requirements that are meant to ensure your work can be fairly adjudicated. These include things like submitting by the deadline, submitting in the proper media (VHS or DVD), and ensuring your submission plays clearly from start to finish on a current standard DVD or video player (i.e. not just for the first 30 seconds and not just on your computer).

We do our best to accommodate human error but unfortunately we cannot guarantee works that are part of incomplete applications or that do not play clearly or in their entirety on our equipment on the day of adjudication will be considered by the jury for inclusion in the program. All this and other information will be outlined on the submission form when it is made available.

7. If my work does not make it into Prairie Tales, can I submit it again next year?

Yes, as long as it still eligible (i.e. if it’s still eighteen months old or less by then).

8. Why did my work not make it into Prairie Tales?

Contrary to popular perception, Prairie Tales does not bill itself as a “best of Alberta” collection. While the primary criterion for inclusion in the exhibiting collection is quality, Prairie Tales typically receives more submissions of calibre than can be accommodated in a cohesive 70-90 minute program of short works. So if your work is in, be assured that’s because it was considered by the jurors to be among the best submissions that year. But if it isn’t, that doesn’t necessarily mean it was not also highly regarded by one of more of the jurors.

9. If my work does not make it into Prairie Tales, can I find out why?

Sort of. Prairie Tales can provide artists with very limited, constructive feedback in the form of a summary of notes the jurors took during the curation process that are directly related to your work. Please understand that these opinions are subjective and in no way represent a definitive opinion as to the quality of your work. The Tour Coordinator can provide you with this information upon request.

10. What’s so great about getting my work into Prairie Tales?

We will ask you to join the collection by signing a contract that permits the work to part of the Prairie tales collection for that year for a distribution period of eighteen months in exchange for a fee payable to you. In the past this distribution fee has been $600. Prairie Tales will then work to see that the collection gets played as far and wide as possible during its distribution period.

11. Where does Prairie Tales screen?

Prairie Tales is primarily screened in Alberta at independent cinemas, media arts co-ops, galleries, libraries and community centres. Increasingly it has been screened elsewhere in Canada, including in Whitehorse, Winnipeg, Guelph, Fredericton and Swift Current.

12. How many screenings of Prairie Tales are there each year?

Generally there have been anywhere from twelve to twenty screenings per year. But the number of exhibitions has generally been growing.

13. Does being in Prairie Tales prevent me from distributing work on my own?

Not at all. We encourage Prairie Tales artist to promote and screen their works independently as much as possible.

Back to top

Frequently Asked Questions from Exhibitors

1. Does it cost anything to show Prairie Tales?

The fee to screen Prairie Tales is $150. This fee, on par with the most economic rental rate generally available for feature films, helps to cover postage, artist fees and fees for workshops that might be held in connection with the screening. It also covers multiple screenings within a period of a few days.

Still too rich for your blood? Talk to us! Or if you're in Alberta, why not program your screening during Arts Dayswhen, thanks to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Prairie Tales is available to exhibitors free of charge?

2. How can I arrange a showing of Prairie Tales?

Simply contact the Tour Coordinator at prairietales@metrocinema.org and let us know:

the date(s) and time(s) you'd like to screen it
the location (room, venue, address) you'd like to screen it
any other contact information you'd like us to post on our website
whether you lack any equipment that would make it possible for you to show the program

We'll send you a DVD or beta copy for the exhibition, along with programs, posters and a promotional kit to help advertise the event. If you have equipment needs, we'll do our best to help you overcome them. After your screening, we'll ask you to help us keep track statistics by sending you a short questionnaire.

And that's pretty much all that's involved.

3. What equipment do I need to show Prairie Tales?

Prairie Tales has been screened in movie theatres, at art galleries and in community centres, on walls outdoors and in, on projection screens and television monitors in front of audiences large and small. Even if all you have is a television and a DVD player, you have all you really need for an exhibition of Prairie Tales. If you don't have anyequipment, let us know and we can help you with that, too!

4. Once I've shown Prairie Tales, can I screen it again?

The Prairie Tales exhibition fee of $150 covers multiple screenings within a period of a few days. However, if you'd like to screen it again outside of that initial period, the fee applies all over again. Please note that Prairie Tales programs can only legally be screened during their distribution period, which terminates for each at the end of August the year after it's released. For instance, Prairie Tales 12 is in circulation from June 25, 2010 until August 31, 2011.

5. Is Prairie Tales suitable for all audiences?

Prairie Tales 12 is rated 14A for "coarse language and infrequent gore in a comic context." Please click here for more information from the Alberta Ratings Board.

Prairie Tales 11 is rated 14A for "coarse language." Please click here for more information from the Alberta Ratings Board.

If you have any specific concerns about the suitability of Prairie Tales for your audience, please contact the Prairie Tales Tour Coordinator, who will be glad to discuss this question with you.

6. Can I watch Prairie Tales before deciding whether to screen it?

Of course. Just ask us for a preview disk. We'll send it to you right away and you can let us know afterward whether you'd like to go ahead and schedule a screening or not, no hard feelings either way.

7. How do I arrange for an artist visit in association with my screening?

Just tell us what you'd like the artist to do and we'll do our best to match you up with one who fits your needs and is available when your screening is taking place.

Depending on their skills and backgrounds, Prairie Tales visiting artists can teach workshops or give talks on a variety of subjects related to the media arts, including animation (in all of its forms), editing, storytelling with film or video, making Super 8 movies, promoting yourself as a filmmaker, and getting your work seen, just to name a few. Some artists like to give talks about their work and their process, bringing along some more short films they've made to show your audience. Artists can also simply attend your screening in order to introduce the program and stay to answer questions from the audience afterward.

Some exhibitors will request a particular artist based on an interest in their work in the anthology, so another suggestion is to browse the website notes and artists bios for each work in the latest progarm and see if anything piques your interest.

If you're still not quite sure what you want, don't hesitate to talk things over with the Tour Coordinator, but if or once you do, let the Coordinator know:

what you'd like the artist to do
the date and time you'd like them to do it
where you'd like them to do it
for how long you'd like to have them (workshops can last as long as three hours, talks are generally not more than thirty minutes to an hour in length)
how many people you'd like to serve (particularly in the case of a workshop)

The Tour Coordinator will then contact artists that are suited to fulfill your request and arrange a visit from one of them.

8. How much does an artist visit cost me?

Artist visits cost nothing to you, the exhibitor, unless you request a workshop or class that requires material(s) or equipment that's prohibitively expensive for us to provide. In that case we ask you to either share those particular costs with us, or if they're very high, cover them entirely. But workshops don't have to involve costly materials.

To be very clear, Prairie Tales covers the cost of an artist's travel, accommodation and meals during their visit, and pays them the fee for their services too. You, the exhibitor, don't pay for any of that.

Screenings: Prairie Tales 12

2011-07-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

Screenings - Prairie Tales 12

Prairie Tales 12 is in distribution until August 31, 2011. It received its premiere at the Sled Island Film Festival, screening at the Plaza Theatre in Calgary at 7:00 pm on June 25, 2010.

Red Deer, AB

Wednesday, March 23rd, Time TBA

Red Deer College
Motion Picture Arts Classes

Visiting Artist:
Trevor Anderson (Punchlines)
Red Deer College alumnus will visit motion picture art classes in the afternoon to show and talk about his work. In the evening he will be present for a Q&A at a screening of Prairie Tales 12 hosted by the college.

Lethbridge, AB
Thursday, March 24th, @7:00pm

AMAAS Fundraiser
Tongue n Groove
518 5th Street South
Contact: 403.942.6676
Admission: TBA

Guest Artist: TBA

St. Albert, AB
Friday, April 7th, 7:30 pm

St. Albert Articulture Festival
2011 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards
Arden Theatre
5 St. Anne Street
Contact: 780.459.1542
Admission: Free

Guest Artist: Trevor Anderson (Punchlines)

Swift Current, SK

Thursday, May 26th, Time TBA

Lyric Theatre
227 Central Avenue North
Contact: 306.773.6292

Visiting Artist: TBA

High School Screenings

John G. Diefenbaker High School, Calgary
Communications Technology Classes
Guest Artist: TBA

Leduc Composite High School, Leduc
Film and Media Classes (Dec 9, 2010)
Guest Artist: Trevor Anderson (Punchlines)

Austin O'Brien High School, Edmonton
Film Classes (Dec. 7, 2010)
Guest Artist (Dec. 8, 2010): James Cadden (Escape from Death Planet)

Past Screenings

Grande Prairie
Wednesday, January 19, 11:30 am - 14:45 pm

Grande Prairie Regional College
Location: Rm L123
Admission: Free
Contacts: Emily Bingeman 780-539-2215 or Joanne Porta 780-539-2443

Guest Artist: Andrea N. Mann (A Dozen Ways)
Andrea N. Mann will attend the screening on the 19th and take questions from the audience afterward. On Thursday afternoon, she will attend Tina Martel's video class to talk about her work and answer questions from the students.

Fort McMurray
Saturday, December 11, 7:30 pm

Keyano College
Visual and Performing Arts Centre
Room C111

Visiting Artist:
Carol Beecher (Intergalactic Who's Who: The El Huge-O Maximus)
Carol will be visiting a Fine Arts media class at Keyano College to show and talk about her work and offer feedback on the work of the students on Monday, December 6, 7:00-10:00 pm

Wetaskiwin
Wednesday, November 24, 7:00 pm

Wetaskiwin Public Library
5002 - 51 Avenue
780.361.4446

Visiting Artists:
Trevor Anderson (Punchlines)
Trevor will be present at the screening on November 24th
Caitlind r.c. Brown (s p a c e)
Caitlind will be giving a workshop on Cameraless Animation at the library from 12-4pm on November 27th

Alberta Arts Days Screenings:

During Alberta Arts Days, the latest Prairie Tales anthology is made available to programmers free of charge. Prairie Tales was a proud participant Arts Days 2010, which was celebrated from September 17-19. Exhibitions of Prairie Tales 12 took place in the following communities:

Banff
Saturday, Sept. 18, 7:30 pm
Max Bell Building
Banff Centre for the Arts

Visiting Artists:
Price Morgan and Afshin Vahabzadeh
(Tales from the Heart)

Calgary
Sunday, Sept. 19, all day
Emmedia Open House
Emmedia Gallery & Production Society
#203, 351 - 11th Avenue SW

Visiting Artist(s):
Xstine Cook
(Tar Sand Pudding)
Greg Doble
(Coffee Stop)

Coaldale
Friday, Sept. 17, 2:00 pm
Saturday, Sept. 18, 2:00 pm
Coaldale Public Library
2014 18 Street

Visiting Artist:
Andrea N. Mann
(A Dozen Ways)

Didsbury
Saturday, Sept. 18, 7:00 pm
Didsbury Municipal Library
2033 19th Avenue

Visiting Artist:
Lyle Pisio
(The Empress)

Edmonton
Friday, Sept. 17, 7:00 pm
Saturday Sept. 18, 7:00 pm
Metro Cinema @ Rice Theatre (in the Citadel)
9828 101A Avenue

Visiting Artist:
Friday:
James Cadden
(Escape from Death Planet)
Scott Townend
(Greenwash Gang)

Saturday, Sept. 18, 2:30-5:30 PM
Film & Video Arts Society - Alberta (FAVA)
FAVA Open House
9722 102nd Street

Visiting Artist:
James Cadden
(Escape from Death Planet)

Forestburg
Friday, Sept. 17, 7:30 pm
Forestburg Public Library
4901 50th Street

Grande Prairie
Friday, Sept. 17, 10:00 am, 3:00 pm
Saturday, Sept. 18, 10:00 am
Sunday, Sept. 19, 1:00 pm
Rotary Community Room
Grande Prairie Public Library
101, 9839 103 Avenue

Visiting Artist:
Eric Becker on Sunday
(Water Under the Bridge)
Eric will speak about the making of Water Under the Bridgeand about film making and producing.

High Prairie
Friday, Sept. 17, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Reading Room
High Prairie Municipal Library
53rd Avenue @ 48th Street

Lethbridge
Saturday, Sept. 18, 8:30 pm
Sunday, Sept. 19, 2:30 pm & 6:30 pm
Prairie Tales Tent, Galt Gardens (downtown)

Visiting Artists:
Andrea N. Mann
(A Dozen Ways)
Caitlind. r.c. Brown
(s p a c e)

Okotoks
Saturday, Sept. 18, 1:00 pm
Okotoks Public Library
7 Riverside Drive West

Visiting Workshop Artist:
Lyle Pisio
(The Empress)

Penhold
Thursday, Sept. 16, 7:00 pm
Penhold and District Library
Penhold Regional Multiplex
Range Road 280 @ Hwy 42

Visiting Artist Q&A:
Kyle Whitehead
(Maverick)

Red Deer
Thursday, Sept. 16
Screening for Hunting Hill High School
English and Media classes
and for Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School
English classes

Friday, Sept. 17
Visiting Workshop Artists at Hunting Hill High School English and Media classes:

Caitlind r.c. Brown (s p a c e): workshop on filmmaking and the visual components of analyzing and understanding film
Price Morgan (Tales from the Heart): workshop on digital animation (overview)
Lyle Pisio (The Empress): stop motion animation and the making of The Empress

Friday, Sept. 17
Visiting Workshop Artists at Lindsay Thurber Comp High School English Classes
Price Morgan (Tales from the Heart): workshop on digital animation (overview) and the filmmakers process and sources of inspiration
Lyle Pisio (The Empress): stop motion animation and the making of The Empress

Rocky Mountain House
Friday, Sept. 17, 7:00 pm
Meeting Room
Rocky Mountain House Public Library
4922 52nd Street

Sundre
Friday, Sept. 17, 3:00 pm
Sundre Municipal Library
#2 - 310 Centre Street North

Taber
Friday, Sept. 17, 8:00 pm
Taber Legion Hall
5205 48th Avenue

If you are programming events for Arts Days and would like to know more about how to arrange a free screening of Prairie Tales 12 during the celebration in September, please contact the Prairie Tales Tour Coordinator, Ian Leung, atprairietales@metrocinema.org.

Home

2011-07-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the web-home of Prairie Tales, the annual touring anthology of short films and videos made by Albertan media artists. Every year, we bring out a new batch of works from the shining lights of our province's media arts scene and assemble them into a feature-length package for distribution across Alberta and beyond.

You'll find information about our latest anthology, Prairie Tales 13, under The Works, where each short is listed in order of appearance on the program. Click on a title to see a description of the short and a bio of the artist(s) responsible for it.

Information, Artists and Bookings

About Prairie Tales and FAQ, our Frequently Asked Questions page, contain more in depth information about our program. You'll find those under the link list to the right.

FAQ is also where to go if you’re a media artist interested in having your work become part of a future Prairie Tales anthology, or someone from a cinema, gallery, school, library, community hall, film club, media arts organization (or anywhere else!) who’d like information about how to schedule a screening of Prairie Tales, or about how to arrange a Prairie Tales artist visit to your community in conjunction with a screening.

Thanks for checking us out. We look forward to hearing from you!

Mari Sasano

Tour Coordinator

Prairie Tales