Projector Review

Jason Booth, a reporter from Red River College's student paper The Projector (how appropriate), came to the One Take Super 8 Event in Winnipeg, and filed this story.

Life’s Great in Super 8

Jason Booth

On a cold rainy Sunday night on Thanksgiving weekend, film lovers came out in droves to catch the premiere of 28 Winnipeg short films in the One Take Super 8 Event, the finale of the third WNDX Festival of Film and Video Art.

The films were shot entirely on Super 8 cameras in one take and feature only in-camera editing. Never before seen by the public, festival organizers or even the filmmakers themselves, the shorts were a big hit. Scenes of downtown Winnipeg, the Exchange, prairie fields, trains, scampering dogs, music, dance, nudity, animation, Chinatown, rocket-ships, horses, birth, death, and dolls with questionable morality, delighted the crowd of over 200 which packed the theatre at the Garrick Centre.

“This is a great crowd,” said Cecilia Araneda, WNDX Festival organizer. “Every year we’ve been beyond capacity. Last year in the Film Group studio, people were packed in like sardines.” The Winnipeg Film Group is one of the event’s major supporters.

“I don’t need to see the work to assemble the reels. It’s more exciting because no one’s seen it,” said Alex Rogalski, the man behind the event. “Filmmakers are experiencing this with the audience. It’s all about the anticipation and nervous excitement.” Rogalski, a programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival, started the event in Regina in 2000 as a way to get an audience for his friend’s films. Since then, he’s held over a dozen unique screenings in cities around North America. A $35 entry fee covers stock, processing and shipping. Filmmakers must be local. Beyond that, there are no other guidelines except time. “There’s no topic or theme, and we don’t seek out filmmakers,” says Rogalski as he prepares the first reel of the evening. “It ranges from personal home movies, to docs, to horror, to comedy. There could be hardcore porn up there in twenty minutes, we don’t know. We can’t prepare an audience for what they’ll see,” said Rogalski. “Even if it is the most offensive thing you’ve ever seen, it’s only on for 3:20,” he added. “And unlike a two hour feature, you get 28 films. You might see a couple you don’t like, but you might also see a few that will really stick with you.”

The One Take Super 8 Event came to Winnipeg in 2006 by way of Montreal. Rogalski was running the event there when he met WNDX Collective member Sol Nagler, who thought it would be a good fit for their festival in Winnipeg.

One of the festival’s more provocative films may have been among its most endearing. Established local filmmaker Deco Dawson presented an intimate home movie, which initially stunned the audience. The film shows his pregnant wife in a hospital bed, partially clothed, struggling through the pains of childbirth. The audience erupted with cheers and applause as the film ended with the first recorded images of Dawson’s newborn son in the hospital nursery.

Kevin Bacon, one of the event’s participants, was enthusiastic about the show, “Somehow these One Take films are always my best stuff. It might be because I know there’s only one shot at it, it won’t be perfect.” Bacon explains that his short was inspired by a Velvet Underground song, “I wanted to visualize the song. Apparently it worked, everyone seemed to like it.” This is my third entry and I’ve learned something every time,” Bacon said, offering some Zen-like advice for aspiring filmmakers, “Start a second after you should start. Stop a second before you should stop.” Bacon is already looking forward to his next entry, “For sure, I’ll be back every year.”

Not everyone was pleased with the lack of editing. There were a few comments from audience members that many of the films were underexposed or blurry. Although the crowd seemed pleased with his entry, filmmaker Joshua Stanton was disappointed. “The ending of my movie got cut off. Basically, our film ran out.” Stanton has participated in the event twice before, with better results. “The last two were perfect. But, you take the risk that you may not get exactly what you want,” he said.

“It was great. The birth film was great. This is raw directorial talent, unfettered by the editing process,” said Matthew Rankin, winner of the Special Jury Prize for his film Hydro-Lévesque, in the WNDX Festival’s New Prairie Cinema category. “Some of them really worked, but some of them were overly ambitious.”

“We really like that it’s bringing in filmmakers new to the craft,” said Tara Walker, Executive Director of On Screen Manitoba, the event’s sponsor. “The process isn’t that daunting and it’s cost effective, so it’s pure creative filmmaking.”

Dave Fort, a friend of one of the filmmakers, was pleased with the event. “It was very good,” said Fort, “It’s going through some growing pains, but that might be its beauty”