Joyce Wieland: The Camera and the Body

Introduced by Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof.

The earliest films made by Wieland in New York were performance-based works. Wieland was influenced by other underground filmmakers, but her unique sense of bawdy humour set her films apart, making them an important part of her oeuvre.

With Water Sark (1965), Wieland had a major aesthetic breakthrough. Where her previous films were still rooted in some vestige of narrative, Water Sark was a self-sufficient film that needed no people. Further, while her earlier work was already engaged with sexuality, especially of a phallic nature, with Water Sark she turns her attention to her own feminine body.

1967’s Handtinting is another milestone, foretelling ecofeminist aesthetics, where the distinctions between art and life, the body and the world are blurred.

All prints courtesy of the AGO except where otherwise indicated.

Larry’s Recent Behaviour, 1963, colour/b&w, sound, 17 min.

Inspired by neo-Dadaism, and her own innate sense of the absurd, Wieland cuts from “Larry”’s body parts to Jackie Kennedy’s reaction to John F. Kennedy’s assassination, while playing “I Have a Boyfriend”, the Chiffons song that was playing on Dallas radio when the news of the assassination broke.Courtesy of Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC), Toronto.

Peggy's Blue Skylight, 1964, b&w, sound, 12 min.

A day in the life, from noon to dawn, of Joyce Wieland and Michael Snow, with friends visiting their loft in NYC. Music by Paul Bley.

Patriotism 1, 1964, colour, sound, 4 min.

“Wieland once called this her 'hot dog film' and downplayed it as a 'technically bad' experiment in animation. But as an early product of her New York years [...] the film gestures toward a view of the male body as a complex, vulnerable site, criss-crossed by power and inscribed with the marks of gendered national identity.” (Lee Parpart)

Patriotism 2, 1965, colour, silent, 4 min.

A portrait of filmmaker Dave Shackman with the American flag, featuring stop-motion animation of a dinner table swirling and gathering in a ball.

Water Sark, 1965, colour, sound, 14 min.

Wieland’s body is visible in the film, but abstracted by the framing, her hand manipulating objects, shooting through glasses while pouring liquids in them, and all of this refracted off of a mirror creating new shapes and colours. The free jazz soundtrack by Carla Bley, Ray Jessel and Mike Mantler heightens the kinaesthetic quality of the film.

Handinting, 1967, colour, silent, 6 min.

“Handtinting remains a touchstone miracle. how did she manage to say so much with so little?” (Mike Hoolboom)

TRT: 57 min.

AD HOC aims to rethink what an experience of cinema can be. We seek to reposition historical landmarks and buried treasures within the on-going tradition of experimental and other non- commercial modes of filmmaking, drawing on work from Toronto, throughout Canada, and internationally. Within these parameters, we aspire to diversity in programming, as well as to multimedia and interdisciplinary screening events that bring together varied communities.

AD HOC = Stephen Broomer, Madi Piller, Jim Shedden, Bart Testa.

AD HOC would like to thank Alberto Zambenedetti, Denise Ing, Charlie Keil, and the staff of Innis College and the Cinema Studies Institute.

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