September 7 – 16, 2007
TIFF Future Projections 2007
Wildflowers of Manitoba is a performative installation of four short films and sound presented in a furnished geodesic dome. The films feature four young men living off the grid in an idealistic survivalist camp on the shores of Lake Winnipeg during the summer of 2006. The loosely scripted scenes establish a naturalist idyll seemingly removed from modernity. Like wildflowers, the male subjects are intimately tied to a seductive meadow that is bordered by abandoned railway tracks and virgin beaches. Staged for the camera, the set and subjects evoke a distant, more innocent era where alternative, collective lifestyles flourished. The music by visionary seventies Québécois rock band Harmonium suggests the potential for sexual and political freedom.
Noam Gonick and Luis Jacob’s young male subjects perform homosocial activity to achieve spiritual transcendence. While an intense presence is projected by each body on screen, the subjects lose their theatrical pretense when dwarfed against the Canadian landscape of water, sky, rocks and bush. The effect is an unpretentious filmic experience that urges you to fantasize a sequel.
Noam Gonick and Luis Jacob, Wildflowers of Manitoba, 2006
Cinematographer: Mike Maryniuk
Editor: Deco Dawson
Costume Designer: Darena Snowe
Art Director: Jason Kennett
Principal Cast: Andrew Cecil, Cyrus Smith, Niki Lount, Dan McRorie
Curated by Wayne Baerwaldt
Opening Reception
Friday September 7, 7 – 10 pm
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