Collected Data

"This is Lipsett’s truest gift. The ability to make us feel and see anew, and in doing so, illuminating and revealing the many mechanisms through which we usually choose to remind numb and blind."


Carolyne Weldon for NFB Blog;

Unusual and unsettling, Lipsett’s films are complex and tightly-wound. On the surface, or at first glimpse, all one experiences is chaos. The films appear disjointed, headache-inducing, even rambling. The visuals race from one thing to the next, and the sound doesn’t match.


But closer scrutiny reveals the depth and scope of Lipsett’s genius. Below the surface, things are moving. Things everyone stumbles upon once in a while: existential dread, unease, futility. Powerful feelings that most of us prefer to suppress and ignore.


Inside the Disturbed and Disturbing Collage Films of Avant-Garde Genius Arthur Lipsett

R.I.P. Colin Low 1926-2016

From the NFB Blog;

“The National Film Board of Canada feels a profound sense of loss today. The NFB as a centre of excellence and innovation would not have existed as we know it without the enormous contributions of Colin Low. He was a great and committed public servant―and would speak of the pride he felt in creating cinema that served Canadians. He was tireless, visionary, generous in spirit, a true gentleman―a great Canadian and Albertan. Canada will not see his like again and we are forever in his debt,” said Claude Joli-Coeur, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson.


Colin Low (1926-2016) | The NFB and Canada Lose a True Pioneer of Cinema

Watch" Do Not Track" by Brett Gaylor


Do Not Track Press Kit;

Do Not Track is a personalized documentary series about privacy and the web economy. If you share data with us, we’ll show you what the web knows about you.


This documentary series will explore how information about you is collected and used. Every two weeks, we will release a personalized episode that explores a different aspect of how the modern web is increasingly a space where our movements, our speech and our identities are recorded and tracked.


We want to explore what this means to you, your family and your friends. From our mobile phones to social networks, personalized advertising to big data, each episode will have a different focus, a different voice and a different look.

 
Do Not Track

"Lipsett’s filmmaking opened new directions and possibilities"

A Trip Down Memory Lane by Arthur Lipsett, National Film Board of Canada


Brett Kashmere;

When Lipsett, fresh out of Montreal art school, was hired to work in the Unit B’s animation department in 1958, an independent avant-garde cinema did not exist in Canada. In the absence of tradition, Lipsett blazed a new trail. His pioneering collage films imparted exciting possibilities for handcrafted, personal, cameraless, and found footage filmmaking, both in his time and in the present day.


Inventing a Tradition: Arthur Lipsett and the NFB’s “Studio X”

Arthur Lipsett was a genius.

Watch: "Inner Rush" by Christopher Romeike

Inner Rush by Christopher Romeike, National Film Board of Canada

Watch: "Very Nice, Very Nice"

Very Nice, Very Nice by Arthur Lipsett, National Film Board of Canada


Arthur Lipsett was brilliant.

In memoriam: Wolf Koenig (1927-2014)

From the NFB;

Filmmaker, producer, cinematographer, animator, and overall cinema pioneer Wolf Koenig passed away on June 26, 2014 at the age of 86. During a prolific career at the NFB, Koenig’s films were lauded for their sophisticated style and what was often a subtle irony in their observation of human behaviour and modern society.


In memoriam: Wolf Koenig (1927-2014)

RIP Wolf Koenig

via Reelscreen;

Documentary pioneer Wolf Koenig (pictured), who spent 47 years working at Canada’s National Film Board (NFB), has passed away at the age of 86.


Doc pioneer Wolf Koenig passes away
Mr Koenig was brilliant. He helped redefine cinema.

Lonely Boy by Wolf Koenig& by Roman Kroitor, National Film Board of Canada


Rest in peace.