The 30 Day Cinephile Challenge: My Answers (Part 1)

On Facebook, there are multitudes of 30 day movie challenges (which consist of one probing movie question a day for...well, you know). I wanted to participate, but most of them bored me. It wasn't until I encountered the 30 Day Cinephile Challenge, with its vastly more inventive queries, that I opted to take part in one. My cohorts on this challenge, by the way, are extra worldly and so, by

Film #118: Mothlight

Watching the works of Stan Brakhage is like looking at a field of daisies: why ask why? The best of his films are pure magic, and this is one of the best. Watch it with the sound off. It was made in 1963; Brakhage took strips of 16mm splicing tape and embedded in them the wings of moths he accumulated at his New England home. This was the first Brakhage film I KNEW I had to see, and I

Film #116: Begone Dull Care and Film #117: Neighbours

"I was inspired to make Neighbours by a stay of almost a year in the People's Republic of China. Although I only saw the beginnings of Mao's revolution, my faith in human nature was reinvigorated by it. Then I came back to Quebec and the Korean War began. (...) I decided to make a really strong film about anti-militarism and against war." --Norman McLaren The Scottish-born McLaren had been