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The Windows Collective
The Windows Collective is made up of six Ottawa artists who create independent films as part of their artistic practices. The collective formed in 2008, with the intention to explore the creative and subversive possibilities of alternative and transient venues for artistic expression and to bring local, independent cinema and alternative film practices to a wider audience in the city.
The vision of the Collective is to create original, accessible and unconventional art events using super 8, 16mm or 35 mm film as the medium. The members of the Windows Collective are Dave Johnson, Ainsley Walton, Bridget Farr, Roger D. Wilson, Paul Gordon and Pixie Cram.
The summer of 2009 saw our first project come to fruition with a travelling presentation of six looping, silent films presented in locations such as store windows, parking lots, heritage buildings and homes throughout the city of Ottawa over the course of the summer. We were next invited to create original film installations for the 2010 Ottawa Lumière Festival. As an alternative to traditional screens, the films were presented as sculptural installations by projecting them onto unique surfaces within Stanley Park. For example, Bridget Farr projected her film of New Edinburgh facades against a dollhouse, and Roger D. Wilson showed his experimental film using a paper lantern as a screen.
In August of 2011 the collective received funding from The Council for the Arts in Ottawa through their Corel Fund program to create new films. These new films were presented in Ottawa on August 15th, 2012. Ottawa audience members had the opportunity to view the six new experimental film loops at the Plaza Bridge Underpass, a pedestrian through-way that runs between the National Arts Centre and the Bytown Museum along the Rideau Canal Locks. The screening formats for this installation included 16mm film loops, a 35mm slide show, and video projection. Please check out the article local media writer Alejandro Bustos wrote on the event. http://apt613.ca/the-city-as-a-canvas-windows-collectives-underpass-screening/
Please check out the slideshow below:
The vision of the Collective is to create original, accessible and unconventional art events using super 8, 16mm or 35 mm film as the medium. The members of the Windows Collective are Dave Johnson, Ainsley Walton, Bridget Farr, Roger D. Wilson, Paul Gordon and Pixie Cram.
The summer of 2009 saw our first project come to fruition with a travelling presentation of six looping, silent films presented in locations such as store windows, parking lots, heritage buildings and homes throughout the city of Ottawa over the course of the summer. We were next invited to create original film installations for the 2010 Ottawa Lumière Festival. As an alternative to traditional screens, the films were presented as sculptural installations by projecting them onto unique surfaces within Stanley Park. For example, Bridget Farr projected her film of New Edinburgh facades against a dollhouse, and Roger D. Wilson showed his experimental film using a paper lantern as a screen.
In August of 2011 the collective received funding from The Council for the Arts in Ottawa through their Corel Fund program to create new films. These new films were presented in Ottawa on August 15th, 2012. Ottawa audience members had the opportunity to view the six new experimental film loops at the Plaza Bridge Underpass, a pedestrian through-way that runs between the National Arts Centre and the Bytown Museum along the Rideau Canal Locks. The screening formats for this installation included 16mm film loops, a 35mm slide show, and video projection. Please check out the article local media writer Alejandro Bustos wrote on the event. http://apt613.ca/the-city-as-a-canvas-windows-collectives-underpass-screening/
Please check out the slideshow below:
Biographies
Pixie Cram is an Ottawa-based filmmaker, director and artist who works with celluloid film and digital video. Her diverse body of work covers genres of fiction, animation, documentary, and art installation. On top of her own art practice she works as a freelance director, editor and cinematographer. Pixie's films have shown at festival across Canada and internationally. Her work is distributed by the Canadian Filmmaker's Distribution Centre (CFMDC) and by Groupe Intervention Video (GIV).
Bridget Farr is a graduate of both Film Studies and the Photographic Arts. Her numerous award-winning films have screened at over 100 international film festivals and events on all five major continents. Her photography has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world and on numerous touring exhibits including Oprah's "Live Your Best Life" Tour. Whether she's working as Artistic Director of the Burundi Film Center,teaching 16mm filmmaking classes for women in Ottawa or cuddling up with her filmmaker husband to watch and discuss film, Bridget's passion for cinema touches almost every aspect of her life.
Paul Gordon is an Independent Filmmaker and Film Conservator for Library and Archives Canada. He has worked on such diverse projects as a TV talk show set in the Yellowknife Dump (Dump Talk), a feature length documentary set in the Middle East during the Iraq War (Baghdad or Bust) and numerous short works produced with the help of SAW Video and IFCO here in Ottawa. He also likes tinkering with 35mm projectors and setting up odd exhibition venues for them.
Dave Johnson has produced a modest amount of independent films, and has worked as a sound engineer and location sound recorder. While living in Australia he developed and taught a film class, Introduction to Alternative Cinema, at the Flinders University of South Australia, and developed a non-profit Canadian underground film exhibition group, CAUS(e) (Canadian Australian Underground Short film Events), successfully screening independent Canadian films. Since his return to Canada, he completed the MFA Program at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in April 2008. His thesis involved a body of work exploring and experimenting with the documentary for which he received the Henry P. and Thomas R. Schriner- National Film Board of Canada Research/ Production Grant in Documentary. Currently, Dave is the technical director at IFCO, and is working on a number of film and electro-acoustic projects.
Ainsley Walton began making super 8 and 16mm films in 2006, with the intent to self-educate for professional purposes (she is an art conservator who works with time-based media collections). Education turned into a love of the medium and she creates several short films a year, some of which have screened at film events in Ottawa and Toronto. She has sat on the board of directors for the independent Filmmakers Cooperative of Ottawa and as chair of the board of trustees of Galerie SAW Gallery.
Roger D. Wilson is a film artist based out of Ottawa, Ontario. He received his Film Production Degree in 1993 from Confederation College. He has held a variety of positions in the film industry, working and living in Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa. His process is experimental and he works with techniques such as pixilation, time-lapse, emulsion manipulation and hand-processing. His 16mm film Camera Paint won the award for Best Experimental Film at the Niagara Filmfest in St. Catherines, Ontario. His films have screened at festivals across the Country. Roger presently sits on the board of directors for the Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa.
Bridget Farr is a graduate of both Film Studies and the Photographic Arts. Her numerous award-winning films have screened at over 100 international film festivals and events on all five major continents. Her photography has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world and on numerous touring exhibits including Oprah's "Live Your Best Life" Tour. Whether she's working as Artistic Director of the Burundi Film Center,teaching 16mm filmmaking classes for women in Ottawa or cuddling up with her filmmaker husband to watch and discuss film, Bridget's passion for cinema touches almost every aspect of her life.
Paul Gordon is an Independent Filmmaker and Film Conservator for Library and Archives Canada. He has worked on such diverse projects as a TV talk show set in the Yellowknife Dump (Dump Talk), a feature length documentary set in the Middle East during the Iraq War (Baghdad or Bust) and numerous short works produced with the help of SAW Video and IFCO here in Ottawa. He also likes tinkering with 35mm projectors and setting up odd exhibition venues for them.
Dave Johnson has produced a modest amount of independent films, and has worked as a sound engineer and location sound recorder. While living in Australia he developed and taught a film class, Introduction to Alternative Cinema, at the Flinders University of South Australia, and developed a non-profit Canadian underground film exhibition group, CAUS(e) (Canadian Australian Underground Short film Events), successfully screening independent Canadian films. Since his return to Canada, he completed the MFA Program at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in April 2008. His thesis involved a body of work exploring and experimenting with the documentary for which he received the Henry P. and Thomas R. Schriner- National Film Board of Canada Research/ Production Grant in Documentary. Currently, Dave is the technical director at IFCO, and is working on a number of film and electro-acoustic projects.
Ainsley Walton began making super 8 and 16mm films in 2006, with the intent to self-educate for professional purposes (she is an art conservator who works with time-based media collections). Education turned into a love of the medium and she creates several short films a year, some of which have screened at film events in Ottawa and Toronto. She has sat on the board of directors for the independent Filmmakers Cooperative of Ottawa and as chair of the board of trustees of Galerie SAW Gallery.
Roger D. Wilson is a film artist based out of Ottawa, Ontario. He received his Film Production Degree in 1993 from Confederation College. He has held a variety of positions in the film industry, working and living in Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa. His process is experimental and he works with techniques such as pixilation, time-lapse, emulsion manipulation and hand-processing. His 16mm film Camera Paint won the award for Best Experimental Film at the Niagara Filmfest in St. Catherines, Ontario. His films have screened at festivals across the Country. Roger presently sits on the board of directors for the Independent Filmmakers Co-operative of Ottawa.
