Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man |
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I've decided to do my first interview! I chose Braden Cannon, an unknown filmmaker with loads of intelligence, creativity, and sarcasm. Is it cheating that he's also my kid brother?
How and when did your first interest in film begin?
I don't remember the exact moment, really. I was influenced by all the same things that all the other kids my age were: STAR WARS, INDIANA JONES, BACK TO THE FUTURE, etc. Beyond that, I guess I got more interested through acting. I wanted to be a great Shakespearean actor of the stage, and this led to the opportunity to direct a play at the age of 14. That experience gave me a huge appreciation for directors. One thing led to another, I guess, and I started reading about cinema, then I started seeking out the films that I read about and before I knew it, I was hooked.
Tell us about your first adventures in filmmaking. Would you call your style more experimental than anything else?
My first adventures were nothing more than videotaping my friend and I doing sketches. This was around the same age, 14 or so. From there, I used the camera a bit more creatively rather than just sticking it on a tripod and acting in front of it. But from the start (well, after those sketch videos), my "style" (if you could call it that) has definitely been more experimental. I've never been too content just to tell stories, I would much rather delve into ideas in an abstract, round-about way. Plus, I soon discovered it was much easier to get a point across using nothing but imagery instead of trying to get your friends to "act."
What sort of education have you received? Do you recommend further education?
I did two years of film school. What was great about that was the fact that the film program I attended was part of a larger art school. This really opened my eyes and I consider those days to be my wild, bohemian, art school years. However, although being in the art school context taught me a lot, the film program itself was much more geared toward the film industry.
I learned about art in spite of the film program, not because of it. In fact, at the end of my two years there (the program was actually four years), I was given an ultimatum by the professors: I could stay there and continue to make experimental films and argue with hack profs and flunk out, I could stay and make exactly what they wanted me to make, or I could leave.
So I left.
From there, I realized that the film industry wasn't for me and I had no intention to become a professional filmmaker. I also 
"I am your Godard. You shall have no other Godards above me!" |
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discovered that I was much more into film theory than filmmaking, so I switched from a Bachelor's program in filmmaking to a BA in Film Studies and finished my degree in that field. No regrets.
I've learned most of what I know about filmmaking not from film school, but from film co-operatives. In Canada, where I've lived off-and-on for the past 6 years, most major cities have public-supported film co-ops which provide training and equipment for anyone who's interested and willing to join the co-op. This is an amazing system and suits my goals perfectly. It's true cinematic, grassroots democracy. Film school is for those who think they're directors or people who are interested in learning a trade that they can make a living off of, such as editing or camera work. Nothing wrong with that at all, it just wasn't for me.
What inspires you as an artist? Who have been the most inspirational filmmakers for you?
As an artist or creator of some sort, nothing inspires me more than death. I'm not afraid of death as much as I'm afraid that I'll be on my deathbed looking back at my life and realize that I wasted my life. So I do stuff that'll look good in my obituary. Oh, and cinema has the power to change the world. There's that, too.
As for the directors that have inspired me, that list is easily topped by Jean-Luc Godard. I remember watching BREATHLESS when I was about 15 and realizing that everything that I thought I knew about cinema was wrong, and that Godard exemplifies everything that's right. From there, I consumed every other Godard film I could get my hands on and was further influenced by his radical phase, even more so than his New Wave period.
This taste in radical cinema awoke me to really intelligent, socially-engaged, cutting edge filmmakers like Chris Marker, Peter Watkins, Dziga Vertov, Sara Gomez, and Michael Haneke. These guys encapsulate so much of what I believe in and have built up an amazing body of work that will have film geeks like me debating for generations.
I've also been very influenced by pre-war experimental filmmaking by the likes of Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and a host of other artist/filmmakers whose names hardly register with the public.
From more accessible, narrative cinema, I've drawn inspiration from a host of directors including Orson Welles, Abel Gance, Buster Keaton, Woody Allen, Albert Brooks, Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Andrej Wajda, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ken Loach, Francois Truffaut, F.W. Murnau, etc., etc.
What projects are you currently working on?
I just won a 
A still from Dziga Vertov's "Man With a Movie Camera." |
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grant from the Atlantic Filmmakers' Co-operative here in Halifax to create a 3 minute experimental film. My project, which is currently untitled, will attempt to show the external manifestations of power and inequality in Halifax through contemplation of landscape. I'm sure it'll be a blockbuster!
I also just recently made a couple of Super 8 films just for fun. One is about a spinning top that hates spin, the other is an ode to Marcel Duchamp disguised as a stop-motion chess symphony. I'm having a screening party in a couple of days to give these two films their world debut. It's gonna be off the hook.
What are your future plans?
Hell if I know. I'd like to continue making films for my own pleasure and remain engaged in wider film culture. I currently have no grand vision for a magnum opus or anything like that. I'm just taking it one step at a time, keeping filmmaking as a hobby while thinking/writing/talking about film
remains one of my supreme joys.
You're interested in archiving and preservation, as well as filmmaking. Do you feel more people need to be aware of its importance?
Actually, at this point film archiving and preservation is more of an interest of mine than filmmaking. I'm quite passionate about this subject and am studying to become an archivist. Film, in all of its manifestations, is part of our collective history and culture. Any study of modern society, in any part of the world, that doesn't take audio-visual practices into account is offering an incomplete picture, at best. When dealing with historical developments built on propaganda and mass communication, ignoring audio-visual practices is nothing less than a fraud. Film preservation and archiving isn't about nostalgia, it's about history. Even narrative-driven films are documents of their time; the dominant ideologies, the language, the fears, and everything else about the time and place in which they were created are evident in the cinematic text.
As film (which is still a young medium) grows in age, we need to be more and more aware of what we stand to lose by ignoring older, neglected films (everything from narrative and documentary to amateur home movies and industrial safety films) and take steps to preserve as much as we can.
For cinematic revolution!
To read "C is for Cinema," Braden's blog dedicated to the discussion of film, cinema, video, etc., go here: http://arizona-jules.livejournal.com Braden's Disclaimer: "It's kinda lame and a bit neglected." Christa's Thoughts: "Hardly lame. And not too neglected!"
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| Cannon Fodder |
Every other Thursday
Stream-of-conscious ruminations on whatever pops into Christa's head.
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| Christa Cannon |
Christa would prefer to live in a world where everyone breaks out into song and dance. Um, and also one in which she is rich and very famous.
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| Contact |
If you have a comment, question, or suggestion, you can send a message to Christa Cannon by clicking here.
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