Concordians featured at FIFA
Since 2003, film studies alum and part-time studio arts instructor Nicole Gingras, BFA 86, has led FIFA Experimental, the festival’s out-of-competition, by-invitation section.
Gingras explains that the section’s curation takes many months of research with a focus on works that propose innovative and exploratory approaches to art video and film. This year, FIFA Experimental focuses on creative and improvisation processes, how artists collaborate and the materiality and sensuality of images and sounds.
“Like a sculpture or a painting, these are works of art that offer unique perspectives on time, memory, identity, the imaginary and the imperceptible,” Gingras explains. “I’ve selected works made independently by artists, often by a small production team or an individual, that focus on film or video as a medium.”
She notes that another important element of FIFA Experimental is to contextualize the selected works within film and video history as well as to engage in a conversation on them beyond time.
Gingras adds that it’s a pleasure for her to present the experimental program at Concordia, where she studied film with inspiring professors Mario Falsetto, John Locke, Tom Waugh and Will Straw.
This year’s experimental program features films from several Concordia fine arts alumni and faculty, including II. by cinema graduate and guest lecturer Alexandre Larose, BFA 06, MFA 14; No Bottom (Boundless the Source) by part-time faculty Andrew Forster, MA 13, PhD 20; and These problems are multiplied by the difficulty I have in front of a tape recorder by Steve Bates, MFA 10.
Also not to be missed, Concordia MFA student Badewa Ajibade will present Afro Landscapes: Sons of the Soil, Daughters of the Dust, a selection of nine sub-Saharan African short experimental films as part of the festival’s carte blanche programming. Ajibade’s selections will be screened at the DeSève Cinema on March 19.
Learn more about the 41st edition of the International Festival of Films on Art.
Concordians are invited to use the promo code CNCRD15 for 15 per cent off on FIFA theatre passports.