Werklund Centre hosting video art series by short filmmakers

Three filmmakers have created short productions using animation, stop motion and live action as means to share their creativity with passers-by in Calgary.

Three filmmakers are featured in the Micro Cinema at Werklund Centre where monitors are always on in the public space to showcase the artist’s work for free.

The centre provides screening space for media artists to showcase experimental film, video, art, animations and short documentaries, on three separate media monitors throughout the building.

“It’s a bit of a soundscape (for visitors), they enter the space and they can hear it before they see it,” said Sanja Lukac, Werklund Centre’s associate director of artist development. “All of the artists have animated these spaces in such unique ways, I think it’s a moment to take a pause in the day during a very busy moment in their day and listen and look at the stories that the artists are sharing through their work.”

Lukac said artists submit their videos through the TD Incubator Program and most are only a few minutes in length.

“It’s typically at least two minutes long,” she said. “If we do a feature film or short feature film, it’s up to 20 minutes so that’s sort of the criteria when we’re looking for - critical thinking, interesting stories, interesting perspectives from artists, just pushing the boundaries of what a micro cinema can host.”

Lukac says the centre has seen music videos submitted along with stop motion short films and animated pieces.

“We’re also seeing an increase in debut films so artists’ first films or first feature films are being in some ways premiered through this space or at least highlighted in the space in a very public way for the first time,” she said. “The artists that you’ll see are local, incredible, thought provoking directors, artists and animators who live and work here and we just live in an unbelievable city full of talent.”

Filmmaker Laila Blue spent more than a year producing a short film called Flow that mocks the skin care industry.

“It’s mixed media,” she said. “We have 2D animation with stop motion and live action so it’s kind of interesting blending the three forms together. We use a stop motion Barbie doll to embody what those markets are trying to tell us to look like or be like -- they’re always telling us this Barbie dream, right?”

Blue said she’s inspired by many different things, from visuals to simply a message she wants to share. She said Flow hits close to home because she had skin issues as a teen.

“I struggled with eczema most of my life since I was a kid, up until 18 or 19 and it was on my face so people are not nice to you when you have a skin disease on your face,” she said. “I’ve had people after film festivals come up to me and disclose that they also had a skin care problem and felt that they could relate to the piece and it’s been really nice to connect with people that have shared the same issues I’ve had.”

Maedeh Mosaver is an illustrator and animator along with being a filmmaker and says her animated stop-action film is close to two minutes long.

“Holding a Moment is about slowing down and being present, it is about reconnecting with the living word and the nature,” she said. “The film invites the viewer to linger and pause and, really, think about alternative ways of, being in the living world.”

Mosaver said Werklund Centre is the perfect venue to highlight this art form.

“You can come walk into the space and watch the film from wherever it is stats, it doesn’t really have a beginning and end because it’s non-narrative,” she said. “Werklund Centre has a lot of different people coming in from different groups, different ages and that’s exactly the group of people that I’m targeting so it’s wonderful.”

Learn more about the artists featured in micro cinema here.