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Artistic Expressions (5)

  • Alain Dubreuil, Alchemist
    Alain Dubreuil, Alchemist
    Manon Barbeau 2002 26 min
    A veritable demolition artist, Alain saves what he can from the wrecking ball, salvaging disused and discarded items and magically infusing them with new life. The scrap yard is his treasure trove. Based only on his fertile imagination, eschewing any kind of preconceived plan, he creates wondrous objects and edifices. An old warehouse becomes his home. A mothballed shipyard serves as a gigantic movie set, further feeding his dreams... until his lease is up and the authorities insist the buildings must come down. But Alain is already off searching for another abandoned structure vast enough to accommodate his soaring vision.
  • Canadians Abroad
    Canadians Abroad
    Don Haldane 1956 30 min
    This short documentary from 1956 catches up with several talented Canadians who have found a home in the entertainment or arts scenes of London and Paris. Among them are Toronto-born Beverley Baxter, a baronet and MP who claims that London has a history of being invaded (first the Romans, now the Canadians), and then-aspiring novelist Mordecai Richler, who feels he has a better chance of making a living in England than he does back home.
  • Marree Man
    Marree Man
    David Batty 2007 2 min
    This short documentary touches the surface of the Marree Man mystery in Southern Australia. Discovered in 1998, Marree Man in Central Australia is the largest land drawing in the world, but no one knows who created it—or do they?
  • Triptych
    Triptych
    Pedro Pires  &  Robert Lepage 2013 1 h 34 min
    Triptych is a contemporary urban saga that tells the story of Michelle, a schizophrenic bookseller, her sister, Marie, a singer and actress, and Marie’s future husband, Thomas, a German neurosurgeon. Against a backdrop of written and visual poetry, the film depicts three pivotal moments in the lives of these characters while touching on an array of subjects—artistic expression, social engagement versus solitude, the many nuances of emotion. In this study of human communication in all its forms and complexity, these three lives intersect in their quests for personal identity and a burning desire for self-expression. Directed by Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires, this film adaptation of Lepage’s epic, nine-hour play Lipsynch captures the essence of the original work, which deals with the human voice.
  • Woodland Spirits
    Woodland Spirits
    Dave Clement 2007 27 min
    In this documentary short, two men paddle a canoe across a remote part of northern Lake Superior. Each stroke brings them closer to the culmination of an artistic and spiritual journey, one that begins with ancient rock paintings from their Anishinaabe ancestors.