Re:
a video by BRUCE
Vidéo | 2011 | 12:55 min | Some sound (at 9min) | English dialogue with some French
Re: is an epistolary video; text-based, in English (sometimes broken) and email-colloquial. Re: documents how the two BRUCE collaborators met through email as well as the first 11 months of their emails exchanges. These emails expose dreams, memories and accidents as plot devices used to unfold the collaborative process, delving into the role of the subconscious in the construction of time.
The wavering pace of exchange, in conjunction with the appearance of flash-images creates a rhythm that guides the dialogue. Through the use of recurring motifs, viewers become able to ‘make sense’ and to enter a dialogue that at first seems insane (or at least inane). This dialogue is continually interrupted and invaded by the overflow of social media, hyperlinks, and references to the outside world.
This collection of emails, selected, arranged and codified for a narrative, renders explicit the potential and limitations of email as both an archive of feelings and an archive of experience. In this way, Re: is rooted in a documentary practice; emails are chronological and have not been manipulated or modified. The documentary quality is not to be overlooked as the sincerity at play and the intimacy that is constructed through the exchange are ‘real’ and slowly revealed through the mechanics of send and reply. The dialogue that slowly emerges is increasingly strange and idiosyncratic, to which the viewer becomes a privileged witness.
Frédérick Belzile and Mél Hogan have been working under the moniker BRUCE since 2009. The BRUCE partnership is based on a shared attention to archives in relation to storytelling and media. Bruce has contrasting points of interest that converge into important binaries: popular culture/personal mythologies, stereotypes/archetypes, and fragmentation/automation.
Distribution: GIV, Groupe Intervention Vidéo
Diffusion // Screening
2012 - Streaming Festival. The Hague, Nederland.
2012 - Antimatter Film Festival. Victoria, BC, Canada.
2011 - Laissez-Passer. Groupe Intervention Vidéo. Montréal, Canada.
2011- No More Potlucks. www.nomorepotlucks.org