After leaving NYC, while self isolating in Toronto in August, Trish of the beloved Toronto shop Ewanika reached out to me to discuss making a video for her Fall Season 2020. I was thrilled. Trish and I are both Criterion collection nerds and during our first conversation realized we both adore Agnes Varda - we clicked creatively right off the bat.
Trish wanted our video to bring EWANIKA to her customers while we are all in isolation, to welcome you inside her store, to the surrounding streets, and to the nearby park. Luckily for me, Trish trusted my creative vision and let me run wild with her beautiful clothing. Our day of shooting felt more like a game of dress up than work. I wanted our film to capture the spirit of autumn, and that Paris in 60s - Clara made that part easy. We hope it inspires you to dress up, dress down, wander, sit, reflect, because as Diana Vreeland once said, ‘real elegance is in the mind’.
A collective of female filmmakers from NYC and jewelry designer Corey Moranis have teamed up with trailblazer Jane Marx, to create a short film called Reflect the Light.
This short film (part documentary-part fashion film) shares Jane's unique perspective on life, age, and style. She dances on a rooftop, finds treasure on the beach, and explores a warehouse full of marble—all while dripping in luminous lucite.
Our film is a joyful counterpoint to the fashion and beauty industries' obsession with youth, embracing individual style at any age and aiming to inspire others to express themselves in whatever way feels authentic to them.
You can read our interview with S magazine here.
I made this video for one of my fave Brooklyn bands - Otro Lado.
Falling Forward is a quirky coming of age story and a personal portrait of intergenerational friendship and grief. This film is a testament to the healing power of creativity, humour, grit and determination in the face of loss.
A little about the process:
I began filming Jane because I was drawn to her life force. Jane’s energy does not diminish with age, but seems to grow louder and brighter as Jane gets older. As a female filmmaker, I am particularly drawn to stories about women who break traditional notions of femininity and aging. I wanted to make an honest portraot of Jane that expressed her larger than life public persona, her off-the-cuff sense of humour as well as her solitary interior life, as an older woman with no family or romantic relationships.
Through the process of filming, Jane and I discovered we had a lot in common, including a shared tragedy. This revelation became central to the film and shifted my trajectory as as filmmaker. I had to follow my intuition and get comfortable with becoming a subject in the film as our roles as filmmaker and subject became increasingly blurred.
I purposefully revealed my process and chose to include “off camera conversations” between Jane and I to reveal our dynamic relationship and create a feeling of intimacy with the audience. I also incorporated my own hand written text and narration to make the film feel more personal and give it a tactile feel that would reinforce Jane’s whimsy and colourful personality.
Making Falling Forward has been a creative and healing process for both Jane and I. Although this film is a deeply personal one, the themes within it are universal. Falling Forward is a story about age and spirit; love and loss and embodies, for me, the spirit “of art as life/lifeas art.”
These instructional art videos were part of the Party Time Learning Lab, myself and Morgan Mavis programmed for SickKids Hospital. The lab consisted of a series of “art parties” for patients. These animated instructional videos accompanied the parties and were played on the bedside TV screens for the patients who were not well enough to attend the parties. We delivered appropriate art materials to their hospital rooms so that they could join in on the fun!
These video portraits were made as part of an effort to help the community of Kensington Market in Toronto fight the threat of Walmart moving into the diverse and historic neighbourhood. Kensington Market is a community of small businesses and family run stores, increasingly threatened by the rising rents and an influx of chains. These videos were shared online and viewed at community meetings and events to celebrate some of the people and places that make Kensington so special. Walmart eventually ditched their plans to move into the neighbourhood due to the incredible outcry by locals. It was amazing to be a part of the effort to fight corporate development and gentrification!
Lido Pimienta isn’t slowing down after winning the Polaris Prize (awarded to Canada’s best album of the year) for her latest LP, La Papessa. I was honoured to direct this music video and film segments of it with my Super 8 camera . The process was a labor of love as it’s edited by my brother Blake Macfarlane; my dear friend Sean McBride was DP and Lido’s son Lucian helped with make up. I wanted this music video to express Lido’s fierce feminine energy in this video. The video features lo-fi Super8 footage of the artist; clips of her child painting her face are interspersed with footage of Pimienta adorning various costumes and singing in the bath. Lido’s lyrics translate to, “I demand it/ affection/ one to desire.” It’s confidently vulnerable: her longing cry, the raw lyricism, the genuine imagery. This video is about shedding layers of emotional baggage and past relationships in order to heal and begin a new chapter of her life and career.
The video was released on Stereogum.
