Coming This Week! November 12th

Gail Vachon
screening at Mass Art Film Society

IMAGINE YOU HAD A SON (1994) 4 minutes (DVD)
This film is all text.

RAY (1994) 6 minutes (VHS)
This film is all text as well, but it goes by too quickly to read. Your instructions: find a different way to read it.

LUCKY (2007) 4 ½ minutes (DVD)I was randomly putting images together and they turned into something about sadness and the dubious pleasures of cheap emotion.

NOT NINE (2005) 10 minutes (DVD)Some years ago I made a film using 3 still photographs. This one uses about 200.
My attraction to the idea of series has probably been re-fueled by the software I use to look at digital photos on the computer—as one picture follows another, the junctions become more important than any single image. I stack the pictures in a pile and then fan them out so that they’re all touching. I set them up for you, but try to leave a bit of an opening in between.
Not Nine is the final iteration of endless ways or ordering pictures, ways of moving between pictures and selectiing pictures. The sound just fell into place.

SORRY (2006) 2 min (DVD)
I'm sorry I ran over the cat.I'm sorry I ate all the pie.I'm sorry I didn't say anything.I'm sorry I couldn't keep my mouth shut.I'm sorry I looked where I shouldn't have.I'm sorry I didn't call.I'm sorry I left the house such a mess.I'm sorry I held myself back.I'm sorry I didn't wait for you.I'm sorry I lied.I'm sorry I'm always mean to you.I'm sorry I wanted you to have succeeded when you tried to kill yourselfI'm sorry I left the door open.I'm sorry I laughed at you.I'm sorry I didn't fight harder.I'm sorry I forgot to buy milk.I'm sorry I said I would look after you when you got old and insane and I didn'tI'm sorry I spent the money on drugs.I'm sorry I got impatient when you wanted to spend time with meI'm sorry I read your diaryI'm sorry I slept with your husbandI'm sorry I left you alone at the partyI'm sorry I broke your spirit.I'm sorry I locked you in the cupboardI'm sorry I wouldn't let you play with my friendsI'm sorry I stepped on your handI'm sorry I had you locked up.I'm sorry I blocked your viewI'm sorry I smelled so badI'm sorry I talked about myself endlesslyI'm sorry I always take things the wrong way

CRYING (2007) 19 minutes (DVD)
Nine people crying.

MYSTERY (2008) 5 minutes (DVD)
I’m still trying to work out why it’s easier to cry over a sad song.

RUBY IN THE CITY (1996) 10 minutes (VHS)
An old woman lives alone in a room with a bare lightbulb hanging from a worn cord. A friend once told me that she had had a realization that one could live a full life contemplating the pleasures of gazing at a crumpled gum wrapper (I believe it included the shiny silver paper). The satisfaction that this character achieves is something like that.

UNTITLED (1977) 10 minutes (16mm)
I made this film while I was an MFA student at Mass Art. I think it’s still pretty good.