Guy Maddin is undoubtedly one of the most original

voices in contemporary moving image art, not only

in Canada, but also in the world. His body of work
resonates in an unexpected way, using the tropes
of early cinema as the mechanism behind his art
practice.

As the language of cinema evolved in the 20th cen-

tury, itself building on theatre and performing art
traditions to explore the full potential of the-then
new media, it developed its own traditions increas-
ingly referenced by newer generations. But, while

GUY MADDIN referencing what has come before is a common prac-

tice in the arts, the approach used by Guy Maddin

AND THE
is stunningly unique in that he goes far beyond this
approach; Maddin utilizes the existing language of
early cinema as the essential media of his art. Early

LANGUAGE cinema — and in particular, old world cinema — is

more than his artistic grammar; it is the elemental

OF EARLY dictionary of words that forms the sentences and

paragraphs of his artistic practice.

CINEMA Guy Maddin has been working at his art for over
twenty five years, creating an internationally criti-
cally acclaimed body of work while remaining strong-
ly rooted in his home in Winnipeg, a small city with
Text by Cecilia Araneda the population of 700,000 that is quite literally in
the middle of nowhere. Winnipeg is a key element decade have been completed with a hybrid of me-
in the evolution of his distinct practice; within this dia, including small gauge film and digital elements.
middle of nowhere, Maddin worked at building his Increasingly, Maddin has been comfortable reducing
films like art projects, inspired by John Paizs’s abil- and eliminating the real film elements of his works,
ity to complete his own films here and have them even as he continues to use the canon of cinema as
receive attention and acclaim in spite of the many his essential artistic language. Maddin’s most recent
who thought this to be impossible. works — Hauntings and Keyhole — have in fact been
shot entirely on DSLRs (the former on the T2i, and
Jeff Solylo, production designer for many of Maddin’s
the latter on the 7D), without any film production
early works, has described the working process as
components whatsoever.
a group of art students making films while being
completely oblivious to the established working pro- It is within this past decade as well that Maddin has
tocols of filmmaking. In this middle of nowhere, well moved into multichannel forms, moving into instal-
outside of the Canadian film establishment, Maddin lation and web exhibition platforms. In developing
was able to develop his own way of working that was his career in this matter, he continues his ongoing
in sharp contrast to the strong wave of realism be- working practice of remaining outside of the film
ing pursued by the legions of anonymous industrial establishment — this time, as a conscious decision
filmmakers elsewhere in the world. and in a way that acknowledges that moving images
are now no longer restricted to the holy shrine of the
In the early 2000’s, after having worked for more
communal cinema space and endless permutations
than 15 years and already having garnered signifi-
are possible in their construction and presentation.
cant national and international acclaim, Guy Mad-
din consciously adopted the editing techniques fa- Cowards Bend the Knee (2003) was originally com-
mously developed by the early Soviet filmmakers pleted as a gallery installation work consisting of
of the 1920’s (most notably, Sergei Eisenstein and ten 6-minute chapters viewable only by a single
Dziga Vertov). Beginning with the works The Heart viewer at a time. In its most recent presentation
of the World (2000) and Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s in Poland, the viewing stations were crafted as hy-
Diary (2002), these changes enabled Maddin to surge brid constructions of Soviet-era furniture (pianos in
forward even more clearly than before. What adopt- particular) and Times Square coin-op porn booths.
ing the formal Constructivist editing techniques of Viewers, experiencing the projections in semi-priva-
Eisenstein in particular afforded Maddin was a plat- cy and within what Maddin describes as “lurid states
form which could more strongly frame his already of aroused discomfort,” were partially visible from
well developed preoccupation with old world cinema. the chest down and through large keyholes built
In the ten years since, Maddin’s output and recogni- into the stations.
tion has increased exponentially.
Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair (2009; co-directed with
While receiving increasing attention and acclaim for Isabella Rossellini), is a 7-minute loop intended to
the contribution his unique artistic voice provides to be presented in large-scale within the urban envi-
contemporary cinema culture internationally, Mad- ronment, projected onto a skyscraper wall. Origi-
din has at the same time quite consciously evolved nally screened at the International Film Festival
into a multimedia and multiplatform artist. Rotterdam in January 2009, the work was recently
presented in New York City’s Duffy Square on De-
Prior to the 2000’s Maddin worked almost exclu-
cember 17, 2009, complete with a “live electrocution”
sively within a practice that resembled more closely
of Rossellini.
traditional filmmaking, working in 16 mm and then
35 mm. In shifting media — first to Super 8 mm, and Hauntings (2010), Maddin’s most recently completed
then to video formats — Maddin began an ongoing work, is an installation that conjures what Maddin
experimentation of the potential each media and describes as the “ghosts” of cinema, re-interpreting
presentation platform could provide him. Most of lost works of early cinema. The work was initially
the works Maddin has completed within the past presented in Toronto as an installation of window
tableaux within a gallery environment and an out- from an inner city clinic with a letter that specified
door screening projected onto the wall of a large what care he required. Immediately following his
building, with the final incarnation to be ultimately death, there were initial denials that he had actually
web-based. checked in upon his arrival at the hospital, however
surveillance footage later revealed otherwise. The
Included within Hauntings are The Brian Sinclair Story,
chief medical examiner eventually concluded that
inspired by Michael Snow’s La Région Centrale (1971),
Sinclair could have been saved with simple cath-
and Hubby Does the Washing, inspired by the 1912
eter change and some antibiotics. To this day, his
film by Alice Guy. With Hauntings, however, even
family still struggles to see the full truth of what
though its raison d’être is firmly planted in an ex-
happened to Sinclair in the hospital made public
ploration of early cinema, hints of a new evolution in
for a wider dialogue to occur within a city where a
Maddin’s approach as an artist start to reveal them-
very strong undercurrent of racism exists towards
selves, as demonstrated by the very noticeable de-
Aboriginal peoples.
parture to HD colour used in Bing & Bela (named for
Bing Crosby and Bela Lugosi). Waiting in a wheelchair, alone in an empty institu-
tional room with white walls and a concrete floor,
Interestingly, Maddin’s easy adoption of new me-
Maddin’s Sinclair is framed by the distinctively-
dia tools and expanded presentation platforms has
moving camera technique utilized by Snow in La
been unquestionably in the service of his explora-
Région Centrale, which sees it rotating freely along
tion of the vocabulary of early cinema. Each new tool
various axes of a ball-like tripod in slow-motion. This
or method he adopts, he does so to facilitate further
unique camera technique transforms an otherwise
steps back into cinema’s language — not only in the
straight-forward image and takes it to heightened
construction of his works, but also in their presen-
proportions; Sinclair appears to be asleep in the
tation, including his live scoring and narration tech-
light-drenched room, yet for those of us who know
niques (used with Brand Upon the Brain!, My Winnipeg
he has already passed away, we understand that he
and the most recent incarnation of Tales from the
is actually in limbo.
Gimli Hospital), and his ongoing exploration of silent
cinema — all of which are unheard of approaches in While it is true that often Maddin’s films are viewed
modern cinema. differently by Winnipeggers than by the rest of the
world, given how much Maddin-asserted fact we
The Winnipeg Haunting know to be truly fiction, The Brian Sinclair Story Mad-
din ascribes a reverse effect, as in this film, what
It is hard to imagine that in the places Hauntings
may be perceived as fiction, we know to actually
has been presented before — in Toronto and in Ber-
be fact.
lin — that The Brian Sinclair Story could have been
understood as anything other than a response to As a collection of films, Hauntings stands out within
Michael Snow’s famous La Région Centrale. In all his Guy Maddin’s body of work because it reveals hints of
previous work Maddin quite possibly has never made possible new directions he is currently exploring as
reference to real-life quotidian struggles that are the an artist. As any process of experimentation may in-
preoccupation of many other artists; indeed, Mad- herently contain both unexpected starts and stops,
din’s work has been lauded for being firmly rooted it is possible that The Brian Sinclair Story may be an
in the fantastical and lurid. And for this reason, The isolated foray into referencing present-day Winni-
Brian Sinclair Story stands out for being very un- peg. Regardless of whether this ultimately ends up
maddinesque. to be the case, this film is truly a Winnipeg haunting
that merits our collective attention.
The real-life Brian Sinclair, an Aboriginal man, died
in 2008 in a Winnipeg hospital after sitting for over
34 hours in a wheelchair in the waiting room after
checking in but never being tended to. Sinclair, a
double-amputee, had been sent to the hospital
Guy Maddin is a Winnipeg-based filmmaker with ten Exhibition
features to his credit, including cult-classic Tales from Guy Maddin Hauntings 1
the Gimli Hospital (1988); and Archangel (1990), which 2 September–2 October 2011
won the U.S. National Film Critics Award for best ex- Reception
perimental film of the year. Since then he has won 7 pm, Friday, 2 September
many other awardsincluding the Telluride Silver Medal
for life achievement in 1995; an Emmy for his ballet Screening of Our Winnipeg
movie Dracula — Pages from a Virgin's Diary; the San By Sarah Febbraro + Art City participants
7 pm, Friday, 16 September
Francisco International Film Festival's prestigious Per-
sistence of Vision Award in 2006, and others — and cre- artist talk with guy maddin
ated dozens of beguiling films in his unique personal 3 pm, Saturday, 1 October
style. These include such celebrated feature works as
wndx closing party
The Saddest Music in the World (2003), Brand upon with artist in at tendance
the Brain! (2006), and My Winnipeg (2007), winner of 11 pm, Saturday, 1 October (Nuit Blanche)
the TIFF City TV Prize for Best Canadian Feature. His
latest feature, Keyhole, will premiere at TIFF in 2011.
Maddin is also a writer and teacher, and occupies the
PLATFORM acknowledges the support of its volunteers,
position of Distinguished Filmmaker in Residence at membership, board of directors, and staff. The Centre
the University of Manitoba. operates with funding from Manitoba Arts Council and
Winnipeg Arts Council. Guy Maddin’s Hauntings I is a
Chilean-born, Winnipeg based filmmaker and curator co-production of PLATFORM + WNDX and was originally
commissioned for the opening of TIFF Bell Light Box in
Cecilia Araneda holds a B.F.A. (hons.) from York Uni-
2010. Gratitude is due to aceartinc., Urban Shaman
versity and an M.F.A. from U.B.C. Araneda has com- Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Video Pool Media Arts
pleted nine short films as director and writer, which Centre, and Art City for in-kind support of this project.
Cover photo by Steven Ackerman.
have won awards and screened internationally. In 2010,
her work was the subject of a retrospective screening
at the Canadian Film Institute in Ottawa. Araneda is
a co-founder of WNDX and has curated a number of
programs for this curatorial collective since its incep-
tion in 2005.

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