For the past ten years Edmonton's Metro Cinema has circulated the annual Prairie Tales program of independent media art throughout Alberta and across Canada. Since 1998, the Prairie Tales tour has showcased short films and videos by Alberta media artists with screenings in schools, artist run centres, galleries, museums, cinemas and festivals. Through Prairie Tales filmmakers, video artists, animators and documentarians travel to various communities to discuss the process of their work, facilitate workshops and inspire through instruction.
The criteria for submissions to Prairie Tales is purposely inclusive: any short work completed within the last eighteen months by an artist who resides in Alberta is eligible for consideration. The fifteen works featured in Prairie Tales 10 showcase the wide diversity of originality, ingenuity and technical achievement of Alberta media creators at varying stages of their careers.
Daniel Dugas' A Chandelier Accident sets the tone for this year's program: a surprisingly inventive take on mainstream celebrity scandal unlikely to be found on YouTube. It's followed by What You're Ready For, the second in Corey Lee's award winning trilogy adaptation of the short stories in John Gould's 'Kilter: 55 Fictions'. Lee's film wraps up in a Calgary alley and the program jumps a few gears into Collin Ward MacDonald's impressionistic perspective of the same city's streets through Transitting.
Contemporary urban landscapes are overtaken by James Reckseidler's Super8 mini-epic, Ice Climber's Waltz. A nostalgic short of a different species is Carol Beecher and Kevin Kurytnik's Intergalactic Who's Who: Praepredatorprae, a spacey riff on popular Canadian culture. It's followed by some time lapse Photosynthesis as demonstrated by the stop motion 16mm filmmaking of J. Scott Portingale.
The music of Constant C underscores the bouncy fickleness of romance in the animated short-short For Me? by Thea Killen-Smith. Love is a bit dreamier in Mike McLaughlin's Sleepless as a young insomniac exhaustively pursues soothing companionship; Chris J. Melnychuk provides a sizzling wake up call for an impatient stick figure who wants breakfast RIGHT NOW in Zap Girl Makes Toast.
Next in the line up is Kyle Armstrong's black and white Super8 Inside|Outside, an intricately conceived and crafted exploration of internal and external forces. Prairie Tales 10 turns towards Evolution with the animation and original music of veteran computer programmer John Osborne. His funky short is a perfect segue into the world of men's burlesque and boyhood memory in Trevor Anderson's latest film DINX.
Cam Woykin's Beech-Nut provides a cautionary tale of obsession as viewers are warned about the potential perils of soaring unprotected, while Brandon Blommaert toys with forces of good vs. evil in the plush and chaotic world of Greycon4. Prairie Tales 10 concludes in a fantastical soft sculptural realm with Caitlin Thompson's spirited collective performance piece, Prairie Nautical.
On behalf of fellow curators Dana Inkster and Marsh Murphy, we hope that you enjoy this year's program and that the works featured in Prairie Tales 10 will challenge, entertain and inspire you. In viewing these works we encourage you to think about what it means to be creating independent media art such as this. By connecting with the creators you'll have the opportunity to discuss with them how they do what they do and perhaps just as importantly why. Join us as Prairie Tales rolls along into its second decade, bringing members of Alberta's media arts community to you.
Leslea Kroll
Prairie Tales 10
Tour Coordinator