DOXA program | fri may 24

AT THE EDGE OF CONSUMER CULTURE
The films in this program explore two very different worlds at the margins of consumer culture.

Both look at the people and materials that are often cast off in a society driven by conspicuous consumption, disposable goods, and designer recreation. The first, a look inside an apartment block of isolated welfare recipients, presents an affectionate view beyond the faceless anonymity of "poverty" at the people who inhabit its world. In the second, an inventive demolition artist searches the sites of society's cast-off debris for treasures that will become the building materials of cinematic fantasy worlds. Both open us up to riches human, artistic, imaginary that can be found where we least expect them.

Community Sponsor: Centre Culturel Francophone de Vancouver

Le 4215 Rue Parthenais
Director: Isabelle Lavigne (Canada, 2001, 50 min, video) (French, with subtitles)

A gay Jehovah's Witness, a disaffected suburbanite dropout, a Duplessis orphan who lavishes affection on her cats, a building repairman who finds happiness in the noble lineage of his trade, an old man who reminisces about earlier romantic adventures. These are some of the characters inhabiting a low-rent Montreal apartment building on rue Parthenais, presided over by a Romanian caretaker who manages with a firm but caring hand. Most have, either by choice or circumstance, withdrawn from consumer society, and in this "community" of unemployed loners, they keep to themselves and respect each other's solitude. Here, they share their stories and thoughts with a dignified eloquence. Far from the exploitation of "reality TV," this film unsentimentally looks its subjects in the eye, yet gently breaks through the solitude threatening to engulf them. With languid dissolves of still-camera wide shots, Lavigne lovingly portrays a world where time moves slowly and hours dissolve into each other, richly textured by the colours and rhythms of people's daily lives.

Alain Dubreuil, Alchemist (Alain, Artiste-Demolisseur)
Director: Manon Barbeau (Canada, 2001, 26 min, video) (French, with subtitles)

A scavenger of junkyards, garbage dumps and building slated for demolition, local "demolition artist" Alain Dubreuil transforms found objects, abandoned structures and recycled treasures into magnificent flights of artistic and architectural fantasy. Taught by his rural Quebec upbringing to waste nothing, Dubrueuil began to salvage materials by becoming a demolition expert, but soon learned to transform rather than take down buildings.

Visually saturated by the colorful, dreamlike products of his intuitive imagination, this documentary takes us on a tour through his created worlds. An old warehouse under a Vancouver bridge has became his home, redesigned entirely with recycled materials. An abandoned shipyard in North Vancouver serves as a gigantic movie set, feeding his cinematic vision as well as the creativity of many other artists who are welcomed by Dubreuil into this "dreamer's port of call" that hovers somewhere between fiction and reality.

Running time: 76 minutes

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