Sara MacLean

Sara is a film Professor at Centennial College and a PhD student in the Curriculum & Pedagogy program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto), with an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media & Design (OCAD U) and MA in Drama (University of Toronto). Her research proposes radical new approaches to curriculum and film school pedagogy through an exploration of oppositional practices located both within our institutions and in community-based film collectives. As an artist, her experimental film and installation practice engages with embodiment, crisis, and film materiality. Her work has been exhibited internationally.

PREFIGURATION AND THE PROMISED LAND: DEANNA BOWEN’S PROCESS AND PEDAGOGY

This paper explores the methods and implications of artists’ manipulation of found footage as a historicizing, anarchival practice. So called “found footage” refers to the moving image records preserved within institutional archives or personal collections. By extending beyond some of the typical artist uses of found footage – acts of reclaiming, subversion, and decontextualization that aim to unearth new historical meaning and interpretation – this inquiry foregrounds instead the underlying exclusions of the archive itself. This directs our attention to a second category of historical film materials, what I will refer to as “lost footage” which includes film not deemed worthy of preservation. This category includes films lost to neglect and more importantly the subjects who have historically not been permitted to make film, were subject to abuse and othering within archival film records or deemed unworthy of being filmed at all. Case studies of artists Deanna Bowen and Bambitchell will reveal how contemporary moving image artists work with partial and lost films, production elements and ephemera alongside methods such as re-enactment, to construct an anarchive that underscores the exclusions within the film historical archive. This paper is part of a wider research creation project rooted in experimental pedagogy that attempts to reveal and unsettle the institutional objectives and limitations which shape both the historical film canon and film curriculum.