The world premiere of the 52-minute documentary KOOP: The Art of Wanda Koop will open the聽8th annual on tomorrow at The Royal Conservatory, TELUS Centre for Performance & Learning, Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W., in Toronto. A Q&A with Knight, the film鈥檚 director and co-producer, along with Koop and critic and urban planner Jane Perdue will follow the screening. The pre-screening reception will start at 6:30pm, the screening at 7pm and a celebration at 8:30pm. KOOP will screen again in Calgary on March 24.

Watch the documentary's trailer on .

Knight鈥檚 film looks at Koop as she prepares massive new works depicting archetypal cities and familiar yet disquieting landscapes for two 25-year retrospectives, one at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and another 鈥� Wanda Koop: On the Edge of Experience 鈥� at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa until May 15. She is an artist who questions how and what people see or notice, and in turn, shows through her art what people missed with their first glance, as well as what remains out of sight.

Right: Katherine Knight

A documentary, filming for Koop began in June as Knight, an award-winning photographer known for evocative landscapes with a strong narrative atmosphere, cinematographer and 91亚色 alumna Marcia Connolly (MFA 鈥�10) and embarked upon a week-long trip on a freighter along the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City to Port Cartier. Travel has often provided inspiration for Koop. This voyage along one of Canada鈥檚 most significant and fabled waterways not only provided a shared experience for the artist and the filmmakers, it also allowed the audience to share in some of the raw visual materials Koop uses to create her art.

"I was making a documentary about an artist who didn't want to be filmed painting," says Knight. So instead, she filmed Koop as she gathered inspiration. "It was about putting the audience into the framework that the artist works in. So the audience can actually travel along with the artist."

The examination of the visual continues as the film looks at聽the science of vision, colour and perception. It places the audience in the , where Koop has her vision tested by聽91亚色 senior research scientist聽Olivera Karanovic and Laurie Wilcox, graduate program director in the Department of Psychology,聽in the 3D Vision Research lab to聽take a look at聽how聽she sees 鈥� she apparently has great 3D vision.

Left: Artist Wanda Koop has her vision checked in the 91亚色 Vision Research lab聽in the opening scene of聽the film Koop

The artist鈥檚 studio as a factory of the imagination also plays a role in the work created, and the film explores this, taking the audience into Koop鈥檚 newly renovated factory, where she makes, archives and markets her artwork. There, hundreds of paintings, thousands of sketches and tables full of the painter鈥檚 tools contribute to the visual and physical space.

"I'm really interested in making documentaries about artists that get inside the creative process," says Knight, a longtime friend of Koop and fan of her art. Koop has won several national and international awards for her artistic achievements and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2006. In 1998, she founded Art City as a storefront art centre in Winnipeg. The goal is to bring together contemporary visual artists and inner-city youth to explore the creative process.

Right: Wanda Koop's studio

Several alumni worked on the documentary, including project editor Jared Raab (BFA Spec. Hon. 鈥�07), who聽was declared one of the by the Toronto Star. Raab will begin shooting a feature in March with alumnus Matt Johnson (BFA). The score for Koop is by Montreal-based composer Sam Shalabi, who worked on Knight鈥檚 2009 documentary Pretend Not to See Me: The Art of Colette Urban, which was awarded special mention at the Ecofilm Festival in Rhodos, Greece, in June 2010. Pretend Not to See Me will screen at 2011, Thursday, March 17, at 5pm at the Rainbow Cinemas, Market Square, 80 Front St. E. (at Jarvis) in Toronto.

Left: Wanda Koop on the freight boat

Knight co-founded Site(Media)inc. with David Craig in 2006 with a passion to make documentaries and short films. Its first film, Annie Pootoogook, was commissioned by Bravo Canada and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. A professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Fine Arts, Knight has exhibited her photographs extensively in solo and group shows across Canada and in the United States. Her works are in many public and corporate collections, including the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Banff Centre and The Canada Council Art Bank. She was awarded the Canada Council's Duke and Duchess of 91亚色 Prize in Photography in 2000 in recognition of the excellence of her work.

Tickets to the opening night of KOOP are $175 per person and can be purchased by visiting the website or calling 416-368-8854 ext. 101.

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post Professor Katherine Knight's documentary on Wanda Koop to open Reel Artists Film Festival appeared first on Research & Innovation.

CineSiege, 91亚色鈥檚 annual juried student film festival, is often the harbinger for success at festivals around the world. After, the winner of the CineSiege Best Sound Award in 2009, is the latest good news story. Inspired by Dennis Cooper鈥檚 poem "After School, Street Football, Eighth Grade", After is a humorous and dark coming-of-age film that visualizes three teenage boys鈥� fantasies about an older teenage football player.

Right: A scene from Mark Pariselli's short film After

Directed by Mark Pariselli (BFA Spec. Hons. '09), this short film is one of only two Canadian works shortlisted for the prestigious Iris Prize (the most valuable single prize lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender [LGBT] short film competition) and has screened at high-profile festivals all over the world, including in the cities of Paris, Athens, Montreal, Seattle and Chicago, and at festivals in Germany and Switzerland.

At the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film & Video Festival that took place May 20 to 30, Pariselli received an honorable mention for the Best Up-and-Coming Toronto Film or Video Maker ward.

is the feature film debut by director Andres Livov-Macklin (BFA Spec. Hons. '04) and producer Hugh Gibson (BFA Spec. Hons. '04). The aluCine Toronto Latin Media Festival presents the Toronto premiere of this documentary film, screening July 9 to 12, at 7pm nightly at The Royal.

Above: A Place Called Los Pereyra tells the story of a tiny community in the Argentine jungle

It tells the story of how life in a tiny community in the Argentine jungle is unexpectedly changed by a visiting charitable mission. Subtle, sweet, often humorous, but also poignant, A Place Called Los Pereyra examines adolescence, charity and the clash of two worlds.

The two alumni will attend each screening and be available to answer questions after the film concludes.

Another 91亚色 film duo picked up prizes at Toronto鈥檚 Worldwide Short Film Festival June 1 to 6 for their work on , a six-minute dance film shot in a women's change room. The Best Experimental Short Prize was won by director (BFA Spec. Hons. '06) and the Kodak Award for Best Cinematography in a Canadian Short went to cinematographer (BFA Spec. Hons. '07). Choreographer (BFA Spec. Hons. '87) is part of the creative team for Slip, which also includes (BFA Spec. Hons. '06) as producer and several 91亚色 dance alumni in the cast.

Left: Slip is a six-minute dance film shot in a women's change room and features the choreography of 91亚色 alumna Yvonne Ng

(BFA Spec. Hons. '96) is the winner of the 2010 Astral Media Mentorship, coordinated by the Foundation for Women in Film & Television-Toronto (WIFT-T). The mentorship is a national competitive program that gives one Canadian female or male producer who is a visible minority, Aboriginal or an individual with a disability the opportunity to develop their marketing strategy and hone their pitch and presentation skills in preparation for the Banff World Television Festival, which took place June 13 to 16. Lau received a festival bursary and a five-day pre-festival mentorship that included meetings with Astral Media and three intensive workshops with industry consultants.

鈥淭his mentorship is so important at this time of limited resources within the industry,鈥� said Sadia Zaman, WIFT-T executive director. 鈥淒uring day-to-day work there are few opportunities to simply build presentation skills and to focus on career development. Our partnership with Astral Media will allow Mishann to do just that."

Lau has been writing, directing and producing independent short films for the past 12 years. Her films have screened at the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, the International Women鈥檚 Film Festival in Cologne, Germany,聽and the Michigan Womyn鈥檚 Music Festival. She was also selected to create shorts for the 1997 On the Fly Festival, the 2004 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival and the 2007 Pride Video Launch.

On the faculty front, three professors have had recent festival success.

Visual arts Professor Katherine Knight鈥檚 documentary about Newfoundland-based performance artist Colette Urban, , which made its Toronto premiere at the Reel Artists Film Festival (see YFile, Feb. 25), won a special mention at the in Rhodos, Greece 鈥� its first international screening.

Film Professors John Greyson and Ali Kazimi鈥檚 film Rex Vs. Singh picked up the prize for best Canadian short film at Inside Out. (For more info on this experimental exploration of Vancouver history and human rights, see YFile, Aug. 20, 2008.)

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

The post 91亚色 filmmakers shine in the industry spotlight appeared first on Research & Innovation.