Documentary Imprints: Bill Brown and Mark Street

Artists in PersonMark Street's most recent films explore notions of family and community with a delicate appreciation for the tactile qualities of film and the transient nature of experience. The hand-processed Sweep (1998, 7 mins, Color, 16mm) chronicles a fleeting moment, a walk with his young daughter. The longer The Domestic Universe (1999, 17 mins, Color, Video) is structured around interviews with three Brooklyn fathers who examine their new role with often biting clarity. The beautiful hand-made Sliding Off the Edge of the World (2000, 7 mins, Silent, Color, 35mm) chronicles both his daughters and his portrayal of them. In another vein, Happy? (2000, 20 mins, Color, Video) is a tribute to Jean Rouch's Chronicle of a Summer, and simply asks people on the street, at the turn of the millennium, that very essential question. Bill Brown's films share a concern with place, but his is an idiosyncratic interest charact erized by homespun theories and patient attention to neglected landscapes. In Hub City (1997, 15 mins, Color, 16mm) he contemplates his hometown, birthplace of Buddy Holly, while musing on crash sites, accident trajectories, and the traces left by mysterious events. Confederation Park (1999, 32 mins, Color, 16mm) focuses on Canada. Long takes of empty streets and views taken on car trips are filled with his musings on border jumping, bird migration, and intimacy between the warm blooded.

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