La région centrale
Michael Snow was an experimental filmmaker fascinated by disappearance in infinite detail, by disorientation in the infinitely large. He pushed back the limits of cinema without formalizing it too much, as much concerned with forms (as an accomplished visual artist) as with sounds (he was an experimental musician with a sweet spot for free jazz). The Cinémathèque québécoise has preserved some of his key film, such as La région centrale, which we are about to show you.
Experience this conceptual work, an iconic part of Canadian experimental film history. La Région Centrale was shot in five days in the Nord-du-Québec region. The filmmaker used a gyroscopic device allowing the camera to turn in all directions to capture sequences of the landscape. (TIFF)
Michael Snow
Born in Toronto in 1928, Michael Snow studied at the Ontario College of Art. His abstract paintings were first exhibited in 1957. During the 1950s he also worked in the studios of animator George Dunning. After moving to New York with his first wife, the artist Joyce Wieland, he returned to figurative painting and diversified his practice as a visual artist, photographer and finally filmmaker. In 1967, his film Wavelength immediately established him as a key figure in experimental cinema. In the early 1970s, he returned to Canada and shot La région centrale, another of his major works, in northern Quebec. A resolutely multidisciplinary artist, Michael Snow was also an accomplished jazz pianist and improvisational musician.
