Canadian filmmaker R. Bruce Elder is a leading figure in avant garde film. He first studied philosophy He first studied philosophy, graduating from McMaster University with a BA and then with a Masters from the University of Toronto before pursuing Media... [more]
Canadian filmmaker R. Bruce Elder is a leading figure in avant garde film. He first studied philosophy He first studied philosophy, graduating from McMaster University with a BA and then with a Masters from the University of Toronto before pursuing Media Studies at (then) Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, only coming to film relatively late in life. His background in philosophy, and a sideline in computer studies, shows vividly in his films and the "rough handling" technique that results in unique and stunningly beautiful imagery. He's perhaps best known for his sprawling 40 hour film cycle, The Book of All the Dead (completed between 1974 and 1992). His latest film, The Young Prince (2007), was shot on film, converted to digital form, where it was then manipulated using a number of algorithms written for this project, then transferred back to film. Deliberately rough handling of the medium during processing adds layers of texture to the finished version that combines music and spoken word text into a mesmerizing synthesis of his organic vision, seeing himself as something more like a catalyst of artistic creation rather than a deliberate creator.
Elder is a professor and programme coordinator at Ryerson University, and has also written books on film, including one about his late friend, The Films of Stan Brakhage in the American Tradition of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and Charles Olson. He was the recipient of the L.A. Film Critics Award for Avant Garde Film in 1981, and in 2007, he won the Governor General's Award in Media Arts. [show less]