Imitations of Life
Mike Hoolboom
(CA 2003, 22:04 mins)
When Mike Hoolboom himself gets hold of a camera, it's above all to film Jack, his sister's little boy, for whom he shows concerned affection. In an intimate mode, voice-overs express doubts about the history of human beings and their expectations as they face the future. The pieces of music have a very elaborate density. They work at the heart of time, the passing of which they strive to disrupt and the buried dimensions of which they strive to bring out. This time that passes is essential, modeled by the images of the world in which Mike Hoolboom's archaic fears and dreams reside. The end of Imitations is rainy and slow-moving, but it ends with a gag--the filmmaker's elegant way of not giving in to melancholy."
--Jean Perret, Festival international de documentaires de Nyon