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TURNOFF
FORMAT:
35mm, colour
RUNNING TIME: 5minutes
GENRE: collage/scratch animation
YEAR: 2004
SYNOPSIS
A whirlwind tour of one of today's
biggest thieves of time, and a closer look at a powerful
and suggestive instrument that inescapably invades
almost every household: commercial television.
turnoff is a subjugation of
collected images from a passive medium.
CREW
Director/Producer: Bridget Farr
Director of Photography/Animator: Bridget Farr
Score: Graham Collins
Editor: Bridget Farr
SCREENINGS
• European Media Arts Festival (Osnabreuck,
Germany)
• Revelation Perth International Film Festival
(Perth, Australia)
• Annual IFCO Gala (Ottawa, Canada)
• Centertown Movies (Ottawa, Canada)
• F4 (Seattle, USA)
• 23E Festival Tous Courts (Aix-en-Provence,
France)
• Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival
(British Columbia, Canada)
• Herland Film & Video Festival (Calgary,
Canada)
• Festival Internazionale del Cinema d’Arte
(Bergamo, Italy)
• Himom Film Festival (Carrboro, NC, USA)
• 9th Ismailia International Film Festival (Giza, Egypt)
• The Mayfair Theatre's Grand Re-Opening (Ottawa, Canada)
REVIEWS
"TV is a constant source of inspiration for
experimental, found footage and politically oriented
works...and here's another great example. In classic
found footage style the idea here is not to comment
on the images per-se but let the images speak for and
damn themselves. Using sometimes the entire screen,
using at other times only certain parts of the screen
this Turnoff has a very nice rhythm to it and one which
will look and sound great on the big screen. We like
this one...it says plenty without saying anything."
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Selection Committee, Revelation Perth International
Film Festival
"The
standout of the bunch came from local photographer/filmmaker
Bridget Farr whose 5-1/2-minute cultural critique, turnoff
(35mm, colour), recharges the re-run issue of television
brainwashing. Beginning with a dreary quote about power
and obedience from techno-prophet Neil Postman, Farr
overloads our cerebral cortex with familiar images from
TV commercials.We
see half a dozen women smilingly washing their hair
in slow motion, kids smilingly ingesting crackers, creams
and candy, and all kinds of other smiling people cut
and pasted into a beautiful, hyper-colourful moving
collage. Perhaps better than the visuals is the drumbeat
soundtrack: cold, digital and repetitive, like the boob
tube itself. This film has been around the world and
back, so try not to miss it next week."
-
Stuart Trew, The Ottawa Xpress, July 14, 2005
The
artist would like to acknowledge the generous support
of
The Canada Council for the Arts, The
Ontario Arts Council, The City of Ottawa and the Independent
Filmmakers Cooperative of Ottawa.
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