Intersection at NOMAD Nation
March 3rd was the first edition of Intersection. The purpose is to gather creative communities to showcase innovative work and provoke ideas. Three presenters each shared one of their recent projects. Stephane Cocke’s iPhone photo series, Johanne Ste-Marie of Fluorescent Hill about their MTV nominated video for N.A.S.A., and Denis McCready’s Chercher le courant, a profound documentary about the dam epidemic in Quebec’s rivers. These three enlightening minds intersected, if you will, by being provoked into an open discussion led by your tweeted questions.
The first presenter was Juno award winner Stéphane Cocke who discovered his passion for photography in his teens. His photos of portraits and architecture have been published in various magazines and newspapers. He has exhibited work in solo and group shows in his hometown of Montreal. From one of his many journeys around the globe he self-published a book about an indian gypsy family of entertainers in 2009.
Stéphane is also an accomplished DJ and music consultant with an international career including collaborations with Sofitel and Cirque du Soleil. The Café Méliès compilation series utilized his musical talents as programmer, and producer of numerous tracks with emerging and established artists.
Finally, he also deems himself a video artist, having developed personalized stop motion animation techniques over the past 5 years.
After exploring many photographic processes, he recently discovered the spontaneous approach of taking pictures with the iPhone. He is currently editing his next self-published book of these images.
The second presenter was Johanne Ste-Marie, co-founder of the art duo Fluorescent Hill.
They direct music videos, commercials, short films and traffic. When not making things move, they make comics, posters, and design everything from your grandmother’s apron to the deck she rides on the weekends. Their work has been shown at festivals around the world, museums and galleries, and the occasional print magazine like Res magazine, Shots and IdN magazine.
She spoke about the making of the N.A.S.A./Tom Waits video:
Finally, Denis McCready discussed his latest film, Chercher le courant.
Denis McCready has compounded nearly 10 years experience in documentary films on projects ranging from science, war, humanitarian aid, music, dance and visual arts. He was line producer on Naica : Secrets of the Crystal Cave for National Geographic and the series Mars Rising for Discovery Canada.
Denis has also worked as a photo reporter Boznia-Herzegovnia and Nagorno-Karabagh with Medecins sans Frontières and CARE. He won second prize at the Concours littéraire de Radio-Canada with his travel story : Return from Sarajevo.
He was line producer on Earth Keepers before he produced Wendy Champagne’s first feature BAS! Beyond the Red Light in 2009, and Nicolas Boisclair and Alexis de Gheldere’s Chercher le courant which won Canal D’s Audience Award in addition to a Special Mention by EcoCamera’s jury at Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal 2010. He is currently producing MTL PUNK – The First Wave a TV documentary by Érik Cimon and Alain Cliche for Périphéria Productions.
Ramachandra tells a great story here about something that is apparently a pattern in the film composition process, mostly that the deadlines are inconceivably tight. But what makes this story worth it is Ramachandra’s struggle in working with Stravinski dummy tracks. A wonderful creative and professional challenge that he tells with honesty and charm. Pleasure having M. Borcar with us.
