Antimatter 2021: International Media Art & Experimental Cinema, In-Person & Online

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"Antimatter 2021: International Media Art & Experimental Cinema," 2021

Antimatter 2021: International Media Art & Experimental Cinema, In-Person & Online

The 24th edition of the esteemed Canadian media arts festival Antimatter will continue with a hybrid model of presentation in 2021. Antimatter will present more than 120 films in 20 curated programs on screen, as installations in public spaces and online. Hailing from 30+ countries, 70% of festival offerings are World, North American or Canadian premieres.

“Antimatter has always enjoyed receiving work from new artists internationally and functions as an incubator for distributors worldwide,” according to festival director Todd Eacrett. “The response from a new international audience in 2020, especially programmers and curators, was heartening and inspiring, providing us a genuine connection to the experimental media world from outside our region and transcending the limitations of the pandemic. The intimate nature of limited-seating in-person screenings at Deluge Contemporary Art (636 Yates Street) proved a popular option for local film fans. Once again, IRL screenings will run nightly at Deluge with advance online ticket purchase, followed by 24 hours of free unlimited streaming access to each program. In 2021 this binary approach will continue grow our viewership as well as offer a safe and optimal viewing experience to local audiences. Ultimately, we have a duty to the artists making this work to present it in the way they envisioned—on an actual screen in shared public space. We have also redesigned and launched a new website to support our online programming platform.”

Dedicated to the exhibition and nurturing of diverse forms of media art, Antimatter is one of the premier showcases of experimentation in film, video, audio and emerging time-based forms. Encompassing screenings, installations, performances and media hybrids, Antimatter offers local, regional and international artists a noncompetitive festival setting committed to diversity and inclusivity, free from commercial and industry agendas. Since 1998, the quality and creativity of its programming, dedication to audience development, resolute internationalism and respect for artists and their work have made Antimatter one of the most important media arts events in Canada. 

Public installations this year include Generative Architecture (Colton Hash) at Legacy Gallery, TIMEQUAKE (2.0) (Tabor Tabori) at Ministry of Casual Living’s Window Gallery, Protest Etiquette(Adán De La Garza) in the Deluge transom window and Dreaming in Aspect Ratio (Gwen Foster) in the Deluge entry Foyer.

Long-form standouts this year include Chris Haring's Stranger Than Paradise, with Austrian experimental dance company Liquid Loft. Associatively linked to Jim Jarmusch’s wintery 80s road movie, it is a genuinely film-choreographed work: a hybrid, subtly futuristic chamber play for eight performers and an investigative camera, translated into a reflection on the expansion of biological capacities into the mechanical, the creatural and the “monstrous” of an animal-human existence. Patrick Goddard's Animal Antics is an absurdist commentary on the Anthropocene, set in a an English zoo. A talking dog and his owner do the rounds of cages and pens, leaving a trail of increasingly off-beam, off-colour comments. A miniature lapdog with disproportionately big ideas, Whoopsie’s cute, cuddlesome looks are disconcertingly at odds with its bristly, discomfiting thoughts. 

Alternating documentary footage and visual effects, Maija Blåfield's The Fantastic raises the question of how reality is defined and by whom. The film reverses colonial clichés of westerners observing the lives of a closed culture; in this case, North Koreans direct their curiosity at the outside world and imagine what life in western countries is like based on the detritus shipped for "recycling." Similarly, Jessica Auer's Shore Power explores Iceland's increasing reliance on tourism in the wake of a waning fishing industry and banking crisis. In the harbour town of Seyðisfjörður, floating hotels higher than any local structure have become part of the landscape as cruise ship visitors outnumber the local population six-fold. The issues behind the scenes are largely unknown to the majority of visitors, who contribute to the shifting identities of the communities they wander. 

Antimatter will continue with their hugely popular 2020 initiative Automat, which in 2021 will feature 10 open-ended portraits of filmmakers and their work. Antimatter curator Deborah de Boer reflects that “One of the greatest losses under the pandemic is our limited ability to interact with filmmakers and we want to connect the public to artist without subjecting them to the pressures of another zoom meeting or live-streamed conference. Automat is a project that returns agency to filmmakers by allowing them to reveal themselves in an open, intuitive and direct way—on their own terms and in their own time.” de Boer added that all filmmakers included in the 2020 and 2021 festival have a standing invitation to return to Antimatter in 2022 for public engagement events when it’s hoped the largest obstacles to travel will have been removed.

Installations and online programs are free or by donation. Screenings at Deluge require advance online ticket purchase. Complete schedule festival program guide available online and throughout Greater Victoria starting October 1.