(This text was taken from the CFI’s website)

Café Ex: The Films of A. Megan Turnbull
Club Saw February 26th 7PM

ABOUT THE SERIES: Inaugurated in 1998, the seventeenth season of this ongoing visiting artist series presents artist-curated evenings of independent experimental film and video in the intimate atmosphere of Club SAW. Once again, the series features Canadian experimental cinema, with guest filmmakers presenting their work and engaging in extensive discussions with audience members for a “pay-what-you-can” admission.

The Canadian Film Institute, as part of its ongoing intimate and interactive guest artist series, is proud to present the works of filmmaker A. Megan Turnbull.

A. Megan Turnbull is an artist, director, animator, storyteller and self-described “funstigator” raised in Winnipeg and based in Vienna. Working with a variety of techniques and formats, her projects explore media, memories, and time, and how they intersect, collect, and connect. With a MFA in Film Production from Concordia University and a handful of commercial projects with organizations like Ottawa Style Magazine and National Arts Centre of Canada, Turnbull’s work mixes old and new by utilizing paper and film to create dialogues with our past while remaining firmly rooted in the present.

No stranger to Ottawa and its reputation, Turnbull crafted “Ottawander”, a thoroughly humourous and enthusiastic guide inspiring our residents to seek out and create their own culture (of which you can read more here). Lively and prescient, Megan’s work is a shot in the arm for those seeking fresh cultural avenues. You can view her collected works at ameganturnbull.com, or follow her on Twitter (@ameganturnbull) for a glimpse into the mind of one of Canada’s rising talents.

THE PROGRAM:

A COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

Cyclotrope Circus (dirs. A. Megan Turnbull, Jacquelyn Hebert and Nathalie Coulson, Canada, 2014, 2 min)
Interactive Installation Documentation
The Cyclotrope Circus is a project conceived by artists Nathalie Coulson, Jacquelyn Hébert and Megan Turnbull. It is an interactive installation consisting of three zoetropes. The artists have made over 25 animations for the zoetropes, experimenting with drawing, photography, and digital animation.

Make Awesome (dirs. A. Megan Turnbull and Jacquelyn Hebert, Canada, 2009, 1m35s)
Stop Motion Animation
If you made a “Make Awesome” button, what would it do? Made in collaboration with Jacquelyn Hébert, and with help from Len Peterson.

COmotion @ Spins&Needles (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2011, 2m45s)
Collaborative stop-motion
COmotion is a collaborative stop-motion animation initiative. It is an event where participants collaborate to create sets, scenes, and characters, and then work together to make a story through moving and snapping photos for the animations. This edition of COmotion was held for 5 days at Spins & Needles in Ottawa.

COmotion @ Art City (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2014, 1m59s)
Collaborative Animation
COmotion is a collaborative stop-motion animation initiative. It is an event where participants collaborate to create sets, scenes, and characters, and then work together to make a story through moving and snapping photos for the animations. This edition of COmotion was held for 5 days at Winnipeg’s Art City.

WORKS IN PAPER

Evolucity (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2010, 5m11s)
Stop Motion Animation, & Green Screen Live Action
A transcendent girl is transported through time. She bears witness to the evolution of a city, as she fabricates memories from available historical references. This mixed media animation pays tribute to our methods of recording and recoding history.

Frolic (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2009, 20s)
Stop Motion Animation (RRC)
An albino peacock frolics through a dark gloomy garden.

Unlaced/Délacé (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2011, 1min)
Stereoscopic 3D Stop Motion Animation, & Green Screen Live Action (NFB/ONF)
A myopic woman walks, then boogies, through a wintry urban landscape, her world view altered suddenly by a beat from within herself, transporting her to a rich and lush place full of green foliage. Animated in stereoscopic stop-motion, Turnbull’s film creates a magical, miniature world entirely of out paper sculpture and pure invention. – Carolyn Weldon

NAC Presents & CNA Présente (Dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2011, 18s)
Stop Motion Animation (NAC) – Commissioned by the National Arts Centre of Canada (NAC/CAN)
Logo Animation for ‘NAC Presents,’ a music series focused on emerging Canadian talent.

PRE-PAPER PROJECTS
YOU are the machine (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2008, 3m22s)
Short Illustrated Animation
The pollution monsters lose their ball (the earth) to a machine that cleans it. In the end it is apparent, YOU are the machine to clean the earth. Reduce, Recycle, and Re-use.

The Adventures of The Problem Solving Superhero & Mme O (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2009, 2m22s – Illustrated Cut-out Animation)
Watch as the P.S.S.H. saves the world from the evil villainess Mme O. Will he stop her in time to save the world from “O” extinction?! Or will she succeed in world “O” domination, and capture the “O” from “Oh Canada” ?!

FUN/FAIL
OttaWander 
(dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2013, 3m30s)
Comedic Live-action
At times scary, but mostly pure fun ridiculousness, this short “Message from a Concerned Citizen” implores people to get up and OttaWander!!

MEMORIES & MEDIA
Of Them (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2013, 7m51s)
Expanded Documentary, English
When both her grandmothers are diagnosed with early dementia, filmmaker A. Megan Turnbull felt a strong compulsion to return to Winnipeg and make a film about their lives. She rifled through dusty shoeboxes of old family photos, and screened forgotten videotapes and 8mm family movies. Then she interviewed her grandmothers. “Of Them” is a tender portrait of two elderly Canadian women. It is an exploration of the memories, laughter, and lineage of a filmmaker, and her grandmothers (at all levels of ‘great-‘).

Re:collecting (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2015, 2m47s)
Found-Footage Film
Collecting dusty Regular 8mm found in her grandparent’s basement, the artist gives voice to her grandmother as she looks back on her life, and reflects on the fragility of memory.

Media (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2013, 8min)
3 short films (Info, ReImage, & Media)
This multi-projection video installation was made in response to three readings in W.J.T. Mitchell’s book, What do pictures want? The lives and loves of images.

Mediafied (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2015, 2m32s)
Stop-motion Animation
If Media spoke what would it say? In this short stop-motion animation, Media is personified and tells us exactly what it thinks about humans. It points out that it has been personified, just as people are being “mediafied”.

Memory? (dir. A. Megan Turnbull, Canada, 2014, 2min )
What do your memories look like? This short video explores the questions surrounding the aesthetics of memory, and ultimately what memories are.