“I am at once in love with the tragic beauty of the photographic moment…but I also mourn the loss of the fleeting physical experience of human connection.” – Amanda Dawn Christie
Amanda Dawn Christie began her journey into independent filmmaking through the vocation of photography. After moving to Halifax in the late 1990’s, she learned much from the filmmaking workshops at the Atlantic Filmmaker’s Co-operative – especially the hand processing workshops of animator Helen Hill. A further move to Vancouver in 2004 led to an MFA and an explosion of creativity where in her own words she completed, “seven 16mm films, two super 8 films, eight ultra-short 35mm films, and a great deal of photography, contemporary dance, and electro acoustic sound compositions.” In 2007, she traveled to Amsterdam, where she lived for a year and participated in an artist residency at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Finally, her journey then led her back home to her roots on the east coast in New Brunswick, where she continues to make films with a more improvisational and performative approach.
This program of work reflects Amanda Dawn Christie’s restless growth as an artist. Moving from hand processing to hand scratching and optical printing, she layers memories and images in an effort to explore her past. Train trips, relationships, and her efforts to plumb the depths of the image all contribute to an ever changing evolution of her work. Working in both B&W and colour, she moves between 16mm and super 8, always relying on an inner intelligence and a love of the image to guide her way through the technology.
• Here – super 8, 3 min, 2000 – silent
• Turning – 16 mm, 9 min, 2004 – silent
• Forever Hold Your Peace – 16 mm, 1 min, 2004 – hand-scratched optical sound
• 16mm Postcard – 16 mm, 2 min, 2005
• Knowledge of Good and Evil – 16 mm, silent, 2 min, 2005 – silent
• Mechanical Memory – 16 mm, 6 min, 2005
• 3part Harmony: Composition in RGB #1 – 16 mm, 6 min, 2006
• Mechanical/Animal Memory – film on video, 6 min, 2006
• This Unnamable Dream: Or a Traced Sketch of Two Brothers – super 8, 3 min, 2006 – silent
• A Maternal Record Not Fully Recorded – super 8, 3 min, 2006 – live sound
• Fallen Flags – 16 mm, 8 min, 2007
• v=d/t – 16 mm, 8 min, 2008
• A –>B – super 8, 3 min, 2009 – double system sound
• Transmissions – 16 mm / kaoss pad, 20 mins, 2010 – live film performance
