The Winnipeg Film Group (WFG) is delighted to partner with Lights On the Exchange Festival to present “Lights on the Catalogue”, a two-part initiative featuring a lightbox installation and short film program.
Lights On the Exchange is a public winter arts festival in Winnipeg’s Exchange District running from January 21 through March 21, 2026.
On opening night of the festival, three lightboxes will illuminate the WFG windows along King Street (Artspace Building, #100 Arthur Street). These lightboxes will feature film stills from Plant Dreaming Deep by Charlotte Clermont, Four Seasons Bouquet by Emma Roufs, and On the Bus by Ryan Steel. The lightboxes will be on display until the end of the festival. Read more about Lights On The Exchange 2026 programming here.
The “Lights on the Catalogue” short film program screens on Friday, February 13, 2026 at 7:00pm at the WFG’s Dave Barber Cinematheque. Visit davebarbercinematheque.com for ticketing info.
Still from Four Seasons Bouquet by Emma Roufs
“Lights on the Catalogue”
Text by Skye Callow
“Lights on the Catalogue” began with a seemingly simple goal: to cast light on the dark nights of Winnipeg’s never-ending winter through an engagement with films from the Winnipeg Film Group (WFG) Distribution Catalogue (“the catalogue”). Taking form as a curated film screening and series of film stills exhibited in lightboxes in the windows of the WFG, the project features films that speak to processes of ongoing change and our relationship with memory, while also highlighting the cyclical nature of time and the seasons. The program unfolds like the passage of a year, showcasing elements of our distinct winters, while simultaneously reminding us of warmer days.
The program illuminates underseen films from the catalogue, bringing them into conversation with one another and recontextualizing them within the present moment. The entirety of the catalogue is made up of over 1100 curated film titles of various genres, including but not limited to: documentary, experimental, animation, and narrative/fiction, including short film titles as well as feature-length films. Consisting of 13 short film titles, “Lights on the Catalogue” is made up of a majority of films by Manitoba filmmakers, with select films by directors from Ontario and Quebec.
Charlotte Clermont’s “Plant Dreaming Deep” (7 min, 2018) acts as the root of the program, hence its placement as the opening film and its feature in one of the three lightboxes. The title of this film leads to a visualization of hibernation, and makes us wonder: what, in fact, do the plants dream of as the winter months pass? What about the trees? In “Plant Dreaming Deep”, there is a section of text that can be assumed to read “there is mystery there.” It is partially redacted, leaving room for the viewer to interpret. These four words marvelously describe what is to be discovered in the catalogue, and provides the perfect entry point to the mysteries and eternal lore of the WFG itself.
Founded in 1974, the WFG is a charitable artist-run centre that is freshly coming off of the organization’s 50th anniversary, making this a particularly exciting moment to rediscover the depths of the archive and film collection. The WFG recently acquired an Archivist lasergraphics film scanner which has the capability to scan both 8mm and 16mm celluloid film gauges, resulting in a new burst of digitizations. This has made possible the screening of films that have been previously inaccessible until now.
“Lights on the Catalogue” invites us to take a moment to reflect upon how we honour the changes in our lives, and how we remember the moments and people that are always passing us by. It brings attention to the seasons and the passing of time. This is a film program that moves forward like the months in the calendar year, and asks us – what’s next? The last film, Darryl Nepinak’s incredible short “Last of the Nepinaks” (3 min, 2005), leaves us hopeful, looking towards tomorrow with kind and eager eyes. A south wind blows, spring is coming.
Still from Plant Dreaming Deep by Charlotte Clermont
Plant Dreaming Deep
a short film by Charlotte Clermont
7:12 | Experimental | January 2018
Techniques: Visual Effects, VHS glitches
Plant Dreaming Deep conveys states of transitions, loneliness, isolation, as well as uncertainty. Its introspective approach reveals itself through thick and overwhelming colours and textures that seems to hide psychic and misunderstood experiences, and mysterious symbols. The video is a collaboration with Emilie Payeur.
Waterfilm
A short film by Dan Browne
6:15 | Experimental | January 2007
The Peak Experience
a short film by Leslie Supnet
8:05 | Experimental / Animation / Meditation | Colour | January 2018
Techniques: Drawing/painting on paper, Special Effects, Visual Effects
Language: English
Like in a dream
Being detached
Where you can explore
Many things in the past
Experiencing the present
The essence and of you.
A meditation experience to unlock and reconcile with one’s past in an effort to imagine a future actualized self.
Made possible with the support of PIX Film, LIFT and The Petman Foundation’s Studio Immersion Program.future
kauaʻi ʻōʻō
a short film by Samy Benammar
3:48 | Documentary / Experimental | Colour | January 2023
Techniques: Time Lapse, Choreographed, In-camera editing
Language: English
In 1987, the song of the kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a bird endemic to Hawaii, is recorded for the last time. Its song serves as the starting point for a visual exploration of the landscape and the winged creatures inhabiting it. Mostly shot on location, the film is a visual poem caught between the chaos of disappearance and the calm of an aerial melody that takes us on a journey through seasons and territories.
SWEAT
a short film by Kristin Snowbird
4:44 | Documentary | Colour | June 2016
Techniques: Visual Effects
Language: English
A sweat lodge ceremony cannot be documented. In this film, I recreate my experience and what brought me to the sweat lodge with a metaphorical and poetic interpretation of this beautiful ceremony.
Echoes
a short film by Jaimz Asmundson
6:00 | Experimental | Colour | January 2015
Techniques: Hand Process (col), Optically Printed
Language: English
Structured around the recollection of a premonitory dream, fragmented memories from the period leading up to the death of the filmmaker’s mother were projected on to natural textures and surfaces, re-photographed, composited and processed until the memories became abstracted representations of the evolution, degradation and disintegration of memory and the physical self.
Bees & Space
a short film by Trinity Linklater
2:11 | Experimental / Animation | Colour | June 2019
Techniques: Animated Objects, Paper Cutouts, Cut Outs
Language: English
This is a film that touches on my thoughts about growing up. I wanted to use things that I think were appealing to my eye.
Isle of Hermaphrodites
a short film by Noam Gonick
3:32 | Documentary | Colour | October 2010
Language: English
The film focuses on the social ecology of Highway 59, the road to the Beaconia Research Station in Manitoba. It was shot on Super 8 film on a rainy day in late August, and the ‘script’ flew out of the truck on the third shot, but it didn’t seem to matter. The soundtrack is by The Wilderness of Manitoba, a band that was inspired in part by The Wildflowers of Manitoba, an installation that was also shot at the Beaconia Research Station by Noam Gonick and Luis Jacob. The colour bars in the movie are from Michael Morris and Vincent Trasov’s Colour Bar Research Project. The title comes from a 14th century satirical French novel about a shipwrecked explorer who stumbles upon a lost island civilization.
Hangover
a short film by Farrah Murdock
3:07 | Experimental | Colour | March 2023
Language: English
Created in a time of self-doubt and feeling anxious of the future. Hangover is compiled of independent footage and audio recorded from July to December of 2022.
Four Seasons Bouquet
a short film by Emma Roufs
3:25 | Experimental | Colour | May 2022
Techniques: Visual Effects
Language: English
Nature and body at work over the course of a still yet disorderly year on a foreign land.
“In that place, memory means something more than just something one looks back on, or something one feels from the past, it means something real for now that has made you.” – RT
On the Bus
a short film by Ryan Steel
3:36 | Documentary / Experimental | Colour | April 2018
Techniques: Animated Objects, Computer Animation, Time Lapse, Live Action, Photocopier
Language: English
Trapped in the confines of Winnipeg Transit there is little else to do but meditate on the bus, people and ghosts that inhabit this liminal space.
Snowshoes
a short film by Milos Mitrovic
1:05 | Experimental / Animation | Colour | September 2014
Techniques: Pixilation, Computer Animation, Live Action, Visual Effects
Language: English
Walking for hours in the snow puts you in a trance.
The Last of the Nepinaks
a short film by Darryl Nepinak
2:56 | Comedy | Colour | January 2005
Language: English
A nephew’s journey
Still from On the Bus by Ryan Steel
The WFG would like to graciously acknowledge the efforts and supports of Sage Lukeman and Skye Callow for the manufacturing and installation of the lightboxes <3
Thank you!!
