Reason Over Passion. Joyce Wieland: A Retrospective with Presentations and Discussions

"I think of Canada as female. All the art I've been doing or will be doing is about Canada. I may tend to overly identify with Canada." (Joyce Wieland, 1931–1998)

A sailboat passes by and the word SAILBOAT can be read: the structuralist film reflects the relationship between static text and the moving images – until Hollis Frampton casually steps in front of the running camera from off-screen and a seemingly strictly composed work briefly becomes a home movie. There, at Lake Ontario, the two of them also shot A&B IN ONTARIO (1966–84), a sort of game of hide and seek with the Bolex camera. These films, as well as Wieland's complex reflection on Canada LA RAISON AVANT LA PASSION / REASON OVER PASSION (1969) and 1933, a looped street scene in New York (1967), were obtained by deceased Arsenal staff member Alf Bold in 1993 for our collection. After Joyce Wieland herself died in 1998, we were able to use the experimental film fund bequeathed to us by Alf Bold to obtain seven further films of hers. It gives us great pleasure that the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC) has now released the complete works of this outstanding artist as a DVD box-set and will be presenting them at Arsenal.