Mike's Journal

THE WINTER OF THE DANCE

“Films are never finished, they are abandoned.”

And that is how it feels today with the print having shipped off to Palm Springs. I’ve alluded to “the dancing” here a few times since it all began in Flesherton last winter but I’ve never shared the story in any degree of detail…

It all began last November with my decision to move into a spare room at Jeffand Keri's house in small town in the countryside of Canada. I was working on a book with Pitcher at the time and I couldn’t resist the allure of a winter living out a slightly more social Thoreau fantasy. For whatever reason I wasn’t able to write when I arrived and I felt an irrepressible desire to start a business selling fire roasted veggie doges in the back yard every Saturday. On the weekdays I decided I would stand at the 4-corners holding a giant sign that read “BACKYARD FIRE ROASTED VEGGIE DOGS 100 meters ahead every SATURDAY”... If I ever got around to building the Igloo I had plans for I was prepared to make a new sign that made mention of the structure and the unique opportunity to eat a fire roasted veggie dog while sitting in an igloo - . I liked the idea of people from Toronto stopping by for a quick dog on their way to the ski hill in Collingwood or neighbors like David taking a break from violin making to join me the back yard at the first smell of BBQ.

A week before the “Grand Opening” Jeff and I decided to dance on the street corner with a 2”X4”. The intention was to build some intrigue and follow up the next day with the official backyard veggie dog sign.

Within minutes the dancing took over and Veggie Dogs were forgotten. For three months we danced, and danced, and danced, and danced. On street corners, in the back yard, and the park. We danced to Sigur Ros, and Public Enemy; Lucinda Williams, and DJ shadow. Brad Mehldau, and Radiohead.

We became free out there as the snow fell; and with the headphones on we played with the inhibition of seven year-olds. I was a boat, and a shark, then a bird. Do you remember what it feels like to pretend so wholeheartedly?

It's like flying.

* * *

I’m proud of the film we made. and I look forward to seeing it on the big screen.

THE WINTER OF THE DANCE is a 10-minute documentary about art, inhibition, and dancing on street corners, which will premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. It had a budget of Zero and was recorded in the "film clip mode" of point and shoot digital camera no larger than a cellular phone (the canon digital elph). It is raw, alive and honest; and perhaps that is why it is the first film that I know of recorded with such rudimentary equipment ever to be received at such a prestigious festival.

* * *

Word comes this morning that Doobie (one of the great feline friends I made in Canada) has passed on. In tribute I post

A Movie

and

A Song

Posted by Mike at September 17, 2005 12:49 PM