News
march-2022-events
We are pleased to announce that the Victoria Film Festival named, STILL MAX, Best Documentary of the 2022 edition of the festival which ran from February 4-13, 2022. We are sincerely grateful for this recognition.
STILL MAX screened at the Las Cruces International Film Festivalin New Mexico, U.S.A. on March 4, 2022.
STILL MAX is an Official Selection of the Festival International du Film sur l'Art (FIFA) taking place from March 16 - 27 2022. The film will be available online from March 16 (in Canada only). There will be a special in-person screening on Saturday, March 19 at 8 p.m. at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Director Katherine Knight will be present. More information here: https://lefifa.com/en/catalog/still-max
Stay tuned for more news about STILL MAX coming soon!
still-max-at-the-victoria-and-big-sky-festivals-in-february-2022
The Victoria Film Festival(Victoria, B.C.) will screen STILL MAX as part of its 2022 programme. The festival runs from February 4 to 13 with in-person screenings in various venues as well as online. STILL MAX screens on February 10 at the Odeon Cinema and available to stream in British Columbia only. Check out their website: victoriafilmfestival.com
From the VFF programme notes:
Canadian artist Max Dean developed a body of work often focused on themes of destruction and rehabilitation. Best known as the co-creator of a robotic chair that collapses and reconstructs itself, his sculptures have an element of humour and absurdity built into their highly engineered devices. When he receives a prostate cancer diagnosis, he immediately decides to document his journey with the disease, further motivated after his partner Martha Fleury finds out about her aggressive ovarian cancer and the world enters a pandemic. If that wasn’t enough, his long-time studio is threatened by demolition and redevelopment. Grappling with their respective diseases, they confront life the best way they know how, by creating art inspired by it. Director Katherine Knight elegantly follows Dean through his whimsical creative process, taking us into the mind of a fascinating artist who is acknowledging his mortality and reflecting on the past, present and unpredictable future.
-Alex Rogalski
STILL MAX has its first screening outside of Canada as an Official Selection of the 19th edition of The Big Sky Documentary Festival in Missoula, Montana taking place from the 18th to the 27th of February. Website: bigskyfilmfest.org
From the program notes:
Diagnosed with prostate cancer, multidisciplinary artist Max Dean asks, “How do we fix ourselves?” Driven by a wild imagination, Max visualizes his illness not just physically but physiologically. In this journey of artistic exploration, Max Dean confirms he is STILL MAX—always curious and thoughtful, always seeking to know himself.
2021-wrap-up
Site Media’s new film, STILL MAX, directed by Katherine Knight, had its world premiere at Hot Docs 21, the Toronto International Documentary Film Festival in May. The Hot Docs festival was held virtually this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, so all films were streamed instead of being shown theatrically.
STILL MAX finished the festival winning one of five $10,000 Roger’s Audience Awards for the top audience favourite Canadian films and finished in the Hot Docs Top Ten Audience Favourite overall.
STILL MAX had its first screening in front of a live audience at FIN Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax on September 20th before going to the Charlottetown (PEI) Film Festival in October.
FilmOption, a Canadian distribution company based in Montreal will distribute STILL MAX in the World ex. Canada.
Site Media’s 2019 documentary The Mill screened at two festivals in October of 2021: the Eko Film Festival in the Czech Republic and Toronto’s International Migration and Environmental Film Festival where it was named Best Documentary Feature.
Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island was part of the programme of films presented at the Ark Rex Architecture Film Festival in Helsinki, Finland in November.
Still Max to premiere at Hot Docs 2021
We are pleased and honoured that Site Media's new film, Still Max, directed by Katherine Knight will have its world premiere at Hot Docs 2021! Hot Docs is one of the world's preeminent documentary film festivals and we are thrilled to be returning to this festival after debuting our film Spring & Arnaud there in 2013 where it was one of the Top Ten Audience favourite films that year. The following is a quotation from the program notes from this year's Hot Docs: "All of my work has been affected by my life and my being. It's not an abstraction. It's about my reality." True to his word, Canadian artist Max Dean's latest creations take the artist's prostate cancer diagnosis as subject. Striving to visualize the physical and psychological manifestations of his disease, Dean ponders the interrelated themes of time, aging and illness in a number of new works. When his partner, artist Martha Fleury, is diagnosed with an aggressive form of ovarian cancer, he folds her threatening tumour into his installations as well. Creating works of various scales, including defunct animatronic figures from a decommissioned Ontario Place amusement ride, he evokes a sense of wonder and awe. Through the journey of his artistic exploration, Max Dean confirms he is Still Max—always curious and thoughtful, always seeking to know himself." - Aisha Jamal Canadian Programmer
This year's Hot Docs films will be available across Canada for the first time. Make sure you get your tickets here
A News Update
Our website has not published news updates for a while. Quite a long while, in fact. That has not meant that Site Media has been inactive, quite the opposite. Since our last bulletin we have been super busy making films and we have also relocated our headquarters to a new custom-built studio in Nova Scotia. Please note our new address: 31 Simpson Road, Braeshore, Nova Scotia, Canada B0K 1H0
In 2019 Site Media principal, David Craig, produced and directed the CBC television documentary, "The Mill". It won several awards and was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for "Best Documentary Program".
Director and Producer Katherine Knight is completing her new film "Still Max" and we will have more news to announce in the future regarding the launch of this highly anticipated project.
We are rebuilding our mailing list so please feel free to add your email address for future bulletins. We will have more news very soon!
Image: render of Caribou Studios, Site Media Inc.'s new home
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! DECEMBER 2017 NEWS
Visit Site Media's Vimeo on Demand page where you can rent or purchase KOOP, our 2013 documentary about Winnipeg based artist Wanda Koop and Pretend Not To See Me, the definitive film record of the work of performance artist Colette Urban from 2010. Both films provide an intimate and informative look at the work of these important artists.
Site Media's most recent film Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island screens on Tuesday, December 19 at Filmhuis Alkmaar in the Netherlands. Strange and Familiar has had a number of successful screenings in Europe over the Fall season in France and the Netherlands. It also had a mini-tour of Nova Scotia playing in Wolfville, Annapolis Royal and Shelbourne.
Site Media's 2006 film about Annie Pootoogook will now be distributed by V Tape as well as McNabb & Connolly, both highly respected Canadian educational distributors. Annie Pootoogook is distributed internationally by Kanopy.
We wish all visitors to our website a happy holiday 2017. We will keep you informed of our new projects coming up in 2018
STRANGE AND FAMILIAR SCREENS AT EDIT - SEPT.28 TO OCT.8, 2017
Site Media is happy to participate in EDIT, the Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology taking place in Toronto from September 28 to October 8, 2017. Out 2014 film, Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island will screen every evening of the festival run as part of an outstanding selection of recent films related to the festival's themes.
EDIT is a project of Toronto's Design Exchange:
VISION
Design, innovation and technology have the power to transform our lives for the better. EDIT seeks to build a platform for world-changing solutions, and to establish an exchange for demonstrating, sharing, generating and participating in new ideas for facing global problems.
MISSION
In partnering with the United Nations Development Programme on the inaugural edition of EDIT, the expo will demonstrate the true power of design by addressing the UNDP’s Global Goals for Sustainable Development and realizing our central theme of Prosperity for All (Nourish, Care, Shelter/Cities and Educate). We will inspire, inform, and connect participants and visitors through curated exhibits, immersive installations, a speakers series and more.
More information available at the EDIT website
ANNIE POOTOOGOOK: CUTTING ICE AT THE MCMICHAEL CANADIAN ART COLLECTION.
In 2006 our first film, Annie Pootoogook, aired on Bravo Canada and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). Since then our award-winning films have been seen at major film festivals, on television and in classrooms, art galleries and universities across Canada and abroad.
To mark this milestone we have launched an updated and mobile friendly website at sitemedia.ca
We are also pleased to announce that our two most recent productions: “Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island” and “Spring & Arnaud” are now being distributed by First Run Features and are available on DVD and iTunes (USA). First Run Features
Our films are also distributed to schools and universities in Canada through McNab &Connolly and V Tape
This year we have also established a relationship with the online educational distributor Kanopy and through them our films Annie Pootoogook, KOOP, Pretend Not To See Me and Strange & Familiar will be available for students and teachers outside Canada.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our collaborators, broadcast partners, festivals, funders and, importantly, those who have been touched by our films. Your support and feedback has been crucial for our work and we are deeply grateful to have the opportunity to have connected to so many people in so many places through our films.
Our front page image is from a new photographic series entitled 'Boat' by Katherine Knight which will debut in 2017
Director Katherine Knight screens Site media films in Bonavista NF on September 14 as part of the Bonavista Biennale
Site Media is delighted to be part of the innaugural Bonavista Biennale taking place on the Bonavista Peninsula in Newfoundland. Director Katherine Knight will introduce two of her films: Pretend Not To See Me: The Art of Colette Urban (2009) and KOOP (2011). Pretend Not To See Me was shot near Corner Brook, Newfoundland where artist Colette Urban established an art residency and market garden. The film captures the artist's deep connection to her Newfoundland landscape and community while documenting her unique and groundbreaking work as a performance artist. Colette Urban passed away in 2013 at the age of 61 and Pretend Not To See Me has become our tribute to this artist of fierce commitment and courage as well as a definitive document of her work. The evening's screenings are dedicated to her memory.
KOOP features the work of Winnipeg based artist Wanda Koop, one of Canada's leading artists. It follows a journey taken by Koop on a freighter travelling up the St. Laurence River as she absorbs the sights and sounds that will inspire new paintings, photos and video works. The film provides insight into the creative process of this remarkable artist. Wanda Koop received the Order of Canada for her work as an artist and community activist who established Art City, a community art centre in Winnipeg.
The screening will take place at the historic Garrick Theatre in the town of Bonavista on September 14 at 7 p.m. Also screening will be short films by Amalie Atkins, Kevin Lee Burton and Barbara Doran.
More about the Bonavista Biennale can be found at their website
ADFF SCREENS STRANGE AND FAMILIAR IN SEOUL, KOREA JULY 28 TO OCTOBER 29, 2017 AND TIPPET RISE, MONTANA ON SEPTEMBER 23
Thanks to Kyle Bergman, founder of the Architecture and Design Film Festival, Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island will play again in Seoul from July 28 to October 29, 2017 at the Hyundai Storage gallery. Storage Gallery dedicates four intimate theaters to screen films every day for three months. There are six themes: Monographs of Masters; Our Homes, Our Lives; Living with the City; Architects as Makers; Creating Community and Historic Preservation. In total there are 24 films: each theme has four feature-length films, ten of which are Korean premieres. Strange and Familiar is part fo the Creating Community program. Seoul is also hosting the International Union of Architects conference from September 3 to 10th.
Again thanks to the ADFF, Strange and Familiar will be screening on September 23 at ADFF: Tippet Rise, Montana. ADFF:Tippet Rise will screen eight films and offer special tours of the Tippet Rise land art. There will be a panel moderated by Frances Anderton, host of KCRW Radio’s DnA: Design and Architecture. Tippet Rise is in an extraordinary region of Montana, off the beaten path and totally worth the effort! We are delighted to be part of this special presentation.
More information available at the : ADFF web site
Terry Ryan 1933-2017
We were deeply saddened by the news that Terry Ryan has passed away. He was a main subject of Annette Mangaard's 2010 film Kinngait: Riding Light Into The World about the history of the Kinngait Coop print studio in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. Terry was instrumental to the success of the Cooperative. A true gentleman with a genuine love of the North he was a graduate of the Ontario College of Art who had the business acumen to make the print studio one of the most notable and financially successful ateliers in the world. He was distinquished by his deep commitment to the well being of his community of Cape Dorset and for his respect for Inuit people and culture. His story makes for a unique chapter in Canadian history.
STRANGE AND FAMILIAR OPENS ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN FILM FESTIVAL: TULSA , APRIL 20, 2017
Director and Producer Katherine Knight, was delighted to be on hand in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Thursday, April 20, 2017 where "Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island‚" was the opening film of the Architecture and Design Film Festival Tulsa. Kyle Bergman, founder of the Architecture and Design Film Festival, curated the Tulsa edition of the festival with the sponsorship of the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture and Festival Chair Nancy Hermann. A special thanks is due to Kyle, who has championed "Strange and Familiar" and organized screenings across America and across the world. Thanks also to Julie Miner and Marty Newman who were generous hosts during the visit to Tulsa, which included a tour to several of the city's architectural landmarks. Additional thanks are due to the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture for the invitation to attend the festival. It was a great honour and pleasure to participate in the festival.
Strange and familiar screens in Seoul, Korea
Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island had its Asian premiere at the 8th Seoul International Architecture Film Festival in November 2016. The Korean Society of Registered Architects sponsors the festival. The screening took place at the stunning campus of Ewha Women’s University in Seoul. Director and producer Katherine Knight and producer David Craig attended the screenings and participated in the Q&A sessions that followed. Both screenings at the University were sold out and Korean audiences were clearly sympathetic to the film and asked a lot of thoughtful questions. As filmmakers we were really impressed and overwhelmed by the audience reception. We are especially grateful to Festival Director Jaeseon Yoon and his staff for making us welcome during our visit to Seoul.
Courtesy of the tireless efforts of Kyle Bergman of the Architecture and Design Film Festival NYC, Strange and Familiar returns to Seoul during February and March 2017 as part of the Architecture and Design Film Festival Seoul. Kyle has been a big fan of our film and a huge supporter of films on the topic of architecture and design. He has organized versions of the festival across the United States and around the world and the ADFF in Seoul takes place at the Hyundai Card Design Library. The screening schedule has been extended so check out the schedule at AD Fest Seoul 2017
Update: our film about Annie Pootoogook
Over 10,000 viewers from around the globe loaded our film about Annie Pootoogook over the two week tribute period following the announcement of her death on September 21, 2016. The film was shared on Facebook, Akimbo and the mailing list of Feheley Fine Arts as well as on this website. The response to the news of Annie's death was immediate and widespread indicating the influence of her work. There were many articles in the press including this one from the Globe and Mail . We wanted to make the film available to honour Annie's life and her incredible accomplishments as an artist. As director Marcia Connolly points out “It’s so important that people hear her speak about her art and life, and not just think about her death.”
While the film is no longer available free online we remind those interested that the film is distributed by McNabb & Connolly in Canada and internationally by Kanopy.
Annie Pootoogook: in memoriam
Site Media was deeply saddened by the news that Inuk artist, Annie Pootoogook, has died. Annie was the subject of Site Media's first film directed by Marcia Connolly and produced by Katherine Knight. The film portrayed Annie at the height of her creative power as she prepared for her first solo exhibition at Toronto's Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in 2006.
Annie Pootoogook was an important artist who has left an indelible legacy with her art. In tribute to her life we are making our film available to viewers who may wish to see Annie as she lived and worked in her community of Cape Dorset. Watch the 24 minute film here: Annie Pootoogook
"Marcia Connolly has created an extraordinary documentary on Annie Pootoogook's work and life. Her camera has found a beautiful way of implicating itself into Pootoogook's community in Cape Dorset, creating an intimacy and sense of spiritual kinship which is profoundly touching and rare. This is one of the finest portraits of an artist I have ever seen."
-Atom Egoyan
Site media inc. launches its new website
In 2006 our first film, Annie Pootoogook, aired on Bravo Canada and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). Since then our award-winning films have been seen at major film festivals,on television and in classrooms, art galleries and universities across Canada and abroad.
To mark this milestone we have launched an updated and mobile friendly website at sitemedia.ca
We are also pleased to announce that our two most recent productions: “Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island” and “Spring & Arnaud” are now being distributed by First Run Features and are available on DVD and iTunes (USA). First Run Features
Our films are also distributed to schools and universities in Canada through McNab &Connolly and V Tape
This year we have also established a relationship with the online educational distributor Kanopy and through them our films Annie Pootoogook, KOOP, Pretend Not To See Me and Strange & Familiar will be available for students and teachers outside Canada.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our collaborators, broadcast partners,festivals, funders and, importantly, those who have been touched by our films. Your support and feedback has been crucial for our work and we are deeply grateful to have the opportunity to have connected to so many people in so many places through our films.
Our front page image is from a new photographic series entitled 'Boat' by Katherine Knight which will debut in 2017
STRANGE AND FAMILIAR ON KNOWLEDGE NETWORK
Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island was broadcast on British Columbia's Knowledge Network on August 9, 2016. We appreciated this comment from a viewer: "Wonderful... effort from Fogo Islanders, Zita Cobb, the Shorefast Foundation and architect Todd Saunders - Great courage to embrace such modern adaptations of a vernacular to revitalize an economy and heritage. Thank you for the film and for broadcasting it." see Knowledge website
Strange and Familiar Premiers on CBC Newfoundland and Labrador July 30 2016 at 8:30 PM
Watch here: Strange and Familiar official trailer
July 30, 2016 at 8:30 p.m. CBC Newfoundland and Labrador will broadcast Site Media's award-winning documentary "Strange and Familiar" about Fogo Island born social entrepreneur Zita Cobb and Gander born architect Todd Saunders and their project to build the Fogo Island Inn. What does the future hold for traditional rural societies in a rapidly changing world? On Fogo Island sustaining its unique way of life after the collapse of the cod fishery is no small challenge. But when local entrepreneur Zita Cobb teams up with renowned architect Todd Saunders to build a one-of-a-kind inn on a rugged, windswept coastline, they end up creating a strikingly original work of design that will become a catalyst for social and economic change. Experience this staggeringly beautiful place and how the community and local artisans, together with Saunders and Cobb, come together in this creative process during a time of optimism and uncertain hope. ‚"Strange & Familiar" was directed and filmed by Marcia Connolly and Katherine Knight and produced by Site Media Inc. It was awarded prizes for Best Atlantic Documentary and Best Atlantic Cinematography at the 2015 Atlantic Film Festival and has screened at film festivals around the world including New York, Copenhagen, Milan, Lisbon and at the St. John's International Women's Film Festival.