As local filmmaker Brian Mitolo observes, “the most visual art form is sometimes the least visible.”
While Peterborough is well known for its music, art and theatre community, often the city’s contribution to film gets looked over.
“Filmmakers tend to be, for the most part, lone wolves,” Mitolo says. “There’s a number of us in Peterborough, but I don’t know if we all know each other. Unless you’re working together on a project, you don’t see each other. You’re always alone, with blinders on, in the editing room or behind a camera.”
The Theatre on King will be promoting the talents of local filmmakers with “A Short Evening of Short Films” on Friday, June 20th, which will present a number of short films by Mitolo and two other local filmmakers: Michael Morritt and Lester Alfonso. The theme of the films is movement, and all three filmmakers will be on hand to meet the public and discuss their work.
Ryan Kerr, Theatre on King’s artistic director, points out that Peterborough’s landscape also plays a big part in the films being screened. Landmarks such as Sadlier House, Market Hall, the Simcoe Bus Depot, the Memorial Centre, and St. Peter in Chains act as backdrops for some of the selected films.
A writer and actor as well as a filmmaker, Mitolo will be presenting three of his films: The Bus Ballet, Drill, and In the Parlour.
Watching the buses leave the Simcoe bus depot inspired his short documentary The Bus Ballet.
“I shot this movie from across the street and from close up, from rooftops and from surveillance cameras,” he adds. “The buses end up looking like big fat dancers.”
Drill — which Mitolo created with Kerr — was inspired by the Peterborough Petes.
“They were training and doing drills and they looked like dancers to us,” Mitolo says. “We use the sounds that the players made as a soundtrack.”
Mitolo will also be presenting one of his most intriguing pieces, In the Parlour, which was filmed in front of St. Peter in Chains between Rubridge and Reid Streets. For this choreographed dance piece, Mitolo worked the backdrop around the church into its narrative structure.
“It started off as a straight-up documentary of a dance piece that was happening outside of a church, but because I make documentaries I’ve learned to let things happen as they unfold,” he says. “So this is more about just turning the camera on, and because it happens in front of a church you also get to see what happens on Rubidge and Reid Street. All these characters appear — like a cat and a giant truck and a couple. It’s right before night falls and it’s an intimate piece about a couple. But because the world around them is moving as well, it’s not just dancers — it’s everything.”
Michael Morritt has been working as a filmmaker for over 10 years, and has recently started his own animation company, Whitebulb, which is housed out of Peterborough.
Morritt will be showing three excerpts from Sadlier Movement, one of his first major film projects.
“Originally, Sadlier Movement was a historical exploration of the ghost stories that surround Sadlier House,” Morritt says. “Kate Story choreographed pieces based on those stories. Then we just allowed ourselves to diverge away from the real ghost stories and tell our own story.”
“Between me and Brian, we’ve made all their videos,” Morritt point out. “They make a lot of videos.”
“A Short Evening of Short Films” is an opportunity to see how three local filmmakers view our city and the way it moves. The films run from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at The Theatre on King and admission is $10 or pay what you can.
