Blu-rays: Black Zero Titles of Four Ready to Go

As noted on its website: "Black Zero is a multimedia publisher specializing in Canadian experimental cinema from the 1960s to the present."

Experimental filmmaker and film scholar Stephen Broomer is its founder and bright light, and his dedication to preserving Canadian experimental films, especially those all but forgotten, is commendable and something I very much appreciate given my strong interest in the form. As a matter of interest, his book Hamilton Babylon: A History of the McMaster Film Board (University of Toronto Press, 2016) is an excellent example of the scholarly kind. This impeccable document of necessary density has the expected academic bent, but Broomer's writing style is breezy and inviting enough that it should engage those readers who might possess even the smallest interest in experimental cinema. And censorship. On that front — the courts — we Canadians fought battles of our own. (It wasn't just an "American" thing.) On that front — reading — it's quite the page turner. What happens next? What's the verdict?

Recently I picked up a few Black Zero Blu-rays, partly as a show of support, and, of course, to enjoy the disc sets' featured flicks, including their commentaries and supplementary material.

Readying to dig into:

* Green Dreams — Josephine Massarella

* Slow Run — Larry Kardish

* A Man Whose Life Was Full of Woe Has Been Surprised by Joy — R. Bruce Elder

* Everything Everywhere Again Alive — Keith Lock

Enjoy!

Believe me, I will....

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“(Canadian experimental cinema) has a finer vibration, a finer density, a finer matter.”

— Jonas Mekas, 1968