IN TRANSIT Presents: 16mm is a series of 20 short, beautiful, color saturated, hand-painted 16mm films created by Canadian artist Jonathan Dueck in collaboration with I Heart Lung, Chad VanGaalen, DENEIR, and Son Lux. These films were created using old 16mm documentaries that Dueck was given when the Calgary Science Centre was purging itself of obsolete media. Part or all of the existing film was scratched/scraped off and layers of ink were painted, stamped, dripped, and splattered over top. The resulting visuals follow in the tradition of abstract/experimental film-makers such as Norman McLaren and Stan Brakhage.

Dueck created five unique films for each of the 4 collaborating artists who in turn reacted to the visuals in a way they felt was musically appropriate. This is what he had to say about the final merger of visual and audio:

“Each artist did not prepare anything until they saw the actual films I had made for them. Each artist responded really differently to the task, though. When I first asked Chad to be part of the project I only had some clips of what I was working on for I Heart Lung. I didn’t have any sound or anything for them, but I brought these clips to his house to show him what I might give him to work on. After seeing the initial clips he knew right away that he was going to use these new analog synths that he was building in his basement. Out of everyone’s soundtracks on this project his are the most “illustrative.” I Heart Lung’s contribution really capture the feeling of the images and pay close attention to the sweeping movements of them. They made these super short films feel really grand and epic. DENEIR responded slowly over time sending one piece at a time. Each one he made was well worth the wait, and I think he really captured the violence and dread that is felt with the rough physical treatment of the films themselves. Ryan Lott of Son Lux responded with a whole bunch of pieces inspired by the group of films as a whole. We then worked together choosing which of his soundtracks would go best with specific films and then he went back and edited them to fit.” – Jonathan Dueck

Funding for this project was made possible with the help of the Canada Council for the Arts and generous donations through Kickstarter.