SCRAP VESSEL
Dir. Jason Byrne, 2009.
United States, Singapore, Bangladesh. 51 min.
In English, Mandarin, Bangla, and Hindi with English subtitles and intertitles.

MONDAY, JULY 8 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 13 – 5 PM with virtual filmmaker Q&A (This event is $10.)
THURSDAY, JULY 25 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 – 10 PM

SCRAP VESSEL details the death and memories of a haunted Chinese coal freighter ship named Hupohai (formerly the Bulk Promotor during the start of its life in Norway) during its terminal passage from Singapore to the scrap yards of Bangladesh. Shot on 16mm that was rephotographed repeatedly to generate deep grainy contrasts, Byrne creates a fragmentary visual diary of his exploration of the near-derelict behemoth, where he and the crew uncover an archive of photographs, music tapes, and film reels left behind by Hupohai’s former residents. While the the trip to Chittagong may recall the conclusion to Peter Hutton’s 2007 AT SEA, Byrne shot SCRAP VESSEL three and half years prior and spent the subsequent years figuring out how to assemble its footage. The result is starkly unique in its sombre, gothic qualities, elevated by Albert Ortega’s ambient score.

Jason Byrne will be tele-present for a virtual Q&A following the 5pm screening on Saturday, July 13th. This screening will include a short teaser for an exciting new work in progress!

Preceded by

CANADIAN PACIFIC I & II
Dir. David Rimmer, 1974/1975.
Canada. 11 min.
Silent. Digitized single-channel composite of a dual-projection presentation.

David Rimmer –who along with Michael Snow’s passing in 2023 left a towering legacy in the history of Canadian experimental film– is often celebrated for his gorgeous structural diptych CANADIAN PACIFIC I & II. Shot a year apart from neighboring warehouses overlooking the titular railroad along Vancouver’s bay, visible interior window frames outline both films as three months of winter timelapse and dissolve by. Between blizzards and the monumental vistas of clear days, hulking ships take center view. In the foreground, trains pass in a constant stream, sometimes carrying break-bulk cargo, but more often recognizable corrugated boxes.

The film aspires to be a study in depth and the fluid horizontals of railroad, bay, mountain-scape, and sky. While a beautiful formal exercise not based on any economic or political analysis, CANADIAN PACIFIC I & II captures signs of a transitional phase in global trade that took place by the start of the ‘70s, as an international standard for shipping containers was minted and logistical industries on land and sea designed mechanized labor practices to suit their seamless transport.

DRIFT
Dir. Chris Welsby, 1994.
Canada. 17 min.

DRIFT is a gentle sea-side expression of the British-Canadian landscape filmmaker Chris Welsby’s own personal feelings of being adrift at the time of its making. A sense of peaceful melancholy is conveyed through playful panning shots of cargo ships floating off the foggy coast of Vancouver. Where Rimmer framed his images to create impressions of distance and shifting color pallettes, Welsby renders the same coastline as a flat monochrome canvas. The morning winter light erases the horizon line and forms a blue and gray plane textured in scintillations of film emulsion and ocean tide.

“It is at this time more than any other when, lacking a clearer point of reference, one’s attention is drawn to the large cargo ships which anchor in the bay. Sometimes, in clearer weather, the ships dominate the landscape. At other times, when the fog moves in, the landscape dominates the ships. On some days they assume a monumental, sculptural presence, testimony to the technological domination of the environment. At other times they are no more than grey, ghostly shapes, only half-seen in the swirling fog.” –Chris Welsby