Mike Hoolboom

hoolboom_imageMike Hoolboom has been a singular force in the Toronto avant-garde film community sine the early 1980s. In addition to a highly prolific career (over 50 films in 28 years) Hoolboom has contributed to the distribution, promotion and criticism of experimental films in Canada. He is the author of Plague Years: A Life in Underground Movies comprised of texts and images from Hoolboom's film scripts, stories, various autobiographical materials, and Inside the Pleasure Dome: Fringe Film In Canada, comprised of interviews, criticxal interrogations and catalogues of significant avant-garde filmmakers in Canada.

Hoolboom distinguishes himself, not only through the quality and abundance of his body of work, but through his interest in fostering a supportive community of independent artists in Toronto. In this interview, Hoolboom discusses his interest in writing and his relationship to Toronto as an art making community. Focusing on the films Tom and Mexico he discusses his interrogation of globalization and his use of found footage as a repository for memory. A thorough biography and analysis of his work may be found at The Canadian Encyclopedia.

- Eli Horwatt

Interview with Mike Hoolboom

On Writing and Toronto
The Approach Towards Filmmaking
Film Collectives and the Image
Globalization, Transnationalism and Mexico
Memory and Found Footage

 

Visible City: Project + Archive is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaCanada Research Chairs, York Research, Ontario Innovation Trust, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.