When SHAW Cable purchased Winnipeg’s local cable station VPW, rumor circulated that they had destroyed the public access television archives and were systematically dismantling the public access services. Shortly thereafter, artist Daniel Barrow began researching, compiling and archiving a history of independently produced television in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In the late 70s and throughout the 80s, Winnipeg experienced a golden age of public access television. Anyone with a creative dream, concept or politic would be endowed with airtime and professional production services. Winnipeg Babysitter traces unique vignettes from a brief synapse in broadcasting history when Winnipeg cable companies were mandated to provide public access as a condition of their license. Because the archives were destroyed, programs could only be found in the VHS collections of the original producers, television collectors, fans and enthusiasts. Winnipeg Babysitter is an archival project that restores a previously lost history.
Daniel Barrow performs an overhead projected commentary, tracing the histories of public access television in Manitoba, and describing the various biographies of each television producer and personality.
About the Ironworks Series
VIFF Live is giving four Resident Artists the opportunity to immerse themselves in the 2023 Festival and perform at The Ironworks.
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Guest
Daniel Barrow
Artist, Curator, Archivist
Winnipeg-born, Montreal-based artist Daniel Barrow uses obsolete technologies to present written, pictorial and cinematic narratives centering on the practices of drawing and collecting. Since 1993, they have created and adapted comic book narratives to “manual” forms of animation by projecting, layering and manipulating drawings on overhead projectors. Daniel Barrow has exhibited widely in Canada and abroad. He has performed at The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), PS1 Contemporary Art Center (New York), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), The International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art TBA Festival, and the British Film Institute (London). Barrow is the winner of the 2010 Sobey Art Award.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Miracle Worker
Academy Awards went to Best Actress Anne Bancroft and Best Supporting Actress Patty Duke for their moving portrayals of Annie Sullivan and her remarkable blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller. "A film that storms where most biopics respectfully tiptoe."
In the Mood for Love
Wong Kar-wai's most acclaimed and popular film is a love story about two neighbours (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who are drawn together by the long absences of their respective spouses + a newly released short companion piece from 2001.
In the Heat of the Night
Sidney Poitier in an indelible role a Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs, pulled in as a murder suspect when changing trains in Mississippi. He allies with bigoted local sheriff (Rod Steiger) to solve the case.
Rachel, Rachel
The story of a shy schoolteacher whose sexual awakening in her mid-30s leads to a deeper re-evaluation of her life, the film is sensitive and sympathetic, as well as a surprising directorial debut from Paul Newman.
Ghosts of the Sea
Imagine an especially poetic true crime podcast about a sailor who built his own sailboat and lived on the high seas, but lost not one, but two wives along the way... Now imagine it told from the vantage point of his daughter: Ghosts of the Sea.