Notes on Composing

SHIFT

Movement and meaning between Canada and the Netherlands

A Festival of Canadian and Dutch Music, Film and Literature

NOTES ON COMPOSING

5 collaborations in film and music

Final Event of SHIFT Festival Marks Opening Night of the

2009 IMAGES FESTIVAL

April 2, 2009 at Isabel Bader Theatre

www.shift-festival.ca

For Immediate Release ’Äì Toronto, March 23, 2009: SHIFT is not over yet, but the big bulge of activity at the end of February -- swelling the city's cultural offerings like an early spring thaw -- has passed. After continuing on to Vancouver for a concert with Vancouver New Music Society, Ives Ensemble musicians (now great musical friends of many in Canada) have returned to the Netherlands; Quatuor Bozzini returned to Montreal before setting off on yet another European tour; having made their guerrilla hit, Toca Loca's musicians have again dispersed. But Continuum is hard at preparations for the final event.

On April 2 at the Isabel Bader Theatre, The Images Festival and Continuum present Notes on Composing: 5 collaborations in film and music. Premiered at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam, the event features works on diverse themes by well-known and emerging Canadian film and video artists with music by composers from Canada and the Netherlands: Clive Holden (CA) and Oscar van Dillen (NL) deal with the sea as the Pacific Ocean and the North Sea are juxtaposed on a split screen; Christina Battle (CA) and Martin Arnold (CA) treat the mutual invasion of the human and natural worlds as represented by clips from old movies intercut with highly processed images of birds and bats in flight; Vera Frenkel (CA) and Rick Sacks (CA) have created a poignant view of the loss of connection with water in Toronto's urban environment; DaˆØchi SaˆØto (CA) and Malcolm Goldstein (CA) muse on trees in Parc Mont-Royal in Montreal; and Guy Maddin (CA) and Richard Ayres (NL) present the story of an aging gangster's paranoid delusions, near death experience and revival through highly unconventional means.

NOTES ON COMPOSING ’Äì Opening Night of the 2009 IMAGES FESTIVAL

Thursday, April 2 at 8PM at Isabel Bader Theatre: 93 Charles Street West

Tickets: $15 adults / $12 students & seniors

Advance tickets available at: www.imagesfestival.com/store Info: (416) 971-8405

Composer/Filmmaker: Title

Martin Arnold/Christina Battle (Toronto/Toronto): Behind the Shadows

Richard Ayres/Guy Maddin (Renkum/Winnipeg): Glorious

Oscar van Dillen/Clive Holden (Rotterdam/Toronto): 2 Cameras @ Sea

Rick Sacks/Vera Frenkel (Toronto/Toronto): ONCE NEAR WATER: Notes from the Scaffolding Archive

Malcolm Goldstein/DaˆØchi SaˆØto (Montreal/Montreal): Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis

STATEMENT ON AGE RESTRICTION

Admittance to all screenings (except Youth Screenings) is restricted to those 18 years of age or older. The Images Festival believes in freedom of artistic expression and is against discrimination on the basis of age. However, under the Ontario Theatres Act, film and video festivals are required to adopt a blanket adult rating in order to hold public screenings without having to submit all works for prior classification. Film and video are the only forms of expression subject to this kind of censorship system in Ontario. The Images Festival complies with the Ontario Theatres Act under protest.

Continuum is supported through grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the city of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council; the Metcalf Foundation's Strategic Initiatives programme; the SOCAN, Emerald and McLean foundations; by patrons Aurora Tewksbury Reford, Ann Southam and Christopher Des Brisay; by the accounting firm Newman & Sversky; and as well, through the generosity of many private donors. SHIFT is supported by The Canada Council for the Arts, Muziek Centrum Nederland, Muziekgebouw aan ’Äòt IJ, the Consulate-General of The Netherlands, the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quˆ©bec, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Charles Street Video and a variety of individual and corporate donors.

For more information on SHIFT please contact Festival Coordinator Josh Grossman at (416) 924-4945 or josh@continuumusic.org , or visit www.shift-festival.ca .