Artist's short film wins best independent film award

“Dreams and Spaces in Between,” a short film directed by Assistant Professor John Graham (art & art history), has won the Best Film Award at the 2015 Saskatchewan Independent Film Awards (SIFA).

The award was announced at the second annual SIFA event presented by the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative in Regina on Nov. 26.

“Dreams and Spaces in Between” depicts a young musician who becomes deaf. Mysteriously, his mind starts to bring life to sounds by giving them visual form.

Graham says he is fascinated by the way artists can use all of their senses to interact with the world. A running theme in his films involves protagonists who have lost one or more of their senses.

“By the fact that this character lost his hearing, his visual perception of the world becomes heightened—even exaggerated. To me that’s a very lyrical, very poetic moment to express.”

The eight-minute film features no audible dialogue; the film’s meaning is expressed instead through increasingly complex visual metaphors. Graham, with assistance from several other artists both on and off the U of S campus, created most of the elaborate props used in the film’s poetic visualizations.

Danish composer Claus Gahrn provided the understated musical score. The project was filmed at locations in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec.

Graham is a multidisciplinary Canadian artist and a faculty member in printmaking and digital media. The SIFA grand prize is the latest of several filmmaking awards he has received. His four independent short films have been screened at over 80 film festivals.

It is “all the more gratifying and satisfying” to receive the Best Film Award at home in Saskatchewan where the production received much of its financial support, says Graham.

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