In Between Spaces

Millefiore Clarkes

director/editor

Millefiore Clarkes dedicates herself to the craft and community of media arts on Prince Edward Island. Her production company One Thousand Flowers Productions produces a variety of media work such as 'pocket-docs' for online dissemination, music videos, experimental video, and feature documentaries. Her passion is to capture on film the moments when human's reveal themselves and their essential interconnectivity.

IN BETWEEN SPACES was a long dormant inspiration that was given life through the Cultural Capitals Video Production program. The original concept was to purchase 4 small video cameras (back when they used miniDV tapes), leave them on a bench with instructions attached and let the cameras travel from hand to hand throughout the world until they disappeared. IN BETWEEN SPACES is a pared down and focused version of the original concept.

Piecing together the footage given to me by the 12 videographers imbued me with a strange sense of godliness, of omnipotence. I was able to peer briefly into the subjective lives of individuals and watch how their pathways wove and roamed. Each videographer's way of seeing became so clear it was the closest I've ever come to seeing through someone else's eyes.

Charlottetown is the ideal town (city) for this video experiment. Charlottetown, above all other Canadian towns, is just the right size. It has elements of urbanity; accomplished artists, national arts institutions, young culture. And yet it retains the deep community bonds of a slower, more rural way of life. That community bond comes from the rooted agrarian culture of PEI, and from the magic of islandness. If you give your time to this place, eventually you will be let in. And then you have a home forever. If all the world is a stage, Charlottetown is just the right sized stage; where everyone can play a part, because there aren't too many of us, and yet there are enough of us to lend newness, perspective and excitement into the mix.

We have something precious here. It is a pace of life. It is a richness that exists outside of a dollar bill. It's not perfect, but it can be darn good.

www.onethousandflowers.tv
Vimeo Profile

Donnalee Downe

videographer

Donnalee Downe is a visual artist and the project coordinator for Peake Street Studios in Charlottetown. She is currently completing her MFA at Cardiff School of Art and Design, Wales.

Knee-deep in preparing for a year of studies in the UK, I restricted my captures for IN BETWEEN SPACES to my home on Peake Street and its yard. While shooting I became increasingly interested in the sounds associated with living in Charlottetown. I thought a lot about seasonal sounds (the crows, the plow, the sump-pump), how certain sounds mark transitions (new birds for every season, bare branch sounds and the rustle of new leaves). And no doubt fueled by nostalgia and the immediacy of my own transition, I began to remember the voices of those who have passed through my house after almost a decade of living on Peake Street.

I think my work is almost always about positioning and coming to understand things. While shooting for IN BETWEEN SPACES I learned that my home on many, many levels is in Charlottetown.

www.a-n.co.uk/link/gone_postal

Mikey Wasnidge

videographer

Mikey Wasnidge is an amateur photographer who can often be found hanging around Charlottetown hot spots, trying to fit in. After his exhibit at Babas Lounge, his ego skyrocketed and from that point on he wanted to be paid for everything he would have previously otherwise done for his own enjoyment. Normally described by friends as "alright", Mikey tries very hard to make others think of him as superior to them. As a student at UPEI, he excels without trying, and looks down on others who work hard. He hopes that you appreciate his clips and assume that it took more effort and skill than it actually did.

Photos on flickr

Sandi Hartling

videographer

I am an interdisiplinary artist living and working in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. I like to make art about the evolution of things over time - rituals and social normalities, language and etymology.

My goal with IN BETWEEN SPACES was to film boring things: brushing my teeth, doing the dishes, walking to work - the repetition of everyday life. Although my footage was biographical, my hope was that these shots would be familiar to others, and that they could find a simplistic beauty in sharing these everyday tasks.

stockpilegroup.ca

Mauricio Aristizabal

videographer

I was born in Cali, Colombia. Being too young I moved to Medellín, there I started painting when I was thirteen years old, and took to private art lessons. I finished high school in 1995 in Medellín, and I started mandatory military service for one year. After that I started studying Architecture and dropped out after two years, then I started studying Fine Arts. In 2001 I moved to Bogotá. Being there I studied Graphic Design and graduated in 2005. Ever since I finished college I have been dedicated to art. I moved to Canada in October 2007. Right now I am working as a full time artist.

The biggest moment during the process of IN BETWEEN SPACES was meeting with other artists, and somehow  ending up on their footage. The project showed me how strong could be the net where we build our society.  

A very far place was Charlottetown, that soon will be my hometown. 

www.mauricioaristizabal.ca

John MacKenzie

videographer

John MacKenzie has published 3 books of poetry.

He lives in Charlottetown contemplating, occasionally, the exact amount of duct tape and cardboard he will need to build his retirement home.

Christine Landry

videographer

I spend my time trying to live as carefree as possible. No worries, no worries. Loving friends, loving family, loving animals.

I’m not artistic, in the obvious sense. I have no “eye” for what I’m looking to capture. It was easier for me to not think about what I wanted to capture in the video for IN BETWEEN SPACES. I did not worry about how perfect my footage was going to be, it was more important that I seized something in the moment. I took on this project, like my life, in a very relaxed way. I enjoyed every minute.

Charlottetown used to be a town of mixed emotions. This was the city that took my best friend from Halifax when we were 10, but Charlottetown was the city that made her happy. Now, as an adult, I can see that this town has many things to give, no longer is it the town that claimed my friend.

Dave Phillips

videographer

David Phillips moved from Scotland to PEI in 2008. He likes to keep a list of books he's read.

Since participating in IN BETWEEN SPACES, I have found myself stopping more frequently to watch birds feed or light reflect strangely across a building and have been enjoying these ordinary little parts of life more thoroughly as a result. My days are made up of endless little vignettes and maybe that's a piece of the process; the change in the perceptions of the people who took part. So, thanks Mikey for passing the camera on and thanks to Mille for making it all happen.

Charlottetown's strength is in it's people. It's where my friends live and it's the representation of North American life that will remain most vivid to me in my future.

Chrissy Cerminara

videographer

I am a visual artist, teacher and mom. Born in Newmarket, raised in St.Catherines, lived in Charlottetown and now exploring British Columbia. I enjoy sharing ideas, allowing music to touch my soul, and taking new paths.

I knew exactly what I would film when proposed with this project, IN BETWEEN SPACES. While living in Charlottetown, I walked everywhere. I walked to work in the windy snow and the falling rain, past the buskers and street regulars downtown, along the sea salty boardwalk, in Victoria park's wooded silence, through secret neighbourhood paths, and to Norman's to visit the family and pick up some Lebanese treats. It was obvious to me then that I should film walking. This project gave me time to walk freely with no real purpose other than to just experience my surroundings. With camera in hand, I was able to really look at what I would soon be leaving, to appreciate it and put it into that part of my mind that holds important memories. I will forever hold close every place that I walked and those who walked with me there.

Charlottetown to me is so many things. It was a safe place to run to. It gave me time to find my path, and then sent me on my way.

Matt Bowness

videographer

I am Matt Bowness.  I am the owner/operator of Overman Jewellery & Art.  I make things.  Most of what I do centers around jewellery, but I also do some work on props for local film productions, and sometimes I put things that I make on walls.

I had heard about IN BETWEEN SPACES through the Charlottetown rumor mill.  People were wondering who had the cameras.  So, when I was approached to take a camera I was surprised and I felt privileged to be a part of it.  I didn't want to set up shots and attempt to make things look more interesting than they were so I just filmed bits of my average days.  Aside from some fumbling with the camera it was a fun and interesting experience.

Even though my home is in a forest an hour away, Charlottetown is where I live.

www.overman.ca
facebook.com/overmanpage

B.J. McCarville

videographer

B.J. McCarville is a Charlottetown based artist and teacher. She completed her BFA in Studio arts at Concordia University with a shared concentration in oil painting and installation. Her artwork focuses generally on light, time, place and narrative.

IN BETWEEN SPACES was a great opportunity to play with time-based media and to generate images for a collaborative project. There is a freedom in contributing to a project for which I did not have control over the final product. The approach I took was a focus on everyday life; specifically seeking the beauty and peace from small rituals like biking, laundry and morning tea, as well as the gathering of family and friends.

I was born and raised in Charlottetown. I have lived a lot of places but Charlottetown has always been my home. I love its small town ways and charms, its people, places, and all its endless opportunities, and I need to leave regularly to remember all of those things again.

www.bjmccarville.com

Corrie Cerminara

videographer

I am a writer/photographer/adventurer who has started anew in British Columbia studying esthetics and laser technology. I like electronic music, chinese food, and my cat, Scrupulous.

It was very difficult for me to choose a theme, especially after hearing about some people's themes being so distinctive. When I thought about how I could contribute to IN BETWEEN SPACES, all I could really think of was little things and little places that were significant to me. It gave me a really good opportunity to explore the places and the people in Charlottetown who meant the most to me before leaving for the other coast. During the project, I found myself examining my everyday life and the role the island played in my daily routine. It was strange when I was finally getting ready to leave, and it felt natural to invest in a video camera of my own to film our drive across Canada.

Charlottetown is quaint. It is sceptical and aspiring and wonderful and petrifying. It held me captive for eight years and it freed me when I was ready to leave.

Kelly Caseley

videographer

Kid wrangler, mask maker, clothing designer, day dreamer, tea drinker, fashion blogger, business owner, book reader, beach bum. 

How to capture my Charlottetown?  What is my Charlottetown?  What does it look like?  How does it sound?  I hesitated to start IN BETWEEN SPACES.  I planned and mapped out my time.  I abandoned my itinerary and just pressed 'record' when and where I felt like it.  I learned a bit about myself and the place I live.  I wanted my hour to go on and on and never end.

Charlottetown is the place that has allowed me to make masks, and  design clothing, and drink tea, and run my own business, and blog about fashion all the while reading books, day dreaming, lounging on the beach and raising my kids in a magical land.  I can not imagine another corner of the world where all this would be possible for me and my family.

facebook.com/greenmanvintage
greenmangirl.com

Roger Carter

musician & composer

An explorer and a creator from an early age, Roger Carter was born into a mixture of science, religion, and art: his British born father was a leading research scientist before becoming a Catholic priest, and his Dutch born mother nurtured her lifelong passion for music and song, endowing her son with a strong genetic dose of musical medicine.

As a child Roger was captivated by the mystery behind the haunting tones of his family's dilapidated piano, and by the age of 7 was writing songs and creating musical pieces, weaving together images and ideas from the world around him.  By the age of 12 Roger had taught himself piano and drums, spent over six years singing in choirs, and had lived in Canada, England, Holland and Australia, offering him a unique perspective on the world and his place in it.  He began performing publicly in a variety of bands at the age of 14,  playing in churches, at school events, all-age concerts, and even bars.  This marriage of creation and performance became the path that Roger continues to follow through his life, and it has led him to the discovery of his greatest passions, enabled the conception of dozens of bands, allowed him hundreds of musical collaborators, and has opened his eyes to the wider world around him.

For a long time, Roger used to dread being asked: "Where do you come from?" for it was a question to which he felt he had no reply.   Born in Edmonton Alberta, Roger moved dozens of times and lived in many places within and without Canada, and as a result never felt that he had a home of his own.  Since re-settling in Charlottetown in 2002, Roger has become heavily involved with the community, recording and performing in a variety of bands, collaborating with other local artists, and owning his own business.  Through his work, Roger teaches, and creates using sound to explore the worlds of isolation and of community (among others), with an aim to educate and enlighten those around him.  His work connects melody with soundscape, storytelling with revelation, relies heavily on the image, and pays homage to the forms that arise from an immense and immersive environment. It has also allowed him to discover his own space, and to embrace Charlottetown as his home.

All the works created for IN BETWEEN SPACES were done so on a 4-track analog cassette recorder.

Quote from local Charlottetown celebrity: 
"Roger Carter - Lad of lads.  Man about town.  Music maker and money shaker.  Having taken the Charlottetown music scene by storm at the tender age of 15 he continues to wet girls' panties on an almost daily basis with his charm and good looks.  For a whiff of this prime piece of meat gallavant your way to the hottest spot in the downtown core, The Green Man, and try on a few of the wares."   -Kelly Caseley

rogercarter.bandcamp.com