Synopsis
Of Maddin’s filmography, Brand upon the brain! is the only film shot outside of Canada. This was quite some adventure for a director so tied to fiction and realities of his home country. But sometimes you need to take a few risks. The film is an original product by The Film Company, which asked Maddin to direct a short movie as long as it was filmed in Seattle, using local actors and in only six weeks. So, the Canadian turned the limitations into a virtue and transformed the project into a majestic silent movie to be shown accompanied by an orchestra and live narration, in this case using the voice of Isabella Rossellini. Once again using autobiography as the material to be moulded by fiction, the feature takes the protagonist, called Guy like the cinematographer, on an oedipal journey back to the lighthouse-orphanage where he spent his youth, which he has to paint by express desire of his mother. There, the ghosts of a mysterious, atrocious past re-emerge out of layer upon layer of paint.
Filmmaker
Guy Maddin
(Winnipeg, 1956) He studied economics at the University of Winnipeg. Maddin is an installation artist, screenwriter, cinematographer and filmmaker. He has also mounted numerous live performance versions of his films around the world, featuring live music, sound effects, singing and narration. Since 2011 he has collaborated with Galen Johnson and Evan Johnson under the banner of Development Ltd., their Winnipeg-based filmmaking collective.
Filmography: The Green Fog (2017), Accidence (2017), Seances (2016), Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (2015, D'A 2016), The Forbidden Room (2015, D'A 2015) Keyhole (2011), My Winnipeg (2007, D'A 2011), Brand Upon the Brain! (2006, D'A 2011), The Saddest Music in the World (2003, D'A 2011), Dracula, Pages From a Virgin's Diary (2002, D'A 2011), Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997, D'A 2011), Archangel (1990, D'A 2011)
