g/ John Porter, Speaker’s Bio
905-529-3355
irene@hamiltonartistsinc.on.ca or blackboxwhitebox@gmail.com
John Porter has been a filmmaker, performer, photographer and writer in Toronto since 1968. His mother is a painter and his father was a scientist, and while John was growing up he explored drawing, writing, acting and photography. Since leaving secondary school he has made 300 films, mostly super 8, performed 100 solo shows internationally. Known as the “king of Super 8,” and “ideal experimental film ambassador to the general community. His films are fun to watch and require no prior schooling to appreciate.” – Chris Gehman, “The John Porter Film Activity Book,” Pleasure Dome, 1998.
Treating film as a visual art like painting, many of his short films are silent and made in series’ such as Camera Dances, Condensed Rituals, crowd portraits, local histories, and toy stories. While projecting some he performs live in the audience, in front of the screen, or while hand-holding the small projector for “surround super 8″ in galleries and for projecting onto passing people and vehicles while “film-busking” on the street at night. His films are dynamic, humorous and revealing, enjoyed by people of all ages. He is referred to as “a Toronto-based visual genius who, in the ’70s and ’80s, fully extended the artistic possibilities of Super-8. You will not believe the analog awesomeness of these antique-format experiments.” (Time Out Magazine, N.Y., March 22, 2007)
John studied photography and 16mm film production at Ryerson University, worked as a Letter Carrier and a Bicycle Courier. He has received five “B” or “Creation” Grants, in Film or Multi-Disciplinary Art, from the Canada Council for the Arts since 1984. He has taught many super 8 workshops and spoken in many university film classes, and he taught super 8 and 16mm Film Workshop credit courses in the summers of 2005 and 2008 at Trent University.
He has been actively involved with several artist-run centres in Toronto since 1978, including serving many years on Boards of Directors. He’s been most consistently involved with The Funnel Experimental Film Theatre (1977-1989), Pleasure Dome Artists Film Exhibition Group (since 1989) and CineCycle (since 1991). Throughout the 1980s he organized many Monthly Open Film Screenings at The Funnel and A Space Gallery, and made and projected (photo) super 8 films with the band Fifth Column. More recently, he co-organized Monthly Open Screenings at CineCycle for 31 consecutive months (2004-2006).
In 1998 Pleasure Dome published a book about him entitled “The John Porter Film Activity Book” with essays by John McCullough, Chris Gehman, Steve Reinke and Gerald Saul. He was included in Scott MacDonald’s A Critical Cinema 3: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers (University of California Press, review). In 2006, a feature article about John Porter by Rick Palidwor was published in Super 8 Today Magazine #5 (USA). In 2007, smallformat magazine #5 (English and German editions published in Berlin) included an eight page article about him with 28 photos – smallformat’s longest article ever!
In 2007 John went on a four week screening/performance tour of Europe, including two critically-acclaimed shows at the Rotterdam International Film Festival where his show was deemed “one of the most wonderful film experiences of the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007.” (Tonio van Vugt, Zone 5300 – Strips, Cultuur & Curiosa, January 30, 2007). followed by two shows at Anthology Film Archives in New York City.
His on-going community activism includes photographing and writing about local underground film activity, advocating super 8 film and $50 film budgets, and resisting the dominance of the film industry, the Ontario Film Review Board, and video. He resisted email and the internet until 2005.
Please visit http://www.super8porter.ca
