18000 Dead In Gordon Head
Encyclopedia
18,000 Dead In Gordon Head (2001) is a 13 minute, short film by Canadian film-maker Clive Holden
, based on an actual murder he witnessed while visiting his hometown in Victoria, British Columbia
.
The film was part of Holden's Trains of Winnipeg
series.
bullet. A year later, Holden returned to the scene of the senseless slaying to lie with his camera
on the spot where she died, in order to film and capture the effect of her tragic and sudden death.
The film is so titled in reference to the statistic that the average sixteen-year-old has already witnessed 18,000 murders, on television and at the movies. The locale of Gordon Head
is the Canadian suburb where the murder happened, and where the film thus takes place.
; however, this footage was lost before it could be edited. Twenty years later, a crude VHS
video
dub of the original project was found. Much of the footage was damaged footage and out of sync, with but still managed to remain evocative of the filmmaker's hazy and murky memories of the original event at Gordon Head. The footage inspired Holden to write a narrative poem of the event and thus formed the basis of the completed 35mm film.
"Composed as a poem, it's a hybrid of several film stocks and video formats, digitally processed to create a violent, yet lyrical, collage of textured loops, internal rhythms and visual rhymes, finally completing the work's cycle back to film."
"He (being Holden, the film's narrator) feels like he's seeing something he's seen thousands of times before", Holden says, "and in fact he has." As a result of being witness to so many violent images, "we grow insensitive to death and violence. It becomes devastatingly normal."
'18,000 Dead in Gordon Head' is a statement about the ever-presence of violence in our contemporary culture, even found in the banality of Canadian suburban life. Based on and composed as a poem, the final work is fused together with an eerie, haunting soundtrack to lend to its overall harrowing effect of communicating the omnipresent creature of violence within human beings.
Clive Holden
Clive Holden is a Canadian multimedia artist and poet from Victoria, British Columbia, he is currently living in Toronto with his wife, writer Alissa York....
, based on an actual murder he witnessed while visiting his hometown in Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
.
The film was part of Holden's Trains of Winnipeg
Trains of Winnipeg
Trains of Winnipeg is a film and multimedia art project by Clive Holden, released in stages between 2001 and 2004. The final project included a series of 14 short films, designed as visual representations of Holden's poetry, as well as a soundtrack CD and a book.The short films were scored by Emily...
series.
Plot
On a quiet, suburban street in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and in the middle of the afternoon on a summer's day in 1982, Clive Holden witnessed the murder of a teenaged girl as she was killed by a sniper'sSniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
bullet. A year later, Holden returned to the scene of the senseless slaying to lie with his camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
on the spot where she died, in order to film and capture the effect of her tragic and sudden death.
The film is so titled in reference to the statistic that the average sixteen-year-old has already witnessed 18,000 murders, on television and at the movies. The locale of Gordon Head
Gordon Head
Gordon Head is a seaside neighbourhood in the District of Saanich. Gordon Head lies north of McKenzie Avenue and east of the Blenkinsop Valley. The University of Victoria is located partly within Gordon Head along the south-east boundary. Finnerty Road separates Gordon Head from the adjacent...
is the Canadian suburb where the murder happened, and where the film thus takes place.
Footage lost, footage found
The original footage for the film project was shot on Super 8 filmSuper 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
; however, this footage was lost before it could be edited. Twenty years later, a crude VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
dub of the original project was found. Much of the footage was damaged footage and out of sync, with but still managed to remain evocative of the filmmaker's hazy and murky memories of the original event at Gordon Head. The footage inspired Holden to write a narrative poem of the event and thus formed the basis of the completed 35mm film.
"Composed as a poem, it's a hybrid of several film stocks and video formats, digitally processed to create a violent, yet lyrical, collage of textured loops, internal rhythms and visual rhymes, finally completing the work's cycle back to film."
A social statement
As horrifying and remarkable as the girl's sudden murder by the sniper was, the young filmmaker also found it devastatingly normal, and this bothered him to no end. As the film suggests, Holden had "already seen it, thousands of times." He felt desensitized and numb to it all. The film details an ensuing series of violent events that Holden went on to witness, and he remained numb, until a small, positive action broke his hazy spell."He (being Holden, the film's narrator) feels like he's seeing something he's seen thousands of times before", Holden says, "and in fact he has." As a result of being witness to so many violent images, "we grow insensitive to death and violence. It becomes devastatingly normal."
'18,000 Dead in Gordon Head' is a statement about the ever-presence of violence in our contemporary culture, even found in the banality of Canadian suburban life. Based on and composed as a poem, the final work is fused together with an eerie, haunting soundtrack to lend to its overall harrowing effect of communicating the omnipresent creature of violence within human beings.