David Rimmer is a Canadian experimental

Experimental film

Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...

 film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

.

Biography

David Rimmer studied economics and mathematics at the University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

 and graduated in 1963. For the next two years he traveled around the world which lead him to decide that he was not interested on pursuing a career in business. When he returned to Canada in 1965 he did a make-up year at the University of British Columbia in order to receive a degree in English. In 1967 he took a short filmmaking course from Stan Fox, a producer at CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

. With Fox's support and a supply of rough film stock from CBC, he made his first film, Knowplace, which was broadcast on CBC. Inspired by Stan Brakhage

Stan Brakhage

James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....

's films and writings, he made his first important experimental films, Square Inch Field and Migration, in 1968 and 1969 respectively.

Rimmer moved temporarily to New York City from 1971 to 1974, and worked with such vanguard artists as Yvonne Rainer

Yvonne Rainer

Yvonne Rainer is an American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is frequently challenging and experimental. Her work is classified as minimalist art.- Early life :...

. When he again returned to Canada in 1974 he created Canadian Pacific (1974) and Canadian Pacific II (1975), two of his landmark films. Since 1979, with the release of Al Neil: A Portrait, he has made innovative documentaries sometimes in film and sometimes in video. In the early eighties, Rimmer took a four-year hiatus from filmmaking to teach film and video at Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University is a Canadian public research university in British Columbia with its main campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, and satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey. The main campus in Burnaby, located from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and has more than 34,000...

. Rimmer still continues to work in the avant-garde and has worked extensively with contact and optical printing as well as videographics. He is recognized as one of the most important experimental filmmakers working in Canada today.

Gene Youngblood of ArtsCanada magazine has said "[Rimmer's] Surfacing on the Thames is a brilliant film which, in its way, belongs in the same class as Snow's

Michael Snow

Michael Snow, CC is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.-Life:...

 Wavelength. I've never seen anything like it ... the ultimate metaphysical movie." In 2011 David Rimmer won the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.

Filmography

• Knowplace (Co-Directed with Sylvia Spring and Bob Herbison, 1967)
• Head/End (1967)
• Square Inch Field (1968)
• Migration (1969)
• Landscape (1969)
• Surfacing on the Thames (1970)
• Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper (1970)
• Blue Movie (1970)
• The Dance (1970)
• Forest Industry (Feature length, 1970)
• Treefall (1970)
• Seashore (1971)
• Real Italian Pizza (1971)
• Watching for the Queen (1973)
• Fracture (1973)
• Canadian Pacific (1974)
• Canadian Pacific II (1975)
• Al Neil: A Portrait (1979)
• Narrows Inlet (1980)
• Shades of Red (Co-Directed with Paula Ross, 1982)
• Bricolage (1984)
• Sisyphus (1984)
• Along the Road to Altamira (1986)
• As Seen on TV (1986)
• Roadshow (1988)
• Divine Mannequin (1989)
• Black Cat, White Cat It's a Good Cat if it Catches the Mouse (1989)
• Beaubourg Boogie-Woogie (1992)
• Local Knowledge (1992)
• Perestroyka (1992)
• Tiger (1994)
• Under the Lizards (Feature length, 1994) (aka Pod Jaszczurami)
• Codes of Conduct (1997)
• Jack Wise - Language of the Brush (1998)
• Traces of Emily Carr (1999)
• Early Hand-Painted (Series of 10 shorts, 2002)
• An Eye for an Eye (2003)
• Gathering Storm (2003)
• On the Road to Kandahar (2003)
• Padayatra: Walking Meditation (2005)
• Digital Psyche (2007)
• Collective (2008)

External links

• David Rimmer Official Website