A travel show that combines super 8, 16mm, polaroids and betacam
Unlike other productions, we shot on a shoe string budget and were just a crew of two. We stayed for two weeks in each city trying to infiltrate the emerging art scene. Usually we had at least one connection, like a the 17 year old girl in Moscow who introduced us to all of the artists living in squats or the webfriend in Istanbul who suggested we come over and shoot his city. Sometimes it was just luck, like the time this guy on a motorbike in Beirut suggest we follow him to an apartment building to meet Lebanon’s Leonard Cohen.
Most times we were successful and made friends, went to galleries and shows, artists performed and painted for us. Many meals were shared. The process was documented, including the police trying to take our gear or traveling through checkpoints or a shaman being possessed. My greatest fear was to lose my notebooks…never did. Still have them.
The 41 TVFRAMES cities
Belfast, Melbourne, Istanbul, Reykjavik, Cape Town, Bamako, Dakar, Seoul, Mumbai, Ho Chi Minh City, Stockholm, Helsinki, Buenos Aires, Salvador da Bahia, Sao Paulo, Panama, Vancouver, St John’s, Iqaluit, Milan, Malta, Lisbon, Havana, Beirut, Tel Aviv, Ubud, Tokyo, Venice Beach, Cape Verde, Mexico City, New York City, Austin, Prague, Istanbul, Taipei, Shanghai, Vienna, Moscow, Harlem, San Juan, and Quebec City.
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The Episodes
You can watch full episodes here or on my Vimeo channel.
Borderline is a chronicle of the last days of a squat in downtown Toronto. Jason, Sarah and Katie had been homeless for almost three years. Shot for a Magnum workshop in May 2009. The building is now gone.
From Beirut to Bamako, Havana to Ho Chi Minh City
Belong is a search for urban culture: knocking on doors, walking the streets and taking risks along the way. From the sophisticated corridors of artsy Stockholm to the dirt roads of Bamako to the people-littered streets of Mumbai. This is the collection of stories about the Global art scene and the eccentric characters that make it up.
Belong is also a look at how art, music and culture survive in places most of the rest of the world only associates with war, poverty and civil strife-like the Bob Marley cover band in Beirut or the architect/artist in Tel Aviv who wanted to incorporate the destruction into the new buildings.
Over the years Jennifer and her cameramen were dragged out of a club by riot police in Milan and tracked down and questioned in Belfast, they witnessed spirit possession in Senegal and got left on the side of the road by more than one driver.
The theme of belonging, being part of a larger community, is reflected in the hundred’s of images in the book, but especially in Jennifer’s photos of “wall art” — street level paintings that deal with political, social, spiritual and humorous themes.
An introduction to anarchy, Goof-style
They were anti-establishment, anti-consumerism, anti-car, and true to punk style, anti-cop. They were hardcore with hearts. They drank too much and fought even more. They made their own music, their own clothes, posters and recordings, and lived commune-style at Fort Goof.
Their name even made it onto the Berlin Wall.
The Bunchofuckingoofs were born on a dare in 1983 when they were asked to open for punk band United State at Larry’s Hideaway in Toronto. Lead singer Crazy Steve figured “…we better call ourselves a bunch of fucking goofs before anyone else does.”
Crazy Steve Goof was also the gang leader and den father to a motley crew of misfits, 25 that actually played in the band, as well as an assemblage of satellite fans and hangers on.
If punk means banding together, rejecting mainstream society, and saying fuck you to the world, then the BFGs are punk. Of course, they don’t give a fuck what you think they are, and they’ll be the first to tell you.
A transitory trip with good hair
Jennifer Morton is Transitory Projects director of observation. Her role is to build a collection of experimental observations in art land. She will also conduct a series of curated collaborative acts that will be documented and archived.
There are no walls in Transitory Projects. And we are not static. There is a beat. Much is still unknown.