Making a Scene

In her interactively whimsical and playful Performance Trilogy, Martha Davis troubles her documentarian captures of familiar Toronto locations by intervening with public performance, aided by peers and passersby. While UR Lucky (1983) sees the filmmaker enact as intervening voyeur, watching passersby pick up, ignore or carry a tiny silver coin inscribed with "U R A MOVIESTAR", Making A Scene (1984) stages street interviews with passersby in downtown Toronto, being hilariously asked to wear animal masks (designed by Rae Anderson) and mimic one of the two creatures: an elephant or a mosquito. Indeed, the commoner assumes centrestage as a performer of active physicality in much of Davis' oeuvre, which peaks in its hermetic conceit in Snow Search, an homage to Michael Snow, shot at The Funnel Experimental Film Theatre in Toronto. Following the dissolution of the theater in 1989, CFMDC started accepting films shot on Super 8mm formats (original home movie format).

Aaditya Aggarwal
Programs & Collections Coordinator, CFMDC

This film is part of the Performance Trilogy by Martha Davis
with UR Lucky and Snow Search.