Single channel | 2011 | Some Sound | English and French | 12:55 min.
RE: As an epistolary project constructed from a series of documents mediated through email over the course of 11 months. BRUCE is an ongoing collaboration between Frédérick Belzile and Mél Hogan.
The emails expose dreams, memories and accidents as plot devices used to unfold the collaborative process, delving into the role of the subconscious in the construction of time. The wavering pace of exchange, in conjunction with the appearance of flash-images creates a rhythm that guides the dialogue. Through the use of recurring motifs, viewers become able to ‘make sense’ and to enter a dialogue that at first seems insane (or at least inane). This dialogue is continually interrupted and invaded by the overflow of social media, hyperlinks, and references to the outside world.
The collection of emails, selected, arranged and codified for a narrative, renders explicit the potential and limitations of email as both an archive of feelings and an archive of experience. In this way, Re: is rooted in a documentary practice; emails are chronological and have not been manipulated or modified. The documentary quality is not to be overlooked as the sincerity at play and the intimacy that is constructed thorough the exchange are ‘real’ and slowly revealed through the mechanics of send and reply. The dialogue that slowly emerges is increasingly strange and idiosyncratic, to which the viewer becomes a privileged witness.
