Since 1983
EXPERIMENTAL FILMS
PRODUCED, WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY NEAL LIVINGSTON, 2000
SNOW ON THE LAKE
Images from frozen Lake Ainslie on Cape Breton Island. Snow blows over a frozen lake is surreal patterns, in a frigid winter landscape.
Snow on the Lake has screened at the Videoforme and Manosque festivals in France, at VideoLisboa in Portugal, at FCMM (new media/new cinema festival) and Telescience in Montreal, at the Woodstock Film Festival in New York, at the Sao Paula Science Festival in Brasil and at the Festival Champ Libre, 2002 in Montreal.
Two of Neal Livingston's films Michel in a Suête and Snow on the Lake were been selected for screening in the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition.
Neal Livingston and Black River Productions Limited are pleased to announce that two films, Michel in a Suête and Snow on the Lake have been selected to screen repeatedly in public venues in Vancouver and Whistler British Columbia in February and March 2010. These two films will also be made available on the web and mobile devices starting February 4th.
Neal Livingston says,
"It is pleasure to be a "contributing artist to Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition. I am excited to think of the massive exposure that these films will have this February and March, and that millions of people in British Columbia and worldwide will be exposed to these wonderful films of mine, and also become aware of my work as an Eastern Canadian, Nova Scotia based filmmaker."
Livingston is a documentary filmmaker and artist who lives near Mabou in western Cape Breton Island. He has produced over 30 films, many of which have been seen nationally and internationally on television, at film festivals, and in community screenings.
Michel in a Suête is a hilarious five minute film portrait of artist Michel Williate-Battet as he attempts to do seemingly normal tasks outdoors during a Suête wind storm. It was produced in 1998 as part of a 1/2 hour film about communities that live through hurricane force winds called Suêtes which often pound the north west coast of Cape Breton Island.
Snow on the Lake is a one minute 20 second film produced in 2000. Snow blows over a frozen lake is surreal patterns in a frigid winter landscape, punctuated by a group of children skating by. The images were filmed on frozen Lake Ainslie, Cape Breton Island.
PRODUCED, WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY NEAL LIVINGSTON, 1995
OLYMPIC 2010
LICKING THE WINDOW
IMAGINE ... being in your garden, in the autumn, free to do whatever you want. Then walking back your house you see a bunch of butterflies, and they start talking to you, and tell you that like them, you should migrate, take off for awhile.
WELL ... if you're like me you would go home and think ... too weird, butterflies talking to me. Then again how do you figure out who to listen to.
SO ... you go to town, which is Mabou, on Cape Breton Island, on Canada's East Coast, to get the mail, and meet one of your friends, Mark, who has just bought a VW van and is leaving soon to drive ... you guessed it , across the country.
BUT ... how do you make up your mind to go, and what happens when you go.
THUS begins, the co-autobiographical road movie Licking The Window, a journey of many portraits including self-portraits. A comic, eccentric, hip and serious exploration of being stuck somewhere between Jean-Paul Sartre and Jack Kerouac.
"Cape Breton-based filmmaker Neal Livingston's latest documentary is a psychedelic road movie about restlessness, breakfast recipes, the usefulness of male nipples and other assorted sundry. In other words, it's a probing examination of the psyche in winter. Witty, irreverent, indulgent and self-mocking, Licking the Window confronts the filmmaker's image of himself. The ensuing battle is entertaining, enlightening and worth the trip." – Ron Foley MacDonald, Atlantic Film Festival, 1995.
TREES AND ELEVATORS
PRODUCED, WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY NEAL LIVINGSTON, 1990
In today's world we are increasingly surrounded by an environment of our own creation. Our cities have enveloped us with glass and concrete.
This film, set to the electronic music of Peter Wetzler, juxtaposes the four seasons of rural Cape Breton Island with the urban images of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Trees and Elevators was a finalist at Bilboa Film Festival (Spain), 1990 and the Yorkton Film Festival, 1991.
