In a reality continually refracted through the lens of corporate technology, what remains of those who don’t fit into this vision of the world? I Dream of Vancouver is an experimental short that explores this question through the digital landscape of Vancouver, BC. Using hypnagogic visuals and a haunting soundscape, this work expresses the detachment from the lived experience of spaces as these spaces are subsumed by algorithms and mediated images. While focusing on Vancouver as a case study, this documentary explores issues that are relevant to the world at large, such as the link between corporate technologies and gentrification and the erasure of those who don’t fit within Google’s agenda.
Marianne Thodas is a lesbian filmmaker and sound artist born in Okotoks, AB, now based in Vancouver, BC. Deeply interested in expanded modes of film and sound production, her pieces contextualize images and sounds of the familiar. During her BFA at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts, she studied with world-renowned filmmakers and theorists whose work specialized in challenging the traditional boundaries between creative and critical practice in film. Inspired by the thematic, narrative, and technological experimentation taught during her degree, Thodas has fashioned a special brand of hybrid film to examine topics of memory, belonging, mortality, lineage and place-based attachment. Outside of creating her own films, she works with artist-run organizations—such as Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society—to run workshops and create community-based initiatives promoting engagement with independent cinema. Her new film, ‘Over the Island’, has now completed post-production and is currently in distribution.