Description
Mike Hoolboom: Work
Author/Editor: Clint Enns
CONTENTS
Mike Hoolboom works in the tradition of the untraditional, at the fringes of the movie factory which have slowly turned from DIY gatherings of outsiders and weirdos into a cottage industry. The movies that Hoolboom makes are no-budget resistances, both to their big-budget counterparts and the ideologies they embody. Given that Hoolboom has been producing moving images for over four decades, it shouldn’t be surprising that his impetus for making this type of work has mutated over time. While the subject matter has changed, the spirit of rebellion remains and the anger and passion that once fuelled his work has been fine-tuned and transformed into a more sophisticated form of political critique.
Hoolboom is a post-Zen Marxist inspired by the writings of Silvia Federici, Mark Fisher, Hito Steyerl, Byung-Chul Han, Christina Sharpe, Naomi Klein and Paul B. Preciado, among others. He is an avid reader and spends too much time watching and writing about movies. He believes in the commons, that once words and images have entered the public realm they become fair to use and transform. In addition to fair use, he harbours ideals of fairness and believes in volunteer community efforts that celebrate and document local cultures. His artworks are ways to think through and visualize ideas.
Hoolboom was born in Ontario and in the 1980s went to Sheridan College, where he became a member of the Escarpment School, a group of filmmakers who studied under Rick Hancox and Jeffrey Paull and whose members include Carl Brown, Philip Hoffman, Richard Kerr, Gary Popovich, Steve Sanguedolce, Janis Cole, Holly Dale, Marian McMahon, Mike Cartmell, Lorne Marin and Alan Zweig. Hoolboom was a member of the Funnel, a radical artist-run centre that focused on experimental filmmaking and in 2017 he released a book about the organization—Underground: The Untold Story of the Funnel Film Collective. He is one of the founding members of Pleasure Dome and has worked for both the CFMDC and Images Festival.
Hoolboom’s earliest films are formal experiments, attempts to unpack the language of filmmaking and the mechanics of meaning making. They were aimed at complicating the one-way mode of communication presented by corporate media, calling into question notions of passive spectatorship, asking who owns and controls dominant image culture. In 1988, Hoolboom was diagnosed with HIV, marking a shift in focus in his work to themes of sex, death and living with HIV. The work became more personal and intimate while still maintaining a defiant punk attitude. By the 2000s, Hoolboom had begun to make cinematic portraits of friends, including a biopic of underground filmmaker Tom Chomont and a documentary about animal activist, filmmaker and collaborator Mark Karbusicky.
His later works are centred around injustices that stem from hypercapitalism, including racial injustice, class inequities, colonial violence and global imperialism. He has continued to make filmic portraits along with several films about living through the AIDS pandemic into the era of the cocktail. His works continue to deal with viruses, but his conception of the virus has expanded: Capitalism, racism, and imperialism all act as viruses infecting (and affecting) both bodies and minds, with some people more susceptible than others. His portraits have stretched traditional documentary practices and inhabit a more philosophical and poetic space. The work remains infused with a layer of affect borrowed from his stolen images and densely constructed sound designs.
Over the years, Hoolboom has produced many movies—perhaps too many for any one person to track down and watch. Moreover, the films are in an ongoing state of transition, often subject to radical revisions and retouches by the filmmaker. Hoolboom is always grappling with new ideas, thinking through images, creating visuals to carry emotions that are too difficult or complicated to resolve in a single viewing. In this anthology, I have attempted to compile a complete filmography by combing through ancient distribution catalogues and including movies that have been withdrawn and are no longer available, although the elements for some of these early works are available from the archives at the Cinémathèque québécoise. While the sheer mass of this filmography is a testament to Hoolboom’s commitment to his practice, it exists in this form purely as a reference. I provide a more practical guide for navigating Hoolboom’s work in the form of a curated selection titled “Essential Movies.”
This is the first monograph of writings dedicated to Hoolboom’s work. It contains a diverse range of texts and essays from scholars, activists, artists, writers and friends. In the spirit of inclusion, we wanted to showcase as many different voices as possible. The book is constructed around writing that is short and concise. As such, none of the essays are all-encompassing, nor do they act as the final, definitive word. Instead, the book offers an accumulation of glances where details are offered in place of the big picture. If one connects the dots and squints just a little, it is possible to make out a lived practice that is as socially and politically engaged as it is enraged at the wide variety of injustices that the world has to offer. (Clint Enns)
Contents:
INTRODUCTION by Clint Enns
VETERANS by Jean Perrot
CLOSER by Mike Hoolboom, Alexandra Gelis and Jorge Lozano
ANDRÉ by Shannon Cochrane
ASK THE ANIMALS by Catherine Bush
WITCHES AND THE ORIGINS OF CAPITALISM by Laura U. Marks
DISCO by Richard Fung
UBER by Émilie Poirier
LETTER FROM FRED by Gary Popovich
RAIN by Alexandra Gelis and Jorge Lozano
THE CENTRAL GESTURE by Lisa Robertson
I MEASURE MY LIFE IN DOGS by Cameron Moneo
WIND by Dan Browne
THE SECRET PLACE by Petra Mueller
FREEDOM FROM EVERYTHING by Johanna Householder and Angelo Pedari
WAVES by Al Razutis and Jim Shedden
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND by Rebecca Garrett
FEELING STATES by Jorge Lozano
CHILE 1973 by b.h. Yael
HAIFA by Ali Kazimi
FOR THE BIRDS by Akira Mizuta Lippit
SKINSHIP by Jaimie Baron
MY EDUCATION by Mike Hoolboom
LISTENING by Heather Frise
CUT by Yann Beauvais
SOFT LANDINGS FOR CAPITALISM by Yann Beauvais
COMMONS by Al Razutis
ICE CREAM by Alexandra Gelis and Jorge Lozano
NAZARETH by John Greyson
SKINNED by Spider Campos
THE GUY ON THE BED by Steve Polta
WE ARE ISLANDS by Marianna Milhorat
23 THOUGHTS ABOUT MY MOTHER by Esma Moukhtar and Philip Hoffman
MODEL CITIZENS by Caspar Stracke
JUDY VERSUS CAPITALISM by Mike Hoolboom and Terence Dick
WAX MUSEUM by Leo Goldsmith
AFTER VICTORY DAY by Alexandra Gelis and Jorge Lozano
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ROBOTS by Maike Mia Höhne
AFTER DROWNING by Camilo Constain
TOUCH MEMORY by Kathryn Michalski
BE YOUR DOG by Janet Lees
FATHER AUDITIONS by Laura Busetta
CREDIT CARD by Piers Handling
I TOUCHED HER LEGS (REMIX) by Mike Hoolboom and Meganelizabeth Diamond
FEAST by Kerri Sakamoto
HOW TO WATCH PORNOGRAPHY by Jean Marc Ah-Sen
LOVER MAN by Alan Zweig
THRESHOLD by Jason Fox and Brett Story
(S)HE SAID THAT by Christine Negus
27 THOUGHTS ABOUT MY DAD by Madi Piller and Helen Lee
GRAMSCI’S NOTEBOOKS by Mike Hoolboom
INTRODUCTION TO ALCHEMY by Daniel Cockburn
NURSING HISTORY by Dirk de Bruyn
SUPERNATURAL POWER by Mike Hoolboom and Jean Perret
VISITING HOURS by Julie Murray
WHERE THE NIGHT IS GOING by David Finkelstein and Yann Beauvais
SAW HIM THERE by Catherine Russell
3 DREAMS OF HORSES by Caspar Stracke, Faraz Anoushahpour and Ami Xherro
THE BED AND THE STREET by Heather Frise
FATS by Martha Langford
AFTERMATH by Francesco Gagliardi
FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE RED CROSS by Andrew Burke
IN 1974 by Samy Benammar
COLOUR MY WORLD by Dirk de Bruyn
IDENTIFICATION by Alexandra Gelis and Jorge Lozano
WE MAKE COUPLES by Madeline Bogoch
INCIDENT REPORTS by Martha Baillie
SCRAPBOOK by Mark McElhatten
MIRRORS by Clint Enns
SAFETY PICTURE COLLECTION by Thomas Waugh
BUFFALO DEATH MASK by Mike Hoolboom and Steve Anker
LACAN PALESTINE by Marcel Jean
FOREST WALK by Chris Kennedy
MARK by Pat Rockman, Karol Orzechowski and Hito Steyerl
IN THE THEATRE by Jon Davies
PUBLIC LIGHTING by Paolo Cherchi Usai and Jason McBride
IMITATIONS OF LIFE by Bruce Jenkins
AMY by Matthias Müller
TOM by Tom McSorley
JACK by Mike Hoolboom, Mburucuya Marcela and Ortiz Imlach
IN THE CITY by Scott Birdwise
DAMAGED by Mike Hoolboom and Steve Reinke
PANIC BODIES by Stephen Broomer and Phil Solomon
HEY MADONNA by Greg Youmans
LETTERS FROM HOME by Laura U. Marks
HOUSE OF PAIN by Thomas Waugh and Ellis Scott
MOUCLE’S ISLAND by Deirdre Logue
ESCAPE IN CANADA by César Ustarroz
FRANK’S COCK by Alex MacKenzie
ONE PLUS ONE by Kathryn Ramey
ABCs OF THE CANON by Mike Hoolboom and Aaron Zeghers
IN THE CINEMA by Jesse Malmed
MEXICO by Veronika Rall
SUGAR MAPLE STAND by Benjamin R. Taylor
FROM HOME by Michael Zryd
FAT FILM / WAS by Stan Brakhage
WHITE MUSEUM by Mike Hoolboom and Christine Lucy Latimer
THE BIG SHOW by Philip Hoffman
NOW, YOURS by Clint Enns
SONG FOR MIXED CHOIR by Rick Hancox
CAREFULLY LOOKING: AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKE HOOLBOOM by Clint Enns
COMPLETE FILMOGRAPHY
ESSENTIAL MOVIES
Publisher: Canadian Film Institute
Publishing date: 2025
ISBN: 0-919096-55-7
Dimensions: 6” x 8”
