DIM Cinema
Screening Dates
  • December 5, 2017 7:00 Part I: The Dream of the Last Historian (195 min.)
  • December 6, 2017 7:00 Part II: The Sublime Calculation (240 min.)
Free Admission

“It represents the consciousness of a man who stands at the end of time and who surveys the flotsam left behind by the historical process.”

R. Bruce Elder

“Look, what I need is an ending,” confesses one of the characters in R. Bruce Elder’s maximalist 7‑hour film-poem epic, composed of over 7000 shots layered with text, stills, dialogue, and music. ​“Lamentations contains a whirlwind encyclopedic tour of Old World philosophy from Plato to Heidegger, Nietzsche and Freud, historical personages (Newton, Berkeley, Liszt), art (imagery and music) from the Renaissance to Romantic architecture, medicine’s therapies from analysis to electroshock, New World ruins from pre-Columbian to urban contemporary in mineral, animal, and human form … Both philosopher and film artist, Elder occupies a unique place in Canadian filmmaking, combining in a distinctly Canadian synthesis the cosmic emotionality of a Stan Brakhage with the didacticism of a Jean-Luc Godard” (Michael Dorland, Cinema Canada).

Note

Lamentations: A Monument for the Dead World will screen in two parts over two nights.

Lamentations is presented as part of Canada on Screen, a celebration of Canada’s 150 essential moving-image works. Canada on Screen is a year-long, nation-wide program honouring Canada’s 150th birthday and its rich cinematic heritage. Screenings are free of charge. For more information, see the series page.