Terra Incognito 1990
I made this film while I was a film student at the University of Regina.
It was heavily influenced by Richard Kerr who taught at the U of R, both by his work and the work of the filmmakers he introduced me to.
The idea was to “process” a landscape to the point of abstraction, through double-exposure, frame-rate changes, and re-photographing footage that had been transferred to analogue video, then shot off a monitor. I shot the original footage in the Qu’Appelle Valley, just to the west of Lumsden, Saskatchewan.
Terra Incognito was shot on 16mm colour reversal film, using a Bolex and an Arri S.
The film was edited on a 16mm Steenbeck. After editing for a while, I decided I wanted to finish it on film, which was pretty rare in those days at the U of R; I think Lorene Jewitt was my only classmate who finished a film on film when I was there.
I can’t quite remember the steps, but I’m pretty sure I had an internegative made from the original reversal footage, then a workprint made from the internegative so I could begin to edit in earnest. After picture lock I sent the cutting copy and interneg to the Vancouver neg cutter, Gay Black. Alpha Cine in Vancouver was the lab that made my only print. In 2025 I finally got around to getting a decent digital scan made from the print by Frame Discreet in Toronto.
The film had its debut in the student section of the 1990 Montreal World Film Festival. I went to Montreal for the festival, and while wandering around the old Expo 67 site, I had an idea for a new film, which was the beginnings of (Stories from) The Land of Cain, which came out in 1995.
I only learned after completing Terra Incognito that I had butchered the Latin, and the title should properly have been “Terra Incognita”.
Ah well, this was all before the internet when it was harder to find things.
