A little obscure reference: Nicole Brenez in an older video-interview with Godard mentions this Canadian director, Al Razutis, who was making his own Histoire(s) around the same time that Godard was in Montreal presenting his famous lectures. I hadn't looked into it or thought about Razutis since first watching this interview a few years ago but now with Isiah Medina starting his second project Inventing The Future, a documentary adaptation of Nick Srnicek’s and Alex Williams’ book Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (Verso), it's worth looking back in Canadian film history to find some precursors. The Razutis work that Brenez highlights is Visual Essays: Origins of Film (1973-82) which is a hybrid philosophical collage of manipulated images from the history of film, most notably the Lumière brothers, to use all of the medium's attributes to try to articulate thought. A director that needs to be further explored, a good starting point includes Mike Hoolboom's interview, the website Alchemists, and an entry on the Canadian Encyclopedia.
If this catches your attention, and you want to see more work like it, Medina's new project Inventing the Future would be something to look into, support. It's currently running an Indigogo campaign and anything can help. It's goal is to present an alternative way to think and to resist the social order. The perks are cool and during its campaign 88:88 will be available for free on Youtube. It's worth the time.
