Borderland Memories explores post-Holocaust German identity, merging historical images with contemporary discourses around kinship and belonging. What began as an exploration of post-WW2 forced migrations and the filmmaker’s family history in these events, the work is contemporized by Germany’s current role in cultures of migration and immigration. Performing most of her own cinematography, Ms. Steiner’s project investigates borderlands as negotiated spaces mediated by images, culture, and language.
Director Biography – Edie Steiner
Edie Steiner produces independent media art projects, which are exhibited in international film screenings, art galleries, and published in cultural texts. She has taught media art practices in Canadian college and university programs and holds a PhD in Environmental Studies ((York University, 2015). Her recent work fuses text with sound and images as film/video poetry and installation work. She has writtn and recorded original music for several of her films.
Photographic collections and exhibitions include the National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Photography collection; Art Gallery of Ontario (New Portraits and Exposure); private and public collections. Edie Steiner’s early music artist portraits are represented by Analogue Gallery, Toronto.
Director Statement
Borderland Memories explores meanings of kinship and memory, complicated by intergenerational and historical narratives, at times exposing personal connections to larger social histories and contexts. I usually begin my explorations by recording images in sites particular to the themes I am exploring and as I immerse myself in witnessing the locations of my inquiry, stories arrive from the places where I record my impressions and from persons I meet in these locations. The interviews and visual recordings, including archival sources, were gathered between 2015 and early 2020, at which point the Canada Council funded the post-production stage of the project in March, just as the Covid19 lockdowns began. All picture and sound editing, music composition, graphics and artwork were performed working at distance with the creative post-production team.
Trailer
Interview
| Edie Steiner Director, Writer, Producer Ian Pearson Editor Joshua Hemming Sound Design Michaela Pohl Original Artwork Chip Yarwood Original Music Mary Traill Graphic Design Edith M Steiner Cinematography, Key Cast |
