MFA Film Production Filmmaker Gregory Coyes presents at RISING UP: A GRADUATE STUDENTS CONFERENCE ON INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND RESEARCH, March 9th and 10th, 2018 at the University of Manitoba.
Gregory Coyes
Gregory has worked extensively in the Indigenous broadcast community over the last thirty years as an award-winning filmmaker, and as an educator and writer. Currently engaged in pursuing his MFA Film Production degree at the University of British Columbia, Gregory graduated from Yale University with a BSc in Geology.
His thesis surrounds an exploration of SLOW MEDIA as a decolonized and disruptive form of media. If we remove the commercial imperative associated with the large majority of existing forms of media, how does that change our relationship to our media, both as producers and consumers?
SLOW MEDIA is Decolonized Media: The Camera as Witness
SLOW MEDIA is an Indigenous expression of cinematic time and place. Created by Gregory Coyes (Metis/Cree), a Vancouver based media producer with thirty years of award-winning media projects, SLOW MEDIA is an innovative and disruptive form of media that is persistent, and decolonized in both its production and applications. Initially inspired by the advent of high definition video, the SLOW MEDIA concept was further influenced by the release of a number of feature films produced by Indigenous film makers. The most prominent of these are Atanarjuat – the Fast Runner (Zacharius Kunuk, 2001), and Ten Canoes, (Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, 2006). A deeper examination of the evolution of the aesthetic of Inuit cinema in Canada’s Arctic led Gregory to question both the intentions and applications of mainstream video. Is tightly edited, high impact programming serving us? What if we were creating media without the addiction to ever higher sales numbers?
SLOW MEDIA practitioners are encouraged to be still, profoundly present to their surroundings, and improvise with their observations through the camera. Gregory’s work has informed him of the nurturing value of still frame video presentations in real time, with few, if any, edits. He has successfully used SLOW MEDIA to establish and maintain both mood and tone with large, public gatherings, and he is currently engaged in testing SLOW MEDIA for measurements of wellness and productivity with the internationally recognized BAR Lab (brain, attention, reality) in the UBC Department of Psychology. For current examples of SLOW MEDIA see: https://vimeo.com/slowmedia
Rising Up link: http://www.risingup.online/
