From avant-garde icons to emerging visionaries, Canadian fine artists have long explored the expressive power of filmmaking. Here are five remarkable figures whose moving images blur the lines between cinema, sculpture, performance, and visual art—each one using film not just as documentation, but as a language of its own.

1. Michael Snow — Wavelength (1967)
   Considered a cornerstone of experimental cinema, Michael Snow’s Wavelength is a 45-minute zoom shot across a room, punctuated by subtle shifts in light, sound, and narrative suggestion. It’s meditative, disorienting, and a profound meditation on perception. Snow’s influence stretches far beyond Canada, making him one of the most celebrated figures in avant-garde filmmaking.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyjuZs7EQqI

2. Joyce Wieland — Reason Over Passion (1969)
   With Reason Over Passion, Joyce Wieland created a rich experimental film that weaves together nationalism, feminism, and sensuality. The film’s title—borrowed from Pierre Trudeau—becomes a recurring mantra, both visual and auditory. Wieland’s signature is her fusion of the personal and political, and this film stands as a bold testament to her dual identity as artist and activist.

You can watch an excerpt here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYZV2bmpqDs

3. Aleesa Cohene — Like, Like (2009)
   Aleesa Cohene’s Like, Like is a hypnotic video collage constructed entirely from found footage. Through skillful editing and uncanny audio design, she builds new narratives from old images, exploring themes of longing, power, and the performance of identity. Her work deconstructs visual language itself, showing how images shape our understanding of ourselves and each other.

https://www.aleesacohene.com/like-like

4. Asinnajaq — Three Thousand (2017)
   Asinnajaq’s Three Thousand is a visually stunning short film that blends archival footage with futuristic animation to reframe Inuit history. Instead of dwelling solely on trauma, the film offers hope and resilience, portraying Inuit as visionaries. This poetic fusion of documentary and dreamscape earned international acclaim, including a spot on TIFF’s annual Canada’s Top Ten list.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNKNd-9bXKA

5. Sara Cwynar — Red Film (2018)
   Sara Cwynar’s Red Film is a lush, multilayered video essay that examines capitalism, beauty standards, and the construction of desire. Using saturated color palettes, vintage ads, voiceovers, and staged imagery, she creates a dense, collage-like rhythm that mirrors the overwhelming flow of modern media. It’s both a critique and a seduction—her signature style.

Watch an excerpt: https://saracwynar.com/works/red-film.html

These five artists don’t just work with film—they reshape it, subvert it, and sculpt it into something deeply personal and conceptually rich. Whether through meticulous montage, archival remixing, or quietly radical gestures, they show that in the right hands, film can be more than storytelling—it can be fine art.