Directed by James James

Logline: Signs+ Traces is short landscape film of and about signs.

Synopsis: Signs+ Traces is a landscape portrait of the urban environment focusing on the ubiquitous sign as physical / semiotic indicator that, for better or for worse, ties together and structures the urban social / physical environment. Thus, it is a portrait not just of the physical landscape but of the semiotic landscape - the landscape of meaning that exists along side the purely empirical. It is also a conceptual work - a riff on the many meanings of the term, "signs".

Distribution Contact: WFG

More Details

RUNTIME: 3 Minutes
GENRE: Experimental
PRODUCTION FORMAT: Super 8mm
LANGUAGE: English
LOCATION: Manitoba
TECHNIQUES: Live Action
KEYWORDS: One Take, Art, Conceptual

Director's Statement: "The various senses of the term "sign"" that are at work in the film Sign+ Traces are:
Signs: a physical object as object - carrying a message in text or symbols.
Sign : a bearer of meaning
1) The sign board is a bearer of meaning as a whole
2) The words, letters, and symbols on the sign boards are bearers of meaning individually
and collectively.
3) The shots of the sign boards are bearers of meaning in the filmic architecture.
Signs : Evidence or symptom or trace of something - the signs are signs of the walks that I took to create the film, of the physicality of the city and of the culture.
And, finally the film is structured in terms of my ongoing interest in film colour and rhythm."