In the 1960s, amid an explosion of independent filmmaking, Canadian visual artists and students took up 8mm and 16mm cameras and began to make experimental movies. The results were often personal, political, and ran contrary to heterodox form, breaking new ground. Canadian experimental cinema evolved over the coming decades into a coherent network of artist co-operatives, collectives, formal and informal movements, and individual makers. However, much of what was made in its first decades remained fragile and tenuous, and even some of its most striking examples were largely forgotten. In recent years, efforts have been made to articulate this history as a coherent movement in the visual arts, to shine a light on films that have been neglected and under-examined, and to restore and preserve these vulnerable works for posterity.
In this talk, Dr. Stephen Broomer will discuss his research and practice in this area, and will outline his development of the Black Zero Film Collection, which is both a counter-archive of rare artists cinema and a home video label.
Stephen Broomer is a filmmaker, film preservationist, author and video essayist. His most recent monograph, Secret Museums: The Films of Arthur Lipsett, was published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in August 2025. He has restored more than 70 films, including works by Arthur Lipsett, Keith Lock, Josephine Massarella, and John Hofsess, among others. His films have screened at TIFF, the New York Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, and IFFR. He is a founder and programmer of Ad Hoc, an experimental film series based at Innis College.