artifact productions is the umbrella under which, essentially,
Caroline Martel does documentary research and production.
Whether for cinema, exhibition spaces or mobile screens, the focus of artifact productions is the use of existing material – be it “reality” or mediations on it – in a creative engagement faithful to, and inspired by, the very subjects/objects explored. The process: experimentations with with actual lived experiences and with archives, film, video, sound, words and ready-mades, i.e. old and new media.
All while situating itself in the continuum of documentary practices and theories of the past decades, artifact productions is dedicated to independent production within a complex milieu in perpetual r/evolution. It also believes in the use of the documentary medium as an investigative process, as well as the importance of opening up rich creative involvements on a human level.
artifact productions was founded in Montreal by independent filmmaker Caroline Martel. Over the years, artifact productions has collaborated with some of the best cinema artisans in the industry. Within her company, Martel has produced and directed THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERATOR, an archival film celebrated as “an enchanting film” (TIME OUT New York), “…the kind of intelligent and dedicated work that will live on for much longer than the flavors of the moment” (Village VOICE). artifact productions has also produced some fifty hours of material used in DERNIER APPEL/HOLD THE LINE, a National Film Board of Canada production (52 minutes, 2001) about the last fight of Bell Canada's telephone operators. They also created educational and awareness videos for the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d'université and the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec. Following years of shoots in France, Japan and Québec, and archival digs about one of the most intriguing of early electronic instruments, the Ondes Martenot, WAVEMAKERS (96min, co-production between artifact and the NFB, 2012), was launched at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and the RIDM. From a documentary on an "impossible topic" to produce, it became a box-office success, while being an award-winning author film that was nominated for the best feature-length documentary of the year at the Jutra Awards in 2014.
artifact :
Something transformed through human intervention.
Modification occurring in the course of
experimentation on the observed object,
through the effect of the method or material
employed to conduct the experiment.
Material trace of time.
From latin : arte by skill plus factum.
10250 Clark, Suite A
Montréal (Québec) Canada H3L 2R9
+1 514.495.0175
www.artifactproductions.ca
