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Spectres of Shortwave screens in Sackville:
November 28, 2016 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Monday, Nov. 28, 7:00 pm AST (11:00 pm UTC)
Spectres of Shortwave /
Ombres des ondes courtes
A film about radio waves, relationships, landscape, and loss.
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Special Final Transmission Anniversary Screening !!!
tickets are $10 at the door / reception to follow at CoyWolf
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On November 28, 2012, the final transmission was sent from the RCI towers in Sackville NB.
On November 28, 2016, the documentary film about those towers, Spectres of Shortwave, will screen at the Vogue Cinema in Sackville for the local community.
This will be the first time screening Spectres of Shortwave in the community where it was made.
This screening is a chance to mark the anniversary of the final transmission by sharing the film with the community where it was made, with the people who speak in the film, and with the technicians who once worked at the site. A reception for the community will follow the film at CoyWolf.
The film recently won Best Documentary in the international category at the FICFA last week, and I am deeply looking forward to sharing it with the community where it was filmed. The world premiere of the film took place in Halifax at the Atlantic Film Festival on Sept. 22, 2016, and it next screened at the Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie on November 13, where it was awarded the Prix la Vague : meilleur moyen ou long métrage documentaire.
During the screening in Sackville, the audio of the film will be simulcast in Dawson City, Yukon Territories via FM transmitter by CFYT 106.9 FM. So while people are watching the film in Sackville, listeners can tune in and listen simultaneously up in Dawson in the arctic.
About the film:
Long before the internet, there was shortwave. A mysterious web of international shortwave radio towers once dominated the Tantramar marshscape. Meanwhile, local residents heard radio broadcasts emanate unexpectedly from their household appliances.
The Radio Canada International shortwave relay site was built during World War 2, to broadcast to Europe and Africa. It continued to broadcast around the world during the Cold War and beyond, not only for Canada, but also relaying transmissions for Radio Free Europe, Voice of Vietnam, Radio Korea, Radio Japan, and Radio China, among others. Located in Sackville, New Brunswick, it was perfectly positioned to transmit across the Atlantic Ocean, and covered most of the globe with its transmissions.
This experimental documentary film focuses on the flat marshland landscape accompanied by stories told by local residents and the technicians who worked at the site.
After beginning this project, the Canadian government announced that the Radio Canada International shortwave relay site would be shut down and dismantled. As such, a final chapter was added to the film, which documents the dismantling of this historic structure.
About the Radio doc:
In the final chapter of the documentary, the audio is comprised only of the contact microphone recordings of the towers and the sounds of their demolition. The beginning of the demolition is a rich soundscape with the drones of all thirteen towers playing together. As each tower falls and crashes to the ground, it’s voice is removed from the mix, until we are left with the single drone of the last tower standing until it falls.
More info on the film, including video clips, photos, and press clippings can be found here:
www.spectresofshortwave.net