Producers Forum: Carl Lee
Producers Forum: Carl Lee
Carl Lee is a media artist based in Buffalo, NY. He has been making film, video and installation work that explores personal spaces and the built environment since the 1990s. Scribe presents a selection of Carl's short pieces, with the filmmaker in person:
snow (buffalo/berlin), (2014, 3:00)
Snow falling in Buffalo and seed pods snowing in Berlin are connected by a breath.
Last House, (2010, 16:30)
If houses are containers for our memories, the structures within which so many minor and major domestic events take place, then each week in this city a collective amnesia grows block by block: a city disappears before our eyes. The demolition of these structures – by design or accident – and the speed, indifference, and violence with which it takes place; the transmutations of scale, space, and time – is breathtaking, tragic, and full of contradictions. Last House is an inquiry, part document, part memorial, to this changing built environment. (Originally produced as a three-channel installation.)
Buffalo ReUse: Building Community (2008, 19:30)
A portrait of the Buffalo, NY-based organization Buffalo ReUse. Buffalo ReUse's main activity was green deconstruction of vacant houses, but their mission was to help rebuild neighborhoods and offer training, guidance, and opportunities for young people. Produced by Squeaky Wheel as part of their "Channels" program based in part on Scribe’s Community Visions.
Unity Island (2023, 13:30)
Unity Island looks at a 1/4 square mile stretch of land situated between Niagara River and Black Rock Canal at the border of Buffalo, NY and Fort Erie, Ontario. A railroad traverses the island from Canada to the U.S. passing by a park visited by picnickers, bicyclists, and fishermen. Freight trains cross a swing bridge over the canal which rotates open for boats and the occasional freight ship. A hill sits on the former site of an incineration plant and garbage dump. From there you can get a 360° view of the island, the city, the river, and the highway. I go for walks there with our dog.
Shot on 16mm film, Unity Island is a personal exploration of a site over time: its beauty, its moments, and its contradictions.
Scribe Video Center