the8fest small-gauge film festival proudly presents the launch of: John Porter’s CineScenes: Documentary Portraits of Alternative Film Scenes Toronto and Beyond, 1978-2015

About the book:John Porter’s CineScenes is the first volume to spotlight Toronto native John Porter’s legendary photographs of alternative film culture – its “celebrities,” places, and rituals – taken across a span of nearly 40 years. This soft-cover, 144-page book features over 200 beautifully reproduced b&w and colour photos by Porter, and includes essays by Scott MacDonald, Nicole Gingras, Dot Tuer, and Tess Takahashi.

For 20 years The Independent Imaging Retreat or ‘Film Farm’ has been developing a hands-on, artisanal approach to filmmaking that is far removed from the costly, hierarchical and inaccessible industrial model.  Each summer it brings to Mount Forest Ontario a small group of interested filmmakers – some novices and some highly experienced – for an intensive week of shooting, hand-processing, tinting/toning, watching and editing film — most of the action taking place in and around an old barn on the Normanby Township property, in rural Ontario.

The Film Farm L.A. 20th Anniversary Show includes early and recent films (16mm and digital), and concentrates its light on those `film farmers’ who have graced the west coast scene with their exquisite, playful and committed works on celluloid.