June 20 – 28

Of all the filmmakers connected to the Toronto New Wave, Peter Lynch – the man responsible for the Genie award-winning short Arrowhead, the now cult classic Project Grizzly, as well as The Herd and Cyberman – has most frequently taken the road less travelled. (His only competition in this regard would be Peter Mettler.)  

In conventional terms, Lynch could best be described as a documentary filmmaker, but it’s hardly a label that fits comfortably. Throughout his career, Lynch has pushed the boundaries of the documentary format, employing re-enactments, fantasy segments, personal essays, and experimental techniques, sometimes structuring his films according to genres like the western, and often consciously alluding to fiction works (see the opening shot of Project Grizzly, an homage to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita), all the while making surreal short tableaux like Animal Nightmares and last year’s A Short Film About Falling. (Lynch has worked exclusively with editor Caroline Christie, his key collaborator. Christie’s ability to balance complex strains and motifs has been absolutely crucial to the success of his work.)  

Lynch has demonstrated a marked preference for subjects most other filmmakers avoid, delving into anthropology, oceanography, cybernetics, biology, meteorology, migratory patterns, urban planning, palaeontology, and even Canadian history. In Lynch’s films, though, science and history take back seats to personal obsessions and mythology. The science on display in Project Grizzly and Cyberman, for example, is, if not pseudo-science, a methodology used to highly personal, invariably eccentric ends. Lynch’s work is grounded in driven characters pursuing their obsessions to their logical conclusions. These fixations often remain unacknowledged by Lynch’s principals, largely because they’re so blinded or consumed by them. Customarily, their obsessions revolve around protection of the self and eventually become totalities, systems that incorporate all of reality, reflecting their creators’ need to define themselves in increasingly indifferent environments.  

It’s this predilection for obsessive types, his unique, ambivalent approach to them, and his genuine interest in their often outlandish worldviews that distinguishes Lynch as an auteur. A quick glance at his filmography suggests a filmmaker developing a group portrait of those on the margins, and exploring how they got there. In