Inspired by the history of silent cinema in Québec, Democroscope presents a diversity of everyday views that collectively serve to challenge the political grand narratives of our time.

When Léo-Ernest Ouimet opened the first movie palace in Montreal in 1907, he aimed to bring the best cinema to the average citizen at affordable prices. Today the average citizen can create the best cinema. A typical film program of that era included politics, news items, human interest stories, anecdotal observations of every day life, of nature, of eccentric events. The theatre was so popular the Catholic Church tried to ban screenings on Sundays.

Drawing from the web - todayʼs public commons – and from an open call, Democrosope brings you a selection of historical and contemporary short films for community viewing in physical space, exploring participatory culture by celebrating the quotidian. These films pose the question What is cinema today?

Videos by Jérémie Battaglia, Josh Bricker, Myrel Chernick, Collective IRouge Ta Rue, Dana Dal Bo,W.K.L.Dickson, Thomas Edison, Marcantonio Lunardi, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, Lumière Brothers, Andres Manniste, Dayna McLeod ,Mutoscope and Biograph, Leo-Ernest Ouimet, Stefan Riebel, Lynne Sachs, Shelly Silver, Miro Soares, Evelin Stermitz, Lili White, James Williamson, Steven Woloshen

Artists: Perry Bard is an artist living in New York. She works individually and collaboratively on interdisciplinary projects for public space. She has worked with community groups to address issues of media representation, engineering site-specific public video installations for the Staten Island Ferry Terminal Building in New York and for Market Square in Middlesbrough UK. Public interventions about the war in Iraq include a mobile truckside billboard traveling the streets of New York, magazine ads and coffee cup sleeves featuring artifacts missing from the Baghdad Museum. Her web and public space project Man With A Movie Camera: The Global Remake

Matt Soar is an intermedia artist, graphic designer, and writer who lives and works in Montreal. His research activities center on design, visual culture, cultural production, the politics of prepresentation, and media literacy.

Image: © Videotage