Black Zero

16/11/2023

Black Zero's latest wave of releases is making its way into our customer's hands! All orders placed to date have been delivered or are in transit. Find out about our new products at www.blackzero.ca

06/11/2023

The films of Josephine Massarella cover a vast territory, from durational, performance-focused films that bridge everyday experiences with ritual and symbol, to…

05/11/2023

What a collection! We now have six releases available. Limited editions - get them while you can!

Black Zero is a home video publisher specializing in Canadian underground movies.

04/11/2023

The first blu-ray release of Richard Kerr's films, available now at www.blackzero.ca

Canadian artist-filmmaker Richard Kerr was raised in a north-south family near the American border. From a young age he was preoccupied with the vision of empire reflected in American mass culture and sport. As he matured as a filmmaker, Kerr began to turn his attention increasingly to America as a subject, undertaking road trips through the American southwest, studying the spirit of a landscape made for cinema.

The first of these films, The Last Days of Contrition (1988) peers at post-apocalyptic tableaux manifesting along the roadside, scenes from a decaying American dream in the waning days of the Cold War. Kerr followed this with Cruel Rhythm (1991), a compendium of southwest tourism bursting with combustible undercurrents. After two decades, Kerr returned to the theme of American desolation with Field Trip (2021). Made from crumpled photographs taken on earlier trips, Field Trip is an exercise where subject and form are joined in an embattled abstraction, flags and signs of restlessness bleeding through the arcs and ridges of Kerr's violent abstraction.

SPECIAL FEATURES

- Newly restored 4K digital masters approved by filmmaker Richard Kerr
- A bonus film: Le bombardement le port des perles (2004)
- Driving & Shooting in America, a new interview with Richard Kerr
- Invitation to the Voyage: Richard Kerr's America, a video essay by Bart Testa and Stephen Broomer
- Field Trip Scroll, a documentary portrait of Kerr in his home studio
- Liner notes by film scholar Bart Testa

https://vimeo.com/876877560

Canadian artist-filmmaker Richard Kerr was raised in a north-south family near the American border. From a young age he was preoccupied with the vision of empire…

04/11/2023

Black Zero has now released its second wave of discs! You can order them now at our website at www.blackzero.ca .

R. Bruce Elder - A Man Whose Life was Full of Woe has been Surprised by Joy
Josephine Massarella: Green Dreams
Richard Kerr: Field Trips

And if you haven't grabbed them yet, we still have plenty of discs from the first wave!

Black Zero is a home video publisher specializing in Canadian underground movies.

28/10/2023

Our fifth release, Josephine Massarella: Green Dreams, available next Friday from our online store! Green Dreams features all eight of Josephine's films, each with a newly-commissioned audio commentary from an international selection of artists, poets, curators and critics. The disc also features her early student films, an overview of the restoration process, a video essay, and an archival interview.

The films of Josephine Massarella cover a vast territory, from durational, performance-focused films that bridge everyday experiences with ritual and symbol, to…

22/10/2023

Coming soon! Our fourth release, and the first in our ongoing series of the films of R. Bruce Elder: A Man Whose Life was Full of Woe has been Surprised by Joy!

This is "A Man Whose Life was Full of Woe has been Surprised by Joy (blu-ray trailer)" by Black Zero on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the…

27/07/2023

One of our favourite endorsements yet!

23/07/2023

18/07/2023

Today at Split Tooth Media: Black Zero founder Stephen Broomer offers this sampler of Canadian underground films!

The Black Zero founder provides a guide to some of Canada’s great experimental films On Black Zero’s website, founder Stephen Broomer includes a quotation from Jonas Mekas on Canada’s tradition of underground cinema, in which he praises it for having “a finer vibration, a finer density, a fi...

18/07/2023

An interview with Black Zero founder Stephen Broomer at Split Tooth Media!

With its first wave of releases now available, Black Zero is shining a necessary light on classics of Canadian experimental cinema.

03/07/2023

Canada Day weekend…here’s me weighing in on one of the country’s great filmmakers, Richard Kerr!

Art & Trash, episode 13 Richard Kerr: Field Trips Stephen Broomer, May 4, 2022 Richard Kerr came to filmmaking from a distinctively Canadian background, having…

19/04/2023

Happy from the team at Black Zero! So often Canada’s cinematic heritage is focused narrowly on its storytelling aspirations, on its governmental informational filmmaking, its innovations in documentary film, its celebrated animation… so clean yer toque in the washroom, then go out to those Canadian Film Day parties and remind your friends that there’s a whole world going on underground, eh?

30/03/2023

Thanks Daniel Adams for speaking with BZ’s Stephen Broomer about the launch of our label! Listen here:
https://spotify.link/xjpBqNDzAyb

28/03/2023

Spent this morning at the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto inspecting and transferring fragile magnetic sound for a new preservation project…

28/03/2023

On the latest episode of Chasing Labels, BZ founder Stephen Broomer talks about his history with experimental film, niche publishing, and the future of Black Zero!

***The FULL EPISODE is audio only and is on all the major audio platforms.***This is an interview with Stephen Broomer of the new Canadian Label Black Zero!!...

25/03/2023

Want to see one of our all-time favourite Canadian underground films? Watch Andrew Lugg's Black Forest Trading Post (1976), here: https://mediaburn.org/video/image-union-episode-330/

07/03/2023

Over at Art & Trash this past season, BZ founder Stephen Broomer talks about great contemporary Canadian experimental filmmaker Christina Battle’s evolving aesthetics!

Art & Trash, episode 21 Christina Battle: Acts of Resistance Stephen Broomer, November 17, 2022 Christina Battle’s first films engaged with the politics…

06/03/2023

The Varsity, University of Toronto's student newspaper and one of Canada's longest-running student newspapers, did this article on our work!

"In the past, these films have only been available to watch in public, at prescribed times. Now, people can take them into their homes, consume the detailed contextual material that accompanies them, and develop personal connections to them over multiple viewings. In the case of Palace of Pleasure, this portability allows the film to fulfill Hofsess’s vision of it as a therapeutic experience that draws out neurotic energies."

U of T instructor Stephen Broomer brings Canadian experimental cinema to Blu-Ray

02/03/2023

More positive reviews of films from our first wave! Keith Lock's Everything Everywhere Again Alive is a legend in the tiny world of Canadian experimental film: now you can watch it in your home. https://www.blackzero.ca/products/everything-everywhere-again-alive

27/02/2023

Jim Shedden, friend to Black Zero and champion of Canadian experimental cinema, made this series for Rogers television in the early 1990s. Episodes feature interviews with filmmakers such as Michael Snow, Veronika Soul, Richard Kerr. https://vimeo.com/41290742

24/02/2023

Two years ago BZ founder Stephen Broomer began to make video essays at Art & Trash - several of them deal with Canadian underground cinema, including this, the first episode, about a wonderful, underappreciated filmmaker, the late Josie Massarella!

Art & Trash, episode 1 Josephine Massarella: One Woman Walking Stephen Broomer, February 11, 2021 Josephine Massarella’s career as a filmmaker is marked…

22/02/2023

One of Black Zero's favourite artists is Richard Kerr, who has been making films since 1976. The best introduction to Richard's early work is this catalogue featuring an essay by Bart Testa, a comprehensive discussion of Kerr's work to date (1994). https://tinyurl.com/mpmspux7

21/02/2023

Each case can be a storehouse of history. The poet David Spittle did this interview with Black Zero’s Stephen Broomer for the ‘home’-themed issue of Tangible Territory! Dave asked ‘why these films’ and here’s an answer…

“John’s film is about the possibility of therapeutic healing through psychedelic light, subliminal imagery and sensual colour; Keith’s film is about retreating from civilization to build something new, freed from all the hangups of urban life; Lipsett’s film is about having something strange crawl inside of your heart, like soldiers climbing into the Trojan Horse. These are themes I deeply identify with. So in that sense these releases are a fair indication of the nature of my investment in experimental cinema. For me the curatorial sensibilities of this project aren’t bound to this project, or to curation, they’re a way of living because they reflect how I’m living, guided by love and fascination. The works reflect that. They’re a discourse, asking complex questions of us. The projects we have planned will extend and expand that discourse to include other, profound ideas, on fate and the course of history, on nature and subjectivity, on flesh and the ghostly light of rephotographed, processed, transformed visions. I suppose if I’m looking to achieve something, it’s not the condescension of educating and informing, but the act of trading visions, exchanging visions, that’s what home video can be just as parlour filmmaking once was. A film as intimate and particular as Keith Lock’s Everything Everywhere Again Alive can now be watched by a total stranger on the other side of the world, and they can approach it with an open heart and find something in it that touches them. That’s why I want to use home video as a platform for sharing work, it opens intercultural discourse, it creates new bonds among strangers, and each case can be a storehouse of history.”

TT Journal, ISSUE 5, 20th January 2023 By David Spittle The dreams do happen –and there is no ‘home’ we come to– but on this earth, and open to its powers A recognition of the ghosts that guide us.…

21/02/2023

Some nice shoutouts for Black Zero in these recent reviews for John Hofsess’s Palace of Pleasure! We’re so glad to be able to introduce people to Hofsess’s therapeutic cinema. Available now! https://www.blackzero.ca/products/palace

20/02/2023

Last month Black Zero's Stephen Broomer was interviewed by Justin Decloux on The Important Cinema Club podcast about our first wave of releases!

‎Show The Important Cinema Club, Ep INTERVIEW: Saving Experimental Canadian Cinema with Stephen Broomer - 25 Jan 2023

19/02/2023

In 2017, Mike Hoolboom released this oral history of The Funnel, Toronto's experimental film theatre that was often mired in conflict and controversy...an essential document in Canadian underground film history. Free to download on Hoolboom's site. https://mikehoolboom.com/?p=18519

18/02/2023

Our experience of Canadian underground movies was shaped in part by the groundswell of critical commentary that emerged since the 1980s… we plan to share them here once in a while. Bart Testa’s Spirit in the Landscape: tinyurl.com/ycxrh2cc

04/02/2023

Arthur Lipsett's Strange Codes -- now available from Black Zero!

This is "Strange Codes (blu-ray trailer)" by Black Zero on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

03/02/2023

Black Zero, a celebration of Canadian underground movies! Our first three discs are now available at

Black Zero is a home video publisher specializing in Canadian underground movies.

26/01/2023

Classic Canadian experimental film has a new home at Black Zero and we’ve got this great new label’s first three releases on our shelves now! Limited quantities available so snap them up quick!

08/01/2023

Our upcoming release of Arthur Lipsett's Strange Codes includes "Strange Codes: A Breakdown," an 84-minute shot analysis / interpretive commentary by BZ publisher / Strange Codes preservationist Stephen Broomer. See below, Michael Faraday and, decades later, Sigmund Freud. Sometimes a metal rod is just a metal rod.

10/12/2022

Tomorrow in Toronto: Black Zero launches with a screening of Keith Lock’s Everything Everywhere Again Alive! Join us at Innis Town Hall, Sunday December 11, 7PM. Our first two discs will be available for purchase at a special launch discount of $30 or two for $50.

02/12/2022

Launching with a little help from Leonard Cohen...

John believed in cinema as a therapeutic process, modelled on post-Freudians like Norman O. Brown and Wilhelm Reich. For him, the projector was something like an orgone accumulator. Now, your television can be too.

Available Jan 15 / can also be purchased in-person on Dec 11 at our screening event at Innis Town Hall

FEATURES
- a commentary track by Stephen Broomer, film historian and author of Hamilton Babylon: A History of the McMaster Film Board
- Columbus of S*x: a speculative reconstruction (26 mins)
- Resurrection of the Body, a sequel to Palace of Pleasure (38 mins)
- The Looking Cure, a video essay on 'cinematherapy', Hofsess's aesthetic philosophy
Limited edition of 1000 copies

A long-neglected classic of Canadian experimental cinema, a triumph of erotic art, a film about which Gene Youngblood once wrote, “See it and you'll see…

12/03/2018

Rob Fothergill speaking on his classic Canadian docudrama Countdown Canada, at Innis College as part of Ad Hoc's special screening of Countdown Canada last fall.

Robert Fothergill introduces his 1970 film Countdown Canada at Innis College room 222, Toronto, Canada, October 14, 2017. With Stephen Broomer. Presented by Ad…

03/10/2017

Thanks to everyone who came out to Sunday's epic screening of R. Bruce Elder's Lamentations: A Monument for The Dead World (1985)! We're excited to be bringing this film to blu-ray. On October 18, join Black Zero's Stephen Broomer and Cameron Moneo for a screening of John Hofsess's Palace of Pleasure (1967) and the new digital restoration of Elder's The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1979) at Cinematheque quebecois in Montreal!

R. Bruce Elder introduces Lamentations: A Monument for The Dead World at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, October 1, 2017. This screening was presented as a part of TIFF's…

08/07/2017

Our pal R. Bruce Elder's most recent video, made in collaboration with Ajla Odobašić, is getting its long-awaited Toronto premiere on July 21 at this clothing-optional screening, presented by the Regional Support Network, Pix Film Gallery, and the Loop Collective.

Regional Support Network, The Loop Collective and Pix Film present:

A GATHERING OF CRYSTALS
by R. Bruce Elder and Ajla Odobašić
Canada, 2015, 139 min, HD video
Introduction by Ajla Odobašić

Friday, July 21, 2017
BBQ @ 7:30pm (RSVP: [email protected])
Screening: Outdoors @ Sunset
Madi Piller’s backyard
140 Three Valleys Drive, Don Mills, Toronto
Limited shuttle service available (RSVP)

“Just before I began work on my book Harmony and Dissent: Film and Avant-Garde Art Movements in the Early Twentieth Century, I discovered a trove of photographs depicting participants in a radical German movement, Freikörperkultur (free body culture), the early years of which constituted something of a prototype for the hippie movement that would emerge in California in the 1960s. Many of the photographs were strikingly well composed, unlike more recent images of practitioners of social nudity. But these formal rigours were responsible for only a small part of their charm. More important was this: there was something unbearably sweet about these images of groups of people who were convinced that they might alleviate modernity’s depredation of charity through exposing, completely and frankly, their vulnerable naked selves to one another. Though these social activities too soon ramified into more pernicious forms (including the body amplification taught by Hans Surén, who was admired by Adolf Hi**er), Freikörperkultur did experience one brief, innocent, paradisiacal moment that reverberated through subsequent decades as an ideal. This moment was captured in these photographs. Reading texts produced by the advocates of social nudity, and especially 'Kehrt zur Natur zurück! Die wahre naturgemäße Heil- und Lebensweise. Wasser, Licht, Luft, Erde, Früchte und wirkliches Christentum' had made me aware that early forms of Freikörperkultur were associated with a distinctive aesthetic, one that was reflected in their use of an exercise regimen the purpose of which was develop participant’s awareness of the deeply rhythmic character of fundamental coporeal energies. Similar aesthetic theories, I knew, had cosmological underpinnings, and the pagan character of the more important strains of Freikörperkultur connected these practices to such lofty metaphysical speculations. I decided to make a film that, I hoped, would reconnect these photographs to the cosmological yearnings I felt they harboured by creating a thoroughgoingly Pythagorean work. Like my previous film, whose title I borrowed from the extraordinary book I mentioned, this work is dedicated to Adolf Just.” - R. Bruce Elder

03/03/2017

Black Zero has been quiet, but we've also been busy! In the past week, BZ co-founder Stephen Broomer presented talks on the McMaster Film Board at McMaster University (Hamilton) and the National Arts Centre (Ottawa). The specs from our first wave of discs will be coming very soon, but for now, here's a review of Broomer's Hamilton Babylon, by Brett Kashmere, at the Brooklyn Rail!

Hamilton Babylon is a detailed rendering of a misremembered, if not largely forgotten, niche of Canadian cine-culture.

07/01/2017

Black Zero co-founder Stephen Broomer writes about the therapeutic intentions of John Hofsess's Palace of Pleasure in this new column for La Furia Umana. We will be issuing Palace of Pleasure this spring as our inaugural disc, in celebration of its 50th anniversary.

International and Multilanguage Journal of History and Theory of Cinema