MISSION/MANDATE: The Big Smash! Film Collective is a non-profit organization that promotes and exhibits Canadian and international film and video art through regular screenings, film classes and an annual media arts festival to further enrich Canada’s film-going culture. All Big Smash! events provide opportunities for critical discussion, and act as a platform for addressing the perceived divide between high and low film/video culture, to show that each is inspired and elucidated by its relationship to the other. 

BACKGROUND: Big Smash! Film Collective grew out Big Smash! Productions, an independent film exhibition company which had been operating in an unofficial capacity since 2006. In August of 2009, due to increasing interest in its various events by local, national and international communities, Big Smash! Film Collective Inc. incorporated as a non-profit organization.

The Big Smash! Film Collective exists to present Canadian and international independent media artworks to the public in an atmosphere in which these works will be most fully embraced and appreciated - through a personal connection to the work and to the audiences being presented with the work. Every screening is introduced by its curator, who is also available for post-screening discussion. We strive to have filmmakers in person whenever possible, or alternately have a video or written introduction from the filmmaker to help contextualize the work.

Big Smash also strives to play films in professional screening formats, and to pay artist and distribution fees that enable small films to still be viable for independent distributors. We understand all aspects of the production-distribution-exhibition chain and know that they need to work together in order for independent media artworks to remain accessible to audiences.

Central to our mandate is that ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture be allowed to co-exist side by side, and that each is given the same critical consideration. We have presented experimental multidimensional slideshows alongside ‘exploitation’ fare like Cannibal Girls, and are adamant that this work is equally important, historically and artistically.

Big Smash is not a production-based organization, but exists as a support to such organizations through its emphasis on film theory, history and criticism. We feel that a well-rounded view of film history – including its ideas, techniques and dissemination methods - is imperative to making innovative and relevant work.  Critical discussion is a part of every Big Smash! screening, and is also the basis of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, a weekly series of film classes aimed at youth ages 14-29.

Programming is done both consensually and independently by Big Smash board members (Kier-La Janisse, Leslie Supnet, Damien Ferland, Aaron Graham, Amanda Stefaniuk, Ryan Simmons, Jay Van Deventer and Cory Chetyrbok), additional programming committee members Clint Enns, Travis Cole, Frank Labonte and Todd Brown, and independent Francophone curator Pierre-Luc Vaillancourt.

-----------------------

ABOUT THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR:

Big Smash! Artistic Director Kier-La Janisse (pronounced K-La) has been involved with film writing and exhibition since 1997, when she started Cannibal Culture Magazine, a quarterly Vancouver-based fanzine devoted to reviews and essays about obscure and/or underappreciated horror films. 

In 1999 she started the CineMuerte International Horror Film Festival in Vancouver (see CineMuerte page for more info) in response to concerns that the films reviewed in Cannibal Culture were not accessible to Canadian horror fans outside of mail-ordering (which, in a time before Ebay and Amazon, few were inclined to do). After the first year of the festival, Cannibal Culture was renamed CineMuerte Magazine. There were 11 issues of the magazine in all.

An off-shoot of the festival was the Bloodshots 48-Hour Horror Filmmaking Competition (click link to enter contest), which has been running every October in Vancouver since 2003 in association with the Celluloid Social Club. Participants are given a horror subgenre, a weapon, and a common prop and line of dialogue, and have 48 hours to create a short masterpiece in competition for a prize of $1000. Celebrity judges for the contest have included Robert Rodriguez (Sin City), Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins) and Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, Red).

In 2002, she created the horror trivia boardgame All The Colours of Darkness, a very limited edition collector’s  item (read: only 20 hand-made copies) with Saul Bass-esque design by Lester Smolenski and questions devised primarily by Kier-La Janisse, Sam McKinlay and Kelly Salerno. (Kier-La collects vintage boardgames and is likely to create another game at some point in the future, hopefully in less limited quantities!)

The combination of the writing and the festival programming/coordination experience led to freelance writing for renowned magazines Fangoria, Filmmaker, Rue Morgue and the book Destroy All Movies!!! A Complete Guide to Punk on Film (edited by Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly), as well as work for Austin’s famed Alamo Drafthouse Cinema , where she served as film programmer and primary guest coordinator from 2003-2007. She also participated in programming for the first two years of Austin’s Fantastic Fest.

In 2007, Kier-La’s first book, A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi was published by FAB Press. It is a compendium of the film roles of Italian bit player Luciano Rossi, lavishly illustrated with design by Rob Jones (known for his work with The White Stripes and The Raconteurs), and it’s available to buy HERE.

Kier-La’s other main interest is music and music documentaries, and in addition to creating and programming the Alamo Drafthouse’s Music Monday series from 2003-2007, she held the one-off Big Smash! Music-on-Film Festival in Vancouver in 2006, with Grammy Award-winning songwriter Paul Williams and festival namesake Wreckless Eric in person. This stream of programming extended to a weekly Big Smash! Music Scene series at the Winnipeg Film Group’s Cinematheque from 2007-2008, and since the spring of 2009, Big Smash! Music Scene has co-presented many monthly screenings, often paired with live music. See the Big Smash! Music Scene page for more info about past and upcoming screenings.

Kier-La also created, programmed and largely coordinated the inaugural Gimme Some Truth, Winnipeg's now-annual documentary conference run by the Winnipeg Film Group and DOC Winnipeg. It was Kier-La's vision to have a multi-day conference devoted to confrontational documentary film with several heavy-hitting master filmmakers attend in person for screenings, workshops and Master Classes, and she brought the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on board as a funder for the event. The first Gimme Some Truth in 2008 featured in-person guests Steve James (Hoop Dreams), Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated), Les Blank (A Poem is a Naked Person), Allan King (Warrendale) and more.

In 2010, Kier-La Janisse relocated to Montreal on a semi-permanent basis to open a screening venue called BLUE SUNSHINE (after the Jeff Lieberman film) with screenwriter David Bertrand.


--------------------------------------------------


TO CONTACT BIG SMASH! PRODUCTIONS:

Kier-La Janisse
Tel: 438-885-5363
Email: bigsmashproductions@gmail.com

--------------------------------------------------

Big Smash! depends on the labour of many dedicated volunteers, who offer their time and help working the door, doing tech assistance, postering, driving and more. I would like to extend thanks to our past and present volunteers Leslie Supnet, Clint Enns, Adam Mazur, Aaron Zeghers, Ian Ferguson, Doreen Girard, Ryan Simmons, Aaron Graham and Amanda Stefaniuk, as well as additional Board Members Jay Van Deventer, Damien Ferland and Cory Chetyrbok. Thanks guys!

If you would like to volunteer, please contact us at the email address above.