Dawson City International Short Film Festival

LIFE WITHOUT DEATH

Frank Cole

Canada 2000, 86 min. Dir. Frank Cole

"Reclusive, enigmatic, brilliant: these are just a few of the adjectives critics such as Geoff Pevere and the late Jay Scott have used to describe the work of the late Ottawa independent filmmaker Frank Cole. Modest in number, his films comprise a remarkable body of work. Formally rigorous and consistently challenging preconceived notions of perception and knowledge, the films of Frank Cole all examine the theme of the human struggle with death. A seminal figure in the development of filmmaking in Ottawa, Frank Cole is one of Canadian cinema's most singular talents.

On November 29, 1989, Cole began another lonely, harrowing journey across the dangerous Sahara by camel, confronting his deeply developed fear of death. Will the desert beat him, cause him to abandon his symbolic negation of dying? Or will he fall prey to the shifting weather patterns or political banditry in the various countries he passes through? Filmed by Cole himself, the striking images of the desert are combined with flashbacks of his beloved dying grandfather. Cole here creates a powerful cry for life and a disturbing meditation on mortality's ever ticking clock. Rigorous and powerfully life affirming, LIFE WITHOUT DEATH is an extraordinary cinematic experience. Sadly, it is also Frank Cole's final film." Canadian Film Institute

Thanks to Necessary Illusions for allowing us to screen this film.