Flick Harrison - Zero for Conduct blog

About Flick Harrison

Flick Harrison is a self-made nobody, a renegade artist, an underpreneur, a premiere Vancouver poorfessional. His film, theatre, video, acting, writing and camera work has been seen by millions, been nominated and won awards internationally, and slipped into, under and through almost every Canadian funding niche. Chretien’s chief strategist Warren Kinsella called Flick “offensive” and “unfair,” the Globe and Mail called him “hilarious,” and the Georgia Straight called his work “gorgeously sophisticated.”

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(click images for large versions)

“As a director, Harrison rocks!”
- Broken Pencil

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“The films of Flick Harrison promise to provoke a range of reactions, from simple disgust to something as noble as social enlightenment.”

-Katherine Monk,
Vancouver Sun

Flick with Lucy Lawless on Battlestar Galactica

Flick with Lucy Lawless
on Battlestar Galactica

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Jane Weitzel headshots

He’s acted with the likes of Lucy Lawless and Edward James Olmos, studied under Noam Chomsky, beaten the Sundance parking laws, startled Brian Mulroney *and* Kim Campbell, interviewed Ed Asner to sleep, been poisoned by the Taliban, flown light aircraft, ridden boxcars on national television, dodged the border patrol in Mexico, held hands with Negativland, promoted David Orchard, fired rifles in the tribal zones of Pakistan, and shown in the Museum of the Moving image in New York.

He’s done community / activist / political film, video, documentary, installation and theatre work for over 10 years, starting as a videographer on the national CBC series Road Movies, and going on to work with 536 Arts Collective, Western Theatre Conspiracy, Dancers Dancing, Leaky Heaven Circus, DanceArts Vancouver, Headlines Theatre, and Impudence Cultural Productions. In this time he’s shot video for R.E.M., Battlestar Galactica, Bruce Sweeney, Nettie Wild, Reg Harkema, David Vaisbord, James Dunnison, and many others.

He studied at Z Magazine’s Z Media Institute as part of the Canada-Council funded interactive DVD project Marie Tyrell, based on a 1974 short story by D.M. Fraser, starring Tom Scholte (Live Bait, Dirty) and Susan Box (of punk band July 4th Toilet), and Flick’s smash-and-grab video “President of the Apes” is lurking around the U.K. in a pedal-powered cinema and at Roadance, the Sundance-baiting cube-van outlaw film fest.

Flick’s rabble-rousing websites Stockwell Dork and Clarkson the Terrible have stirred national attention, the former getting thousands of hits a day after CBC TV coverage during Election 2000. Flick’s videos have shown alongside work by Nick Zedd, Negativland, Seth Tobocman, Mike Holboom, Oliver Hockenhull, Lincoln Clarkes, Christine Taylor, Lola Lush, Hugh Phukovsky, Ivan Cyote, and others.

Born in London, Ontario, the son of an air force gynecologist and a psych nurse, the Moose Jaw Times once called Harrison a “modern-day Jack Kerouac.” He teaches digital filmmaking to kids at Arts Umbrella and edited the Film and Video section of Broken Pencil, a zine / indie-culture print mag based in Toronto. As a journalist / host he’s interviewed Richard Linklater, Guy Maddin, the Royal Art Lodge, Vincenzo Nataly, and many other Canadian and world artists.

Harrison edited the film section of Terminal City Weekly in the fall 2001 incarnation and Taxi Vancouver Mag.zine in 1997-8, wrote about film for Capsule magazine, and has written in the Rain, Film Threat, Play, the Ottawa Citizen, the Montreal Gazette, and Adbusters.


“Your daily dose of weirdness…”

-Film Threat on “Small Tuxedo Blowjob Adventure”

Grants and Awards

Nov 2004 – Best Narrative Film – Marie Tyrell – Northwest Film and Video Fest
Nov 2004 – Nominee – Borsos Award – Whistler Film Festival – Better off in Bed
Jul 2002 – Canada Council Film and Video – Research and Creation Grant
May 2001 – “Rockaction” Filmmaking Commission from the Blinding Light Cinema
August 2000 – Canada Council – Film and Video – Travel Grant

Recent Conferences, Forums and Lectures

Mar 2004 – Guest speaker, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Mar 2001-05 – Reel to Real Film Festival for youth, videomaking workshops, Vancouver, BC
Jan 2004-05 – Interactive Futures, Avatara conference presentation, Victoria, BC
Oct 2003 – DVD authoring workshop, Video In Studios, Vancouver, BC
Sep 2003 – Distributed Creativity, online conference hosted by Eyebeam, New York, USA
July 2003, ‘04 – Pacific Cinematheque Summer Film Institute, self-distribution workshop, Vancouver, BC
June 2003 – University of Arizona, independent filmmaking lectures, Tucson, AZ

Selected EXHIBITION HISTORY – FILM / VIDEO

Better Off In Bed
Feature Documentary – Co-producer / DOP
Mar 2005 – Kingston Canadian Film Festival
Dec 2004 –Nominee – Borsos Award – Whistler Film Festival

Umbilical Noose
Dandi Wind music video
Fall 2005 – Indie Music Video Festival, NY, LA, TO, Van, Seattle, etc

Marie Tyrell
interactive narrative / documentary DVD
Current – distribution – VTAPE, Toronto, ON & Agence TOPO, Montreal, PQ
Mar 2006 – Cinematic Salon — Cineworks, Vancouver, BC
Oct-Nov 2005 – “America vs America” – Konstplikt – 7-city tour of Scandinavia
Sep 2005 – Stills exhibit, Upgrade! International, Eyebeam, New York, NY
Feb 2005 – Interactive Futures, Victoria Independent Film Festival
Nov 2004 – Northwest Film and Video Festival, Portland, OR – BEST NARRATIVE FILM
May 2004 – Sneak Preview – Upgrade 2.0, Western Front, Vancouver, BC
May 2004 – Sneak Preview – Crash! The Indie Writer’s Fest, Vancouver, BC

Flicks von Flick
retrospective
June 2004 – Cinecycle, Toronto, ON
Dec 2004 – Ship of Fools, Amsterdam, NL
June 2004 – Cinecycle, Toronto, ON
July 2002 – Blinding Light, Vancouver, BC

Omniscience
theatre visuals / video segments / live cams
Western Theatre Conspiracy
May 2004 – Performance Works, Vancouver, BC

Avatara
feature documentary / installation
with Donato Mancini, Jeremy Turner of 536
May 2003 – Centre A (Vancouver Centre for Contemporary Asian Art), Vancouver, BC
July-Aug 2003 – Open Space, Victoria, BC
Aug 2003 – Finlandia Hall, Summit of Micronations, curated by Lars Vilks, Helsinki, Finland
Oct 2003 – Machinima Film Festival, American Museum of the Moving Image, NY NY
Dec 2003 – CyberWorlds 2003 Conference, Singapore
Jan 2004 – Banff Centre for the Arts, Horizon Zero, (www.horizonzero.ca) Banff, AB
Feb 2004 – HUMlab, UmeŒ University, UmeŒ, Sweden
Feb 2004 – Rocketshop. Transmediale 0.4 media festival / conference. Berlin, Germany
Jan 2004 – VIFVF Interactive Futures Conference, Victoria, BC

Aug 2004 – A-Space, Toronto, ON
President of the Apes
short satire
Jan 2004 – Roadance Film Festival, Park City, Utah (helped defeat traffic laws)
Spring 2004 – Pedal Power Cinema, traveling screenings in the U.K.
Current – armedrabble.org – 27,000 hits as of June 2004

The Victory Party
short satire
“Too brutal to reflect our current political system” – CBC Zed
Jun 2002 – Live performance / video shoot, Western Front, Vancouver, BC
Jul 2002 – Blinding Light Cinema, Vancouver BC
Mar 2003 – Independent Film Series, DV-8 lounge, Vancouver, BC
Dec 2003 – Raw & Cooked, Western Front, Vancouver, BC

Sex Drugs Love Marx
narrative feature
May 2003 – Installation version – Western Theatre Conspiracy fundraiser, Vancouver, BC
May 2003 – Blinding Light Cinema, Vancouver, BC
May 2003 – Code White Cabaret, Vancouver, BC
June 2003 – Screening Room, Tucson, AZ
July 2003 – Nickel Independent Film Festival, St JohnÕs, Newfoundland
Current – CBC’s 120seconds.com

Small Tuxedo Blowjob Adventureshort film
Jan 2002 – Sugar Refinery – Terminal City Weekly screening
Jun 2002 – Blinding Light Cinema, Vancouver, BCSep 2002 – Antimatter Fest, Victoria BC

Self-Portrait
video installation
Dec 2001 – Bruce boutique – group show w Lincoln Clarkes, Christine Taylor, others

Enemy Dwarfs…
video installation
Nov 2001 – 536 Gallery – group exhibition “Filling all the Cracks”
Nov 2001 – Western Theatre Conspiracy / Rabble.ca fundraiser
Nov 2001 – Propaganda Gallery – group exhibition

Map of a Restless Northwest
short documentary
Current – CBC’s 120seconds.com
Oct 2001 – Blinding Light Cinema, Vancouver, BC
Feb 2002 – Videoactive 4 (Toronto Video Activist Collective) screenings around Ontario

No! No! No!
short documentary
Jul 2001 – CBC’s 120seconds.com
Oct 2001 – Blinding Light Cinema – Bookmobile Benefit, Vancouver, BC
Nov 2001 – Vancouver Underground Film Fest, Vancouver, BC
Sep 2002 – Brooklyn Underground Film Fest, Brooklyn, NY
Jan 2003 – Roadance Film Fest, Park City, Utah (shut down by police)

Kunk
Burlesque pseudo-documentary
2000 – 2000 Women Film Fest, Vancouver, BC
Oct 2001 – Blinding Light Cinema, Vancouver, BC
Nov 2001 – Vancouver Underground Film Fest, Vancouver, BC
Current – Distribution on Novel Amusements #3, Toronto, ON

Freeworld
Sci-Fi Comedy Film
May 1998 – Synaesthesia UBC Graduate Conference – rough edit
Aug 1998 – Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago, IL
Jan 1999 – Uppsalla Film Fest, Uppsalla, Finland
Aug 1998 – Vcon 25, Science Fiction Convention, Vancouver, BC
Aug 2000 – Lost Film Festival – Philadelphia, PA
Sept 2001 – Starkland Studios, Vancouver BC
Apr 2002 – UBC MFA Film Festival, Vancouver, BC
Distribution – Satan MacNuggit Popular Arts, Toronto, ON
Distribution – Omni Short Film Distribution, Los Angeles, CA

BORDERTOWN
documentary
1993 – TVO Panorama – french translation
1993 – Columbus Film Festival, Ohio
1993 – Labortech Film Festival, Minneapolis
1993 – Intercom Film Festival, Chicago
1993 – Cavanagh’s Corner, Public Access TV, Maine
1998 – Working TV.com webcast

Road Movies
Story Producer – CBC 26-episode Television Series
1992 – National CBC Broadcast
2001 – Syndication on PrideTV Network