WORKS

LANDSCAPES OF THE ARCTIC FROM A SOUTHERN CITY
60 MINUTE FILM IN DEVELOPMENT
PRODUCED & DIRECTED by Andrew Bateman

The Arctic is experiencing some of the most drastic effects of climate change, and most people know this. What’s less well known is that cities hundreds of kilometres away from the region play an outsized role in the way these changes are managed, diminished, capitalized upon, or compounded. Portraits of the Arctic from a Southern City is a film that cinematically unravels the entanglements between Toronto conservation officers, corporate employees, pharmaceutical researchers, indigenous artists and the complex Canadian Arctic.

Screenings:
To be announced here.

FLYWAYS, HIGHWAYS, AND BYWAYS
A PROJECT ON MIGRATIONS IN TORONTO (2021)
CONCEPTUALIZED & PRODUCED by Andrew Bateman, Ella Tetrault, Cyrus Sundar Sing

During a massive spring migration, while most humans are asleep, the airspace above Toronto is abuzz with over 50 million birds – 16 times that of Toronto’s human inhabitants. The event is mystifying.  Home to 3 million people and 180 languages, this city is familiar with a myriad of migration stories. This project takes the spring bird migration as an opportunity to celebrate and reflect upon the nature of migration – its histories, opportunities, and compromises – and its role in shaping life for humans and nonhumans alike. 
fhandb.ca

CHOOSING WORDS
3 MINUTE FILM SUBMITTED TO FESTIVALS (2020)
PRODUCED & DIRECTED by Andrew Bateman

Former political speechwriter, Darrah Teitel, breaks down her choice of words for a speech she wrote about eliminating taxes for tampons. In this short comedic film, the words Teitel wrote are compared to the words her boss delivered in parliament, providing just a taste of the debates that happen behind the scenes of our political systems.

Screenings
Official Selection, Saskatchewan International Film Festival 2021, Saskatcheway.
Official Selection, Toronto Shorts Festival 2021, Toronto.
Official Selection, Mimesis Documentary Festival 2021, Boulder.

FOUR DAYS AT THE NATIONAL PRESERVATION CENTRE
15 MINUTE FILM (2019)
PRODUCED & DIRECTED by Andrew Bateman, Lindsay Fitzgerald, & Sean Stiller

This short documentary is an immersive experience into the Library and Archives of Canada’s National Preservation Centre in Gatineau, Quebec. The film presents a symphony of relationships between human and object, story and materiality. The Preservation Centre is a space that embodies the past and the predicaments for the future, as particular technologies required to access the archives are becoming ever more obsolete. Four Days at the National Preservation Centre uses a textural, meditative aesthetic in an effort to represent our obsession with tactility as evidence, and technology as an extension of human life itself.

Screenings
Official Selection, Hot Docs International Film Festival 2021, Toronto.
Official Selection, Edmonton International Film Festival 2020, Edmonton.
Official Selection, Art Gallery of Hamilton Film Festival 2020, Hamilton.
Semi-Finalist, Lunenburg Doc Fest 2020, Lunenburg.
Semi-Finalist, Art Color Digital Cinema International Film Festival 2020, Brussels.

Trailer

DANGEROUS CURIOSITY
PHOTO EXHIBIT IN DEVELOPMENT (SINCE 2018)
A PROJECT by Andrew Bateman & Ashish Mahajan

Dangerous Curiosity captures moments in which individuals are so mesmerized by an environment that they lose sight of the surrounding danger. The viewer might wonder at the judgement of those caught on camera, but who can’t relate to being drawn in by [natural] power?

• 

• 

• 

BUNKER BODIES
SOLO PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT (2018)
EXHIBITED AT RYERSON’S IMA 310 GALLERY

This project features composite images reworked from Duck and Cover (2014) to further explore the intersections of documentation, archives, the human body, and government regulation. It is interested in how individuals could actually live together, underground, during a time of crisis in a cold war bunker. Specifically, it asks how archival documents written by government bureaucrats calculated and accounted for everyday tasks associated with the daily needs of the body? How do military hierarchies affect or influence the way these tasks are managed? And how are relationships impacted when government policy makes sleeping bunks for 318 men and only 11 women?

SPEECHWRITERS
17 MINUTE FILM (2017)
PRODUCED & DIRECTED by Andrew Bateman

The words that politicians deliver matter, but the public is not privy to the ways in which a politician consults, strategizes, or deliberates over the words they present. Speechwriters shines a light on the behind-the-scene staffers who work long days deliberating on the words we hear in public. In doing so, the film deconstructs a small piece of the political system.

Screenings
Official Selection, DocNow 2017, Toronto.

Trailer

TAXI STORIES: 150 STORIES OF TAXI DRIVERS IN TORONTO 
GROUP SHOW PROGRAMMED by Gerda Cammaer (2017)
6 MINUTE FILM by Andrew Bateman
EXHIBITED AT TORONTO HARBOURFRONT CENTRE

Taxi Stories was a collaboration with Dr. Gerda Cammaer, a mobile media scholar, who gathered 150 minutes of stories from taxi drivers across Toronto as part of the Toronto Harbourfront Centre’s programming for Canada’s 150 celebrations. My contribution to this project features a video about Jafar Mirsalari, an Iranian refugee who escaped political persecution. The film was shot and edited using two cell phones.

TEMPELHOF
17 MINUTE FILM (2015)
PRODUCED & DIRECTED by Andrew Bateman and Marion Payette

The Tempelhof Airport in Berlin closed its doors to flights in 2008. Since then, grass-roots groups organized to turn this 740 acre field at the heart of Berlin into a massive undeveloped green space. Of course, developers had other visions and a struggle to determine the future of the field ensued. This short documentary explores the duelling visions for this massive space and how community groups ultimately convinced the city to leave the space undeveloped — at least for now.

Screenings
Official Program, MakeCity Festival 2015, Berlin.
Public Screening, Tempelhof Airport, 2015, Berlin.

BOULERVARD
GROUP PROJECT BY ON/OFF COLLECTIVE (2014)
COMMISSIONED BY- & EXHIBITED AT FESTIVAL KANAL

In September 2014 ON/OFF introduced BOULEvard to the streets of Brussels as part of Festival Kanal. The design of the BOULEvard ball used scientific theories of tension and integrity to create a large 4m tall structure. The goal of the project was to intervene in our everyday interactions with the city and encourage the city’s residents to reconsider the idea of play. The challenge was to create a structure tough enough to navigate the obstacles of a city, and yet light enough to be spontaneous and playful. In the end, the project proved successful as residents of Brussels came out in droves to inspect and then play with the BOULEvard Tensegrity Ball. 

DUCK AND COVER
GROUP PROJECT by Andrew Bateman, Veronica Simmonds, and Phanuel Antwi (2013)
EXHIBITED AT FUTURE RUINS

Duck and Cover is a sound and visual exhibition that features infrastructural remains of The Diefenbunker, one of the six massive Cold War bunkers commissioned by then Canadian Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker, to shelter the most senior government, military, and communications officials of the country. Duck and Cover uses aspects of the bunker (the cafeteria, offices, and dormitories; the engines, ventilation systems, and war room; the toilets and piping, the hoists and chains, and unlit corners) to imagine the everyday intimacies in the bunker. It explores the ways that the bunker preoccupied itself with habits of living together, of being at home, underground, during a time of crisis to bring out the wonders and drudgeries of the everyday.

KOPFKINO
GROUP PROJECT BY ON/OFF COLLECTIVE (2012)
EXHIBITED AT ISTANBUL’S FIRST DESIGN BIENNUAL

“Kopfkino” is a German term that refers to an imagination left untamed, often magnifying and looping the disturbing thoughts best left dormant. This project by ON/OFF aims to activate the imagination, trigger the uncanny, but more – inspire unordinary interactions in the public and its urban landscape. With cheap technology and creative designs, the project sets out to create new public spaces using large facades. In 2012 the ON/OFF team was invited to bring these ideas to Istanbul for their first design biennial.

WE ARE THE TRANSCRIBERS
2 MINUTE FILM by Andrew Bateman & Veronica Simmonds (2012)
FEATURED ON CONSTELLATIONS

When I was younger, Veronica Simmonds and I worked as transcribers. It was grueling but flexible since we could do it from anywhere. After five years of on and off work, I had transcribed over 3.5 million words (or about 35 novels) for TV & film productions that were featured on Discovery Channel, National Geographic, HBO Canada, CBC Television, and TVO. We made a film about it and I stopped transcribing .

I AM AN ANDREW BATEMAN
SHORT FILM by Andrew Bateman
TEMPORARILY SHELVED

I receive hundreds of misdirected emails meant for different Andrew Batemans around the world because my email address is andrew.bateman@gmail.com. I developed an odd but endearing friendship with one Andrew Bateman from Chicago after his country club sent me dozens of invites to curling tournaments, Thanksgiving fundraisers, and family-friendly events. This film explores this relationship mediated through the internet while reenacting some of the bizarre miscommunications that occurred between us. At this time, this project is temporarily shelved as I focus on less important work, like my PhD research.