(A Night of Films by Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof and Kelly Egan).
Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof is a Toronto-based experimental filmmaker and scholar. She is a graduate of Media Arts at Ryerson University (BAA) and Communication and Culture at York University (MA) and (PhD). Izabella’s film and video projects have screened in numerous group programs at international film festivals, cinematheques, galleries and art centres in Canada and abroad. Solo screenings of her works have been presented at the Diagonal Film Archive, Festival des Cinéma Différent and at Canadian Film Institute: CAFÉ eX in Ottawa. She is the co-founder and an active member of the Toronto-based experimental film collective, the Loop Collective.
Kelly Egan is a Toronto-based filmmaker, animated sound composer, scholar and archivist. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from Carleton University, Master of Arts in Communication and Culture from York/Ryerson University, Master of Fine Arts in Film/Video from Bard College, a Certificate in Film Preservation from the Selznick School of Film Preservation at George Eastman House and a PhD in Communication and Culture from the York/Ryerson Joint Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture. Her films have been screened internationally at renowned festivals like the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, Images Festival, and the New York Film Festival, amongst others.
The Loop Collective is a group of independent media artists formed in 1996 to develop a public platform integrating experimental film and video with other art forms. The Loop Collective program and produce works for presentation through exhibitions and events in both traditional and non-traditional spaces. The mission is to explore the roots of experimental film and video by creating a dialogue with other art media. Loop Collective strive to promote experimental film and video for critical engagement by cultivating relations among different artistic communities. The Loop Collective has presented gallery installations, screenings, and artist talks by renowned figures including Michael Snow, Chris Welsby, Christian Lebrat, Carolee Schneemann, and Jósef Robakowski. Programmes of films by Loop members have screened at venues including The National Film Board of Canada (Toronto), Cinema Parallele (Montreal), Winnipeg Cinematheque, NASCAD (Halifax), Club SAW (Ottawa), The Factory (Hamilton), Leeds International Film Festival (United Kingdom), and the 2010 Canadian Retrospective at EXiS Festival, (Diagonal Film Archive, Seoul).