ASANASA

ASANASA (aka Lost Leaders #21) is a trippy trip through the boys-own histories of rocketry and space flight, a wry commentary on gendered fantasies of off-world exploration. The film comprises found footage specially sourced from a 16mm counter-archive, combined with meticulously hand-woven 35mm leaders and eccentric countdowns. The original score was composed and performed by Jackie Gallant, Soar's longtime collaborator (and drummer for Montreal band Lesbians on Ecstasy).

  • Matt Soar
    Director
    Les Enseignistes de Montréal, Love Leaders, Academy / Society / Universal: 3 Handwritten Leader Standards, Ceci N'est Pas Embres, Lost Leaders #1
  • Jackie Gallant
    Sound design
    Academy / Society / Universal: 3 Handwritten Leader Standards (2016), Lost Leaders #1
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 20, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Shooting Format:
    35mm, 16mm, Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • New Experimental Works / Avant To Live (ATA/OtherCinema)
    San Francisco
    United States
    December 21, 2019
    World Premiere
  • Festival Fantasia - Les Fantastiques week-ends du cinéma québécois
    Montreal
    Canada
    August 29, 2020
    Québec premiere
    Official Selection
  • Media Monsters 5: Otherwordly Visions
    Online
    United States
    April 18, 2020
  • Antimatter [Media Art]
    Victoria
    Canada
    October 14, 2020
  • Engauge Experimental Film Festival
    Seattle
    United States
    October 27, 2020
  • SF IndieFest
    San Francisco
    United States
    October 9, 2020
  • Montreal Underground Film Festival
    Montreal
    Canada
    May 1, 2021
  • Dreamers of Dreams Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    November 12, 2020
    European Premiere
Director Biography - Matt Soar

Matt Soar is a settler filmmaker and intermedia artist living in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal. His artmaking explores the intersections of residual and emergent media forms. Soar's work has screened at the Fantasia Film Festival, Poetics & Politics of Documentary symposium, Montreal Underground Film Festival, Alchemy Film Festival, Black Hole Cinematheque, Rencontre internationales du documentaire de Montréal, VISIONS Montreal, Engauge Experimental Film Festival, Lost River Film Festival, and the Orphan Film Symposium.

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Director Statement

ASANASA is the most recent creative outcome of Lost Leaders. This project is driven by a singular fascination with film leader countdowns, treated as the forgotten 'metadata' of analog film. For Soar, coming to terms with this residual technology has also involved cameraless 'handwritten' animation, interactive films, stained glass, photomontage, and videomicroscopy. Soar's definitive introduction to the historical development of US/Canadian film leader standards appeared in the journal The Moving Image in 2016.