Optimism

The urge to relieve a winter valley of permanent shadow and find fortune in alluvial gravel are part of a long history of desire and extraction in the far Canadian north. Cancan dancers, curlers, ore smelters, former city officials and a curious cliff-side mirrored disc congregate to form a town portrait. Shot on location in Dawson City, Yukon Territory.

"With this puzzle of sound and Super 8 images, Deborah Stratman playfully blends the attraction of gold and a climatic phenomenon: in this town nestled at the bottom of a valley, sun beams are as rare as gold nuggets. How can the star be drawn down if not by capturing and diffracting its rays?"

— Charlotte Garson, Cinéma du réel, 2018