oblations: 2026

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

my movie montages

I love the movies. And I like making things. So I spend a lot of time making movies out of the movies. Here are links to some of my ongoing montage projects. (Note: They're always best with headphones, or good speakers. The bigger the screen the better. Probably best at the theatre, or a gallery...)

Installation:

Dal Schindell Gallery

Sep 16 - Oct 3, 2026

Gallery closed Sundays

Several of my long form film montages will be featured this fall in the gallery at Regent College on the UBC Campus. The centrepiece will be the premiere of the 12-hour Date Movie, which moves through the twelve months of the calendar year using date-specific clips from thousands of films. Timepiece, which premiered in 2025 at the Richmond Cultural Centre, moves through twenty-four hours of clock time in one hour, a tribute to Christian Marclay's video masterwork The Clock. Also premiering will be the Cinema Prayer Chapel, a contemplative space featuring prayers of every kind drawn from world film, as well as other works celebrating the movies and movie-going.

gallery website

Date Movies

The whole obsession began with the project of finding date references in movies. On June 6, 2004, I marked the 60th anniversary of D-Day by watching The Longest Day, which led to a search to find one movie for each day in the calendar year, undertaken by several participants in the Arts & Faith online conversation board. Which eventually led to the idea of creating mashups of multiple film clips representing specific days of the year, usually the birthdays of friends. I've created almost 100 such videos, but many were posted on a defunct Vimeo account. Here are links to a handful I've put up on YouTube.

Jan 6

Feb 7

Feb 21

Mar 1

Apr 19

May 13

Jun 3

Jun 7

Jun 19

Jul 12 | with extended credits

Jul 30

Sep 2

Sep 11

Oct 2

Oct 30

Dec 22

Another iteration of this whole dates-in-movies project was to build a thirty minute montage with one clip for each calendar day. I really like it.

A Year At The Movies In Half An Hour

or one month at a time... (September is my favourite)

A Month At The Movies In Two And A Half Minutes

January | dates only | dates titles events

February | dates only | dates titles events

March | dates only | dates titles events

April | dates only | dates titles events

May | dates only | dates titles events

June | dates only | dates titles events

July | dates only | dates titles events

August | dates only | dates titles events

September | dates only | dates titles events

October | dates only | dates + titles

November | dates only | dates + titles

December | dates only | dates titles events

I prefer the versions with no titles, just a stream of images and sound. But if you're curious about what movies the clips are from, or about the events depicted, there are versions including those things as well

Dial V for Video

A tribute to video stores, a trailer for International Independent Video Store Day. 40 movies in 4:32. Here.

Good Time Diner

My son-in-law plays in a band, and they thought it would be a blast to project movie clips behind them while they play, and during breaks. So I got to make some really long montages! Welcome to the diner! Here's a minute-and-a-half trailer for one of their gigs, but unfortunately there are restrictions for viewing the longer montages.

NT GUILTY: You need a good lawyer?

Movie clips about lawyers and the law, a graduation present for my daughter Katie's graduation from law school. Probably my favourite. Montage, not daughter. Here.

The Movies Go To The Movies: Marquees

A chronology of movie-going, as seen in the movies. A work in progress; here's an early version, starting with a 1915 screening of "The Curse Of Drink" at The Gem (from the film "On Moonlight Bay") through to "The Bicycle Thief" at The Rialto in 1991 (as seen in "The Player").

Earth Day International Film Festival: End of the World Edition

And here's the trailer for an imaginary film festival. Just for fun, to pass the time during the pandemic.