Expo '67, held in Montreal, Canada in 1967 is widely regarded as the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century. Over the course of six months, around 50 million visitors flocked to nearly 100 pavilions fashioned by 62 different countries. They entered what historians have described as "a futuristic fantasy world", one which served as a laboratory for multi-screen cinematographic projections and led to the inauguration of IMAX technology at the Expo in Osaka, Japan in 1970.
EXPO 67 - AN AUDIOVISUAL COLLAGE is an impressionistic journey through some of the headiest, most thrilling features of the Fair. It features hundreds of scans of archive photos, brochures, books and magazines - and not only rare 35mm slides but recordings made (and generously donated to this project) by the pioneering British/ Australian electroacoustic composer Tristram Cary (1925-2008). The film is part of Helliwell's ongoing research into the World's Fairs staged in the 1950s-1970s period.
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IAN HELLIWELL has made well over 100 experimental films which combine sound visualisation, found footage, animation, visual feedback and hand painting with self-composed electronic music. His radio works include the ongoing series The Tone Generation. His book Tape Leaders: A Compendium of Early British Electronic Music Composers is a crucial celebration of the amateurs who shaped British music history.
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IAN HELLIWELL will be presenting his work, across two programs entitled Show & Tell, at Anthology Film Archives on 26-27 September. Special thanks to David Mason.