Behind the scenes filming a gold pour on location in the refinery at Goldcorp Inc’s Red Lake Gold Mines, Canada’s largest gold mining operation and one of the richest gold mines in the world. It took going through airport-like security and then a five camera set up to document the pour. Kudos to our amazing doc crew, Producer Lynne Kamm, Director of Photography Ryan Randall and Sound Recordist Sean van Delft.

Photos by Don Nord.

Behind the scenes on location at Rubicon Minerals Corporation’s Phoenix Gold Project, a gold mine operation in the advanced exploration stages situated just outside of Red Lake, ON. Pictured is an interview with Mine Superintendent Claude Bouchard, a chat with Exploration Manager Ian Russell, and the filming of Electrical Supervisor Roger Bouffard in the newly built and state-of-the-art Hoist Room. A special thanks goes out to Ian Russell for coordinating our filming on site.

Photos by Don Nord.

Behind the scenes on location at Fintown, an abandoned mining village situated on McKenzie Island – one of the six small communities that make up Red Lake, Ontario.

Photos by Don Nord.

Behind the scenes during an interview with Alex MacDonald, a retiree from the Campbell Mine in Red Lake, Ontario.

Photos by Don Nord

OCAD University students from my Winter/Spring 2011 course INTM2B11: Animation: Origins & Techniques learn Dragon Stop Motion, the Oxberry Animation Stand, and how to make a DIY animation stand. We also took a field trip to local Toronto animation house, Cuppa Coffee Studios.

Concept illustrations by artist John Courtney Little for Argentum, a new film that I am currently developing. Blending myth and historical record as told through a series of living dioramas, Argentum is a stop-motion animation that retells the tragedy of Patrick O’Brien, the youngest son of turn-of-the-century Canadian railroad and mining magnate M.J. O’Brien.

Documentation of The King + I as part of Dudek | Caines | Annis | Evans, a group exhibtion at Concordia University’s FOFA Gallery October 11 – November 5, 2010. The exhibition of four separate but related installations carries two threads between its constituent parts – vision and beauty – that establish a complex relationship with the beholder. Each artist uses the reproducible image in equal parts analysis and display that foreground the viewer as critical participant in the construction not only of meaning but also of the pieces themselves.

Photos by Guy L’Heureux

Documentation from Latimer + Caines, an exhibition at SMASH as part of the CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival May 1-31, 2010. Christine Lucy Latimer and Cliff Caines’ works combine old and new photographic processes, producing uncanny hybrid artifacts that question nostalgia. Caines presents a custom-built 19th century stereoscopic cabinet. Viewable within the mahogany cabinet is a 21-minute stereoscopic 3D video portrait of Derrick Caines (the artist’s uncle, born with Down Syndrome and later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease). Working with found antique glass negatives, Latimer’s caffienol silver prints (processed with home-brewed coffee-chemistry) manipulate the nostalgic and re-configure abandoned histories.