“La Raison Avant La Passion /Reason over Passion” is one of Joyce Wieland’s most renowned experimental films– a cross-country travelogue, political satire, and modernist experiment— which embodies many of the themes recurrent in her rich, diverse, and extensive oeuvre. It was inspired by a speech given by then-Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, in which the phrase’ reason over passion’ was meant to be a strategic goal for Canada’s future and the possibility of some sort of unity between the French and the English. To Joyce Wieland, however, as a woman, as an artist (who worked with textiles undervalued as women’s craft, not high art), and as a passionate Canadian nationalist, “Reason over Passion”’ described more of her own approach to art and life.” —Reason Over Passion / Quinzaine des cinéastes.

Born 1931 in Toronto, Ontario—died 1998. Joyce Weiland was a Canadian filmmaker and mixed media artist who explored various artistic mediums throughout her career, including painting, assemblage, textile based work including quilting, and motion pictures. Wieland’s work delved into profound themes such as feminism and Canadian nationalism, making her a significant figure in 20th Century art and film.

In a review for Film Culture, P. Adams Sitney said, “The magnificence of the film lies in its imagery: a moving excursion across Canada from east to west. Shots of the setting sun running along the horizon, a train emerging from a tunnel into a snowscape burned out on the film stock, a harbor seen through the tilted camera. These images incarnate the epic spirit of the film, which with all its contradictions (of form and image, sound and picture) is extravagantly ambitious and elevated.”

This screening is presented by Moving Image Alliance, a Knight Foundation-invested studio project by artist Barron Sherer, founded to create a climate for appreciation and production of contemporary moving image art based on legacy cinema practices and technologies. Sherer’s project collaborates with media artists, galleries, and institutions through advocacy, instruction, and public performance.

Thank you: The Knight Foundation, The Miami Foundation, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Other Electricities and The Film-Makers’ Cooperative/New American Cinema Group