Mike Rollo
2021The Broken Altar
Mike Rollo
[19:30 | 35mm (1.85) | Stereo Sound | 2013] The Broken Altar is a portrait of open-air theaters documented under the strange light of day, emptied of the once present hum of human voices, radioed-in soundtracks and tires on gravel. Scripting the landscape and exploring the residue of a cinematic history, The Broken Altar forms a sculptural treatment of the architectural artifacts of these abandoned and barren spaces: speaker boxes rise from tall grass like grave markers and the screens themselves are monumental, sepulchral in their peeling whiteness.
The Broken Altar
Ghosts and Gravel Roads
Mike Rollo
[16:00 | Super 16mm – HD | Colour | Stereo | 2008] An inventory of lost memories and places, the sun-bleached landscape of Saskatchewan serves as a metaphor for displacement, a framing of emptiness and absence. Traveling to forgotten towns and channeled through old family photographs the camera catalogs the haunting remnants of the past, frail monuments and communities laid bare, broken under economic collapse. Under the weight of the prairie skies a visceral, personal encounter is revealed in the solace of open space.
Ghosts and Gravel Roads
Farewell Transmission
Mike Rollo
[14:05 | 16mm to HD | Stereo Sound | 2017] The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation opened the doors of the CBK Transmitter Station in 1939 to serve the prairie region of Canada. Farewell Transmission is equal parts indexical record of the demolition of CBK in 2015 and subjective response to the residual media documenting the event. The building is framed with tension preceding its destruction: emulsion pulsates as if with decades of radio transmission, creating an unsettled eulogy for a cultural institution.
Farewell Transmission
