Matthew Rankin
Directing
Biography
Matthew Rankin (born August 5, 1980; Winnipeg) is a Canadian experimental filmmaker.
Born: August 5, 1980
Place of Birth: Winnipeg, Canada
Known For
Self-Portrait
Commissioned self-portrait of the artist as metaphysical remix of Abbas Kiarostami's "Close-Up" recorded on a cellphone.
This House
Bridgeport, January 17, 2008. A teenage girl is found hanged in her room. While everything points to suicide, the autopsy report reveals something else. Ten years later, the director and cousin of the teenager examine the past causes and future consequences of this unsolved crime. Like an imagined biography, the film will explore the relationship between the security of the living space and the violence that can jeopardize it.
Universal Language
Winter. Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg. Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen deep within the sidewalk ice and try to find a way to get it out. Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists upon an increasingly-strange walking tour of Winnipeg historic sites. Matthew leaves his job at the Québec government and embarks upon a mysterious journey to visit his estranged mother.
Before I Change My Mind
1987: While the other students wonder if new kid Robin is a boy or a girl, Robin forges a complicated bond with the school bully, making increasingly dangerous choices to fit in.
Mademoiselle Kenopsia
Set on carrying out her task with dedication, a woman is obsessed with watching over anonymous interiors and occupying them. Both a custodian of the premises and a ghostly presence, she becomes an echo of how we relate to time, solitude and the melancholy of forsaken spaces.
Laurentia
A young quebecer descends into alienation and depression.
The Phantom of the Cinematheque
On the 25th anniversary of his employment, Dave Barber, the visionary workaholic programmer of Winnipeg's beloved Cinematheque, dies tragically in an avalanche of VHS tapes while working late to finish the programming calendar. His workaholic ghost returns to the land of the living to finish the calendar and haunt the Cinematheque by night.
A Fortress
After the death of their adoptive daughter a couple goes to Haiti. There, they meet with a DNA specialist who has the power of resurrection.
A Grief Observed
Matthew spends Mother’s Day in his mom’s house slowly deleting her voicemails.
This Is an Official Message
In the idealism and mutation of his home town of Winnipeg, the filmmaker Matthew Rankin launches a failed campaign of absolute inter-human solidarity entirely in Esperanto, the artificial language of world peace.
Filmography
as Narrator
as Matthew (Massoud)
as Daniel
as (voice)
as Dr. Densmore
as Matthew
as Himself
as Narrator