Bell Manor park
thursday, august 11, 2022

the circus

With the short films Vistas: Dancers of the Grass and The Little Deputy

Silent comedy great Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus puts his hapless “Little Tramp” character in the unlikely position of star circus performer, thanks to his tendency to cause increasingly over-the-top, crowd-pleasing slapstick accidents. Like all of Chaplin’s best films, though, the anarchic comedy is a medium for pathos: this is a story about people on the margins of society finding and taking care of one another, and the little gestures of kindness are as impactful as the daring stunts and pratfalls.

Prairie-raised filmmaker Trevor Anderson’s semi-autobiographical The Little Deputy is similarly a tale of recognition between people who don’t quite fit in, as Young Trevor poses with his dad for a cowboy-themed photograph and finds his nascent queerness unexpectedly seen. Rather than playing it straight, Anderson – subject of TOPS’ Shorts Spotlight this year – creatively reworks and reclaims this moment both as an awkward faux-found-footage VHS tape and a lavish Western period piece. Rounding out this programme about performance, identity, and connection, Métis/Saulteaux filmmaker Melanie Jackson’s short Vistas: Dancers of the Grass uses stunning stop-motion animation to communicate the beauty and symbolic power of the traditional hoop dance.