Show and Tell 2018: Daniel Cockburn
Daniel Cockburn
Filmmaker
1. What’s your idea of perfect happiness?:
Absolute fulfillment of my every desire, arriving unceasingly in an ongoing series of waves that crash against everybody else’s. Wait, hang on, this is horrible.
2. What drives you to make films?:
My chauffeur, and the itch on the back of my skull that tells me it’s possible to find the moving-image equivalent of the Oxford comma.
3. Where in the world would you most like to be right now?:
Eight hours ago.
4. When inspiration is waning, and you feel creatively sapped, what do you do to stay motivated?:
I hadn’t realised that this was an option.
5. What films are the most inspiring or influential to you at the moment, and why?:
Robert Lee’s “Minima Moralia”
Steve Reinke’s “Ask the Insects”
Peter Medak’s “The Changeling”
Reasons available upon in-person request, 3-6 May 2018.
Your top 3 favourite music tracks?:
“Shaved Head” by Rheostatics
“Nautical Disaster” by The Tragically Hip
“I am Sitting in a Room” by Alvin Lucier
7. What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?:
It’s a tie between “Curled up into a quivering ball” and “Not curled up into a quivering ball”.
8. What’s your greatest extravagance?:
The million tiny secret ways in which I use up so much time.
9. What turns you on – creatively, spiritually or emotionally?:
Feeling myself perform finely-tuned cognitive multitasking while my brain is in the hands of a prodigous controlling talent.
A final word?
“Let the lamp affix its beam.”
P.S. Do you have any favourites or highlights from this year’s Alchemy programme that you’d love to give a shoutout to here?
I am very much looking forward to Aftermath. Fellow Torontonian Mike Hoolboom was a primary influence on me in my formative years (sure, Mike, I hold you responsible, why not?; I never held myself that way) and remains so.
