Invention Trailer (2015)

Trailer for the documentary Invention.

An anthology of films by leading Canadian artist Mark Lewis, shot in Paris, São Paulo and Toronto. From famous corners of the Louvre Museum to the modernist buildings of Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil and Mies van der Rohe in Canada, Lewis juxtaposes modernist architecture with the compositional structures of old master paintings paintings, while also paying tribute to the City Symphony films of the 1920s. With the exception of a musical introduction and conclusion, Invention is made up of a series of silent studies of form, composition, movement, perspective, light, depth, color and framing. Lewis guides our eyes with a slow, dreamy movement of the camera, pausing at times, accelerating or changing color, turning backwards, floating upwards, zooming in or revolving around its axis before moving on. In images of glass, concrete, spiral staircases and paintings, Lewis captures the texture of these places, their characteristic forms and the people who populate the streets and buildings. Invention is an exercise in looking and an homage to urban spaces, art and cinema.