Nothing But Time: The Films of Peter Mettler at TIFF Cinematheque

Friends, throughout October Toronto will get a chance to experience four decades of transcendent cinema from our beloved Peter Mettler. Nothing But Time: The Films of Peter Mettler, which I’ve had the privilege of curating for TIFF Cinematheque, will screen at TIFF Lightbox. Tickets at tiff.net. Write-up below.

Nothing But Time: The Films of Peter Mettler

with guest curator José Teodoro

October 4–26

Among auteurs to have emerged in Canada over the last half century, none has forged a body of work as genuinely sui generis as Peter Mettler. Films such as Picture of Light and The End of Time connect seemingly disparate subjects — quantum physics, religious longing, technological wonder — that speak to the labyrinthine nature of the modern world. A subject of retrospectives both locally and internationally, Mettler has also cultivated close creative collaborations with artists and filmmakers such as Atom Egoyan, Robert Lepage, Jennifer Baichwal, Fred Frith, and Jeremy Narby. Mettler’s facility with arresting juxtaposition is encapsulated in his most emblematic film, Gambling, Gods and LSD, and reaches its apotheosis with his latest work, While the Green Grass Grows: A Diary in Seven Parts, a TIFF 50 Official Selection. The retrospective features 10 films, including: Scissere, The Top of His Head, Eastern Avenue, Tectonic Plates, Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands, and Balifilm. Special guests including Egoyan will join Mettler and Teodoro for select Q&As.