Kara Blake is a Montreal-based director, editor and compositor whose creative projects range from films and music videos to performance visuals and installation pieces. Her work has been shown internationally at festivals and venues including MOMA New York, Centre Pompidou, Telluride, and CPH:DOX. She has had the distinction of winning a Genie Award and Hot Docs Award for short documentary and has held the title of Best Emerging Filmmaker conferred by TIFF and RBC. Blake has collaborated with a variety of organizations including the National Film Board, Moment Factory, and the CBC. Her multi-channel works include Lasciare Suonare for Place des Arts in Montreal (2019) and The Offerings, part of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal’s touring exhibition Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything (2017-2021).
Blake holds a BAA in film production from Ryerson University and an MFA from Concordia University.
questionnaire:
Where were you born, where did you grow up, where do you live now?
I was born in Cambridge, Ontario. I grew up in and around there, with some formative years in Toronto, before jumping ship for La Belle Province in 2002.
First film you made, and where and when?
Apartment Zero, Toronto, 1994. An hommage to (shameful rip-off of) Maya Deren’s Meshes of The Afternoon. Nowhere near as good…
Latest film you made, and where and when?
This one, it’s hot off the presses!
Describe your current living space
A top floor treehouse in Montreal’s Mile-End.
What Canadian would you challenge to make an isolation movie?
Caroline Monnet
In the history of cinema whose isolation move would you want to see?
A Lotte Reiniger x Bruce Conner mash up.
Worst thing about being in isolation?
Debilitating dread over the exponential growth of bad news.
Best thing about being in isolation?
My inner hermit crab delights at never having to leave the house.
Favourite book to read in isolation?
How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Favourite music to listen to in isolation?
Caribou, A Flock of Seagulls, The Animals…
Favourite movies to watch in isolation?
Josephine Decker film festival.
Favourite meal in isolation?
The Friday Night Frigo Free-For-All.
What’s the last best thing you cooked?
M. Funguy pizza courtesy of the Elena fundraiser cookbook.
