Mitchell Stafiej
Directing
Biography
Mitchell Stafiej is a disabled filmmaker and sound designer who lives and works in Montreal, Quebec. He has lived with Type 1 Diabetes since he was 16 years old. His films explore the potential and the political power of juxtaposition and the cut; language-less demonstrations of social change. He embraces textural images and harsh sound and often shoots films on 16mm and lo-fi technology like HI-8 and cell phones. He is constantly on the search for the ‘anti-image’ and tries to expand the notion of what can be considered cinematic. He received his M.F.A. in Studio Arts from Concordia University in 2018 and currently teaches film production, film studies, and art history at John Abbott College.
Known For
A young alcoholic ambient musician locks himself in his apartment on a dangerous seven day bender as he attempts to finish his upcoming album.
A
The Fenestration of Suburbia is a melancholic social documentation of a cold Canadian suburb.
The Fenestration of Suburbia
Like a mumblecore for invisible disability, The Diabetic follows a lonely and irreverent 30 year old Type 1 Diabetic named Alek who returns to his hometown to re-live his teenage 'glory days.' Upon arrival in suburbia he finds that most of his old friends have moved away, started a family, or simply grown up. Only one person responds to his invitation: Matt, an old acquaintance who has never moved away from the suburbs. Matt represents everything that Alek despises about suburban life; the banal, boring, and uncultured. Unwilling to give up on his nostalgic dreams, Alek parties with Matt, launching them into a hallucinatory and directionless fugue through the dark streets of suburbia. Throughout the seemingly never-ending night and as Alek’s blood sugars become more erratic, he pushes Matt and their adventure to darker and darker places with complete disregard for their well-being.
The Diabetic
A die-hard film enthusiast leads a campaign against one of cinema's greatest enemies: motion smoothing.
SMOOTH MOTION
A 25-year-old former cult member seeks out his family in a closed world of neon crosses, deadly alcoholism, and abuse.
The Devil's Trap
A car slowly navigates the winding streets and disparate airwaves of the United States of America in search of the scars of capitalism in natural landscapes, urban environments, people, and wildife.
These Streets Will Never Look the Same
Through six vignettes, a broken family confronts their dark past one year after their daughter’s brutal murder was captured on camera in one long take.
Found
Illusory visual and sonic reflection on a stagnant film career both moving forwards and backwards, and not at all; driving 100mph yet standing still.
Forwards, Backward
Julitta is 99 years old. The camera lingers on the skin of her face and hands; her wrinkles are traces of stories. Alzheimer's disease is eating away at her memory. Parts of her forget, while others remember. Set against vivid and sometimes distorted compositions of her memories, excerpts of her diaries are whispered by actresses recounting her past in a Gulag forced labour camp in Siberia during the Second World War. This short film brings to life this Polish teenager's experience of deportation and the events that followed, intertwining them with her present. Her apartment is now a witness to her buried memories and her illness. Julitta is now 100 years old.