Passage (2007)

Building on the concerns of the photo-based Light series and the video Friday Morning, Passage evokes several layers of time and place through video imagery and sound. Separate yet connected narratives unfold: Present-day footage follows richly coloured light and shadow patterns appearing inside and outside my house throughout the course of the day, from the cool blue-purples of morning light to the warm oranges of early evening. Meanwhile, black and white archival footage provides fleeting glimpses of Jewish life during the early part of the last century – everyday life in pre-World War 2 Eastern Europe, and the immigration of some to ghettoized urban life in North America. Amongst these fragments of an earlier era we recognize women at market, hands sewing, immigrants disembarking from a ship, street scenes. At the same time, the accompanying soundscape situates us simultaneously in the past and present, in domestic and public spaces. The rhythm of my family’s daily activities and interactions unfolds through sound, while the passage of time through the day is tracked from the song of birds at dawn to the late night chirping of crickets. A past era is made more immediate through the sounds of horse-drawn wagons, marching troops, spoken Yiddish and traditional melodies. The fleeting immateriality of the video finds material embodiment in the nine sequential stills printed from Passage, each an intersection of coexistent narratives.

Video and audio by Cheryl Pagurek. Audio mix by Chris Ikonomopoulos. Black and white footage excerpted from Novogrodek (c. 1930), Kurow (1932), A Day in Warsaw (1938), and Lower East Side/Seward Park (1935) from the National Centre for Jewish Film, Brandeis University. Black and white footage of Immigrants Landing at Ellis Island (1903) by Thomas A. Edison Inc., preserved by the Library of Congress. Black and white footage excerpted from On the East Side (1903), Subcarpathian Jews (1933), Even in this Day and Age (1939), Jews of Dombrova (c.1939), Ruthenia Jews (1939), from the National Archives, USA. Black and white footage excerpted from Immigration (1946) by Encyclopedia Britannica Films Inc. Yiddish voices: Bernard and Joyce Pagurek; Traditional melody sung by: Joyce Pagurek. The following sound files were used from Freesound (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu): horse at walk, street noise, sewing machine, construction workers from dobroide; crowd from JFBSAUVE; market from jmfh; schoolyard from cognito perceptu; tricycle from Corsica S; sewing machine from Anton; marching soldiers, horses trotting from man; children sledding from daveincamas; ship horn from milo; horse snort from ERH; man walking home, footsteps from Herbert Boland; seagulls and water from hazure; footsteps on concrete from FreqMan. Produced with the support of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and a grant from the Ontario Arts Council.