Philip Hoffman (filmmaker)


Philip Hoffman is a Canadian filmmaker and a member of the faculty of York University.
Hoffman was born December 10, 1955 in Kitchener, Ontario. He studied at Sheridan College, where he received a diploma in media arts in 1979, and Wilfrid Laurier University, where he received a B.A. in English literature in 1987. While a student at Sheridan College he became associated with a group of filmmakers known as the Escarpment School, other members of which included Richard Kerr and Mike Hoolboom.
In 1986 he became an instructor at Sheridan College. In 1994, he started operating a summer film workshop, the Film Farm Retreat, at Mount Forest, Ontario, initially with support from Sheridan College. In 1999 he joined the York University Film and Video Department as a faculty member. He also has been a visiting professor at the University of Helsinki and University of South Florida.
Hoffman has been described as "filmmaker of memory and association" whose "highly personal" work blends fiction and documentary and "contests the claim to the truth" that characterizes conventional documentary film.
Hoffman has been honoured with more than 25 retrospectives and spotlights of his work. His 2001 film, `What these ashes wanted’, received the Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Telefilm Canada Award at the Images Festival in Toronto, and the Gus Van Sant Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
In 2001 the publication Landscape with Shipwreck: First Person Cinema and the Films of Philip Hoffman, was released comprising some 25 essays. ref web|url=https://pdome.org/2001/landscape-with-shipwreck/. The San Francisco Cinematheque presented a retrospective of Hoffman's work in 2004, entitled "Passing Through: A Philip Hoffman Retrospective". The Canadian Film Institute presented a retrospective showing of his works in Ottawa in March and April 2008. A book, entitled Rivers of Time and consisting of an interview with Hoffman, "essays and reflections" on the filmmaker and his work, and images from his films, was issued to coincide with the retrospective.
Since 1994 Hoffman has been the Artistic Director of the Independent Imaging Retreat which is celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2019. with screenings and an Installation at Toronto's TIFF Bell Lightbox.
In 2016, Hoffman was awarded a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, and in 2019 Hoffman's film `vulture', which utilized `green' developing techniques was awarded the Kodak Cinematic Award from the Ann Arbor Film Festival, USA.|title=Eye for Film

Works