Ottawa Short Film Series Negotiations With Existence Ponders The Big Questions In Life's Small Stories

During these extraordinary times, it seems that never before has our confidence in the future of existence been so fragile.

GCTC present, online at gctc.ca, the first two episodes in the creative and contemplative series Negotiations with Existence written, photographed and produced by Ottawa/Toronto artist Timothy Trieste.

Negotiations with Existence is a series of thirty-minute video episodes, incorporating short film production, lyrical music, and short story narrations which ponder the big questions in the small stories of life. The series was produced during the lockdown, with the limited resources of a one-man production, at Trieste's recording and video production studio in west Ottawa, which he operates as the Creative Director for Sound of the Muse Records-Creative Media. The record label offers viewers of the series a complimentary album download of Trieste's new songs with The Life of Pearls, featured in Negotiations With Existence.

"GCTC was looking for an online production to capture the interior experiences and contemplations we were all feeling during the lockdown," says Eric Coates, outgoing GCTC Artistic Director. "Earlier this year I came across Timothy's writing, short film production, and music, and was struck by his themes. I offered him a challenge to package his stories and music into something that would capture the interior dialogue that we are all feeling at this time."
Episode one features two stories: "This is Your Captain Speaking" - an airline pilot announces revelations about life to his passengers, and, "It's All Riding On Sunny" - a bee keepers' journey to reconcile the past by just beeing. Episode two features the story "The Place That Was Before." Haunted by the ghosts of memory, a stage actor searches for clues about a final scene, so many years ago.

"These extraordinary times have moved into focus the existential anxieties we have always known, lurking in the periphery of our vision," says series writer and producer Timothy Trieste. "Now in our line of sight, there is a sobering feeling that the veils are being removed. It feels as though never before has our confidence in the future of existence been so fragile. And it feels more personal than ever before-not just a societal revelation. There is a palpable sense for each of us that we have been called upon to renegotiate everything we thought we knew about life and living. It's all on the table. And now the bargaining begins, each one of us pondering the big questions in our small and very personal experiences of human existence."

Negotiations with Existence is freely available on YouTube, with two episodes already online. Watch the full series here: https://www.gctc.ca/shows/negotiations-with-existence.

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