Toronto Star by Bruce DeMara, Entertainment Reporter. June 09, 2011.

When Avatar burst through the $2 billion box office barrier in 2009 — becoming by far the highest-grossing movie of all time — it proved once and for all that the future of film is three dimensional.

And as the film world continues its rapid transition from traditional 2-D celluloid film to 3-D digital, a weekend conference at the TIFF Bell Lightbox is aimed at boosting the Toronto film community’s chances of capitalizing on the next wave in film — 3-D.

The conference is co-sponsored by York University’s fine arts faculty and the 3-D Film Innovation Consortium (FLIC), a group of GTA-based film companies.

Ali Kazimi, an associate professor in the university’s film department, said the three-day event will bring together an “eclectic mix” of filmmakers, artists, academics and theorists.

“It’s a truly interdisciplinary event. We believe it’s not just a first in Canada, we believe it’s the first time anywhere in the world that these … fairly disparate groups of people have been brought together to discuss the future of 3-D cinema,” Kazimi said.

“I think this is going to be a very special event for the city. Our project has really put Toronto on the map because with this incredible sharing of knowledge,” he added.

Among the attendees: German filmmaker Wim Wenders, who will discuss his use of 3-D in his latest film, Pina, a documentary about choreographer Pina Bausch; IMAX co-founder Graeme Ferguson; international film historian Thomas Elsaesser and Irish artist/filmmaker Catherine Owens, co-director of U23D, a film a live performance of the rock band U2 band described byThe New York Times as “the first IMAX movie that deserves to be called a work of art.”

Owens said her purpose in attending the conference is to encourage new filmmakers and to “make sure that 3-D doesn’t get completely owned and occupied by Hollywood.”

Recent advances — including the Avid stereoscopic 3-D editing system and cameras by companies like Panasonic and Sony — make the technology not only easier to work with than traditional film but affordable, Owens said.

“For me, 3-D is a very exciting canvas and a new tool. One of the lovely things about 3-D is that right at the moment, there’s not very many rules other than doing a lot of preparation and making sure you know your medium. As an artist, it’s very appealing to work with a medium where people are just beginning to develop the conversation,” Owens said.

While Avatar director James Cameron pioneered the modern use of 3-D as a vehicle to create visionary blockbusters, other renowned filmmakers are also embracing it such Wenders, Oscar-winner Ang Lee and Werner Herzog, who’s latest film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, reveals ancient artworks in France’s famed Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave.

Until the debut of Avatar in December, 2009, there was little interest in 3-D as a new frontier in film, Kazimi said.

“Now everybody is jumping on the bandwagon. As a filmmaker, I feel it’s a very exciting time because when used properly, 3-D offers a whole new language for filmmakers,” Kazimi said.

Owens said 3-D technology will be accessible within a year or two to laptops, net-books, iPads and iPhones.

“So filmmaking is sort of a great battleground for 3-D but actually, I think its application is going to be in many other disciplines that we just haven’t been talking about it,” Owens said.

The influence of 3-D on technology and future generations is an important issue, Owens pointed out.

“Some very strong conversations have to happen … not just about all the commercial aspects (of 3-D) but about the creative and the cultural and the social and political. Otherwise, it’s just going one big series of video games,” she added

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/1005597–embracing-film-s-next-dimension