"Hart House Feature Pioneers New Film Format"

by John Parry. Hart House Members' News, Winter 2003

Super-duper 8 - a wide-screen super-8 film format developed by Mitch Perkins - got its world premiere showings on September 27th & 28th in the Hart House Theatre, which is a great venue for film. I found the visual impact of the technique quite remarkable, almost hallucinatory, and eminently suited to its vehicle - a feature film, Sleep Always, shot in Toronto.

"Obsession like you've never seen it before," headlined The Varsity. "A zesty independent movie in a brand new format," noted the Independent Weekly. The film, about a man enthralled by a woman who sleeps in the halls and stairways of his apartment building, stars Fred Spek, Laurie Maher and Ed Fielding. Mitch Perkins and Rick Palidwor directed the feature for the Hart House Film Board*. Perkins's Oscar-winning brother Jeffrey, a re-recording engineer, did the post-audio. Among the backers acknowledged in the credits is Hollywood veteran Willliam Schlegal.

Mitch Perkins's pioneering of a new film stock carries on a long tradition of Canadian innovation in film technology, epitomized by Montreal-born sound engineer Douglas Shearer, recipient of seven technical citations from the Motion Picture Academy and winner of seven Oscars. Perhaps Mitch Perkins will follow in the footsteps of his brother and Douglas Shearer.

* This isn't correct. We did not direct the feature for the Hart House Film Board. The Film Board is a University of Toronto film club which Rick Palidwor belongs to. They gave us a small production grant and we used some of their equipment.