CONTEST: Oh my Godard! How Does a Year's Free Streaming of Avant-Garde Docs Sound?
Okay, film buffs and cineastes, we have a contest. We’ll draw two readers who correctly answer our question and they’ll each win a one-year subscription to the eclectic online streaming service, Tënk.
The Question:
What 1967 film by a Canadian artist, musician and filmmaker, considered a landmark in avant-garde cinema, consists of a 45-minute zoom shot across a Manhattan loft?
(Hint: With a slight change, its one-word title, inspired is the name of the Toronto International Film Festivals experimental film program.)
Email your answer to us at info@original-cin.ca (or click “Contact” on the website original-cin.ca). Two winners will be drawn from the entries on Wednesday, August 30, and a code for a free year of thought-provoking streams will be sent.
Okay, but wait? What exactly is a Tënk? The word, in the Wolof language of West Senegal, means “to state clearly and concisely.” To state it more clearly, Tënk is a film cooperative with a mission to bring attention to creative non-fiction films, a.k.a. auteur documentaries of various lengths, that tend to be closer in spirit to poetry than prose.
Tënk started in southeast France in 2016, where director-producer, Jean-Marié Barbe, had the quixotic mission to make his hometown of Lussas - an agricultural village of 1,100 in southeast France – into a world capital of the genre. The story of his campaign is told in director Claire Simon’s endearing 2020 film, The Grocer’s Son, The Mayor, The Village and the World (a film which which is available for rent on the service).
The Canadian version of Tënk started in Montreal in 2020, and went bilingual earlier this year.
Tënk is trying to broaden its subscriber base to raise funds for acquiring, digitalizing and translating more films. Subscriptions to the service cost between six and eight dollars are month, depending on the duration of the subscription. That gives viewers access to more than 40 films at any time, with five new ones added each week from the site’s archive. In addition, there are more than 150 films available to rent, for $3 each, with $1.50 going to the rights holder and the rest to Tënk. The films are curated by a team (currently 18 are listed) of film professionals, critics, academics and film lovers, who hold the post for a year. For those who want to sample, you can test drive it with a free week.
There you’ll find a handful of films by world-renowned directors, including Alain Resnais, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, Patricio Guzmán and Pier Paulo Pasolini. In the 40 percent Canadian content, there are works from such filmmakers as Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland, Michael Hoolboom, Philip Hoffman, Ann Marie Fleming and Sofia Bohdanowicz.
But more often, it’s a place to find new discoveries, including films recently from the festival network. In short, Tënk is about the kinds of films that are not coming to a theatre near you, which is why having them on a streaming service makes sense.
CLICK HERE for more information on Tënk.