Low Visibility
A man is found wandering on a snowy mountain road and taken to a hospital, where doctors, therapists and nurses try to discover whether his inability to speak is traumatic or a strategy to conceal a dark secret. Meanwhile, a police detective calls on a psychic for a different approach to solving the enigma. In the end, we’re asked to question our own deductive processes.
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Feature film. Writer, Director, Editor. Premiere: Toronto Festival of Festivals 1987. Festival du nouveau cinema, Montreal; United States Film Festival (Sundance); Athens Film Festival, Special Jury Prize; Atlanta International Film Festival, First Prize, Feature Film; Pacific Film Archive, Berkely; Santa Fe Film Expo; Canadian Independent Film Tour 1987/88 (U.S. & Europe); Rice Media Center, Houston; Film in the Cities, Minneapolis; Queens University, Kingston; Carleton University; York University; First Choice/Superchannel. Chosen by AV Trust for Canadian Women Directors series, 2009. Link to film on Vimeo
When an unidentified, inarticulate man (Larry Lillo) comes out of the woods suffering from amnesia and a heavy load of guilt, his condition and treatment become the topic of the day for the crew of doctors and nurses in the local hospital assigned to his care. As the patient begins to make some progress, and his character and personality slowly become known, the reason for his trauma is revealed. With a mix of humor in the beginning and a bit of a shock toward the end, this unusual film by Patricia Gruben is an intriguing treatment of mental deterioration.
-- Eleanor Mannika, AllMovie
Like Egoyan, Gruben finds in the conditioned Canadian state of cultural detachment the possibility for new forms of effective social resistance: a quiet revolution.
-- Geoff Pevere, The Independent.
While Low Visibility is remarkably well realized, its strengths are analytical, as opposed to dramatic. It is her very personal, lucid and thoughtful use of point of view that makes Low Visibility original.
-- Carole Corbeil, Globe & Mail
Out of one of the more interesting corners of the avant-garde comes this investigation into a man who wanders in out of the wilderness with a weird combination of amnesia, aphasia and guilt....Few fringe filmmakers are as good at directing actors as Gruben, and Larry Lillo develops a convincing portrait of traumatized insanity. Never hysterical or obvious, he unfolds the character as the point of unity in the film. Pic will surely make the rounds of this year's fest circuit, although any controversy expected over the cannibalism theme is unlikely.
-- Kaja, Variety
"Taken to a Vancouver hospital, this nameless man (Larry Lillo) appears amnesiac and unable to speak except in explosive profanities. The combined will and technologies and methods of reporters, police and various doctors fail to uncover his story. The more casual and irreverent nurses, who nickname him Mr. Bones, and a psychic called in to channel events, have more success. Low Visibility is certainly about cerebral concerns that [Patricia] Gruben has developed in all her films—the importance of context and geography specifically in acting upon and defining self, the dubious efficacy of language, the pervasive and oppressive nature of media, and the scant possibilities for contact."
-- Nancy Keefe Rhodes, Stylus
Watch Low Visibility
Part 1: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/271928127
Password: LowVis2
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Part 2: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/272232672
Password: LowVis2
Writing on Low Visibility:
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° Corbeil, Carole, "An unflinching look at an unsettling tale," Globe & Mail September 1985.
° Haworth, Virginia, "Short Takes: Experimental" Public News October 14, 1985.
° Kaja, Low Visibility review. Variety, 10 September 1985.
° Kaye, Janice, "Patricia Gruben's Low Visibility: Gender, Fragmentation, Flexibility and Nationality in Spectatorship," MA Thesis, University of Southern California
° Keefe Rhodes, Nancy. "Key Canadian films by women." Stylus Magazine, October 24, 2007.
° Leydon, Joe, "A meditation on the art of Storytelling," The Houston Post June 13, 1985.
° Mason, Joyce, "Three Canadian Narratives: Moments of Recognition & Patterns of Meaning," Fuse, Summer 1985.
° Queree, Claire, "NFT Film provides challenges," The Queen's Journal, February 15, 1985.
° Wenzel, Curtis, "Who did what to whom?" Twin Cities Reader, St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN. June 26, 1985 p. 21