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Sifted Evidence

A woman is telling the story of how she went to Mexico looking for an obscure archeological site; how she met a man who promised to take her there; how they stayed together locked in cross-purposes and misunderstandings -- how, but never why. The central event has been reconstructed through stills, narration and enactment by two performers in a tableau limited by the boundaries of the front projection screen. 

"In Sifted Evidence, the visual discourse is...complex, using a range of optical and cinematographic effects (front projections, travelling mattes, painted backdrops, dissolving pans, animation) to produce an almost garishly gorgeous image which operates a poetic and witty deconstruction of the cinematic illusion."

                              -- Kay Armatage

Sifted Evidence stands as a landmark exploration of feminist and colonial issues, using language against itself to complicate the story of one woman’s trip to Mexico in search of matriarchal history. 

                          – Take One’s Essential Guide to Canadian Film 

Drama, 42 min.  Writer, Director, Editor.  New York Film Festival 1983; Toronto Festival of Festivals; Festival du nouveau cinema, Montréal; Athens Film Festival (Golden Athena - First Prize Experimental Drama); Flaherty Seminar; University of Illinois (purchase); KUHT TV, Houston (PBS affiliate); University of Toronto; Honorable Mention, Village Voice Top Ten  Films of 1983.

Writing about Sifted Evidence

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  • Armatage, Kay, "About to Speak: The Woman's Voice in Patricia Gruben's Sifted Evidence," in Seth Feldman (ed.) Take Two: A Tribute to Film in Canada. Toronto: Irwin 1984.

  • Baert, Renee,  "In Travel, Archetypes Become Alerted Symbolism," (review of Sifted Evidence) Fuse  May/June 1982.

  • Handling, Piers, "Canada's Ten Best," Take One No. 6, 22-30

  • Hoberman, J. "Top Ten Films of 1983", Village Voice 20 December 1983.

  • Nadaner, Dan, "Metatourist in Metaworld: Patricia Gruben's Sifted Evidence. Millenium Film Journal, Winter 1987.

  • Silverman, Kaja, "Disembodying the Female Voice," in The Acoustic Mirror,  Oxford  University Press, 1988 pp. 165-174. (Sifted Evidence)

  • Wise, Wyndham (ed.) Take One’s Essential Guide to Canadian Film. University of Toronto Press, 2001. 

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