About Christopher Pavsek

I am a filmmaker based in Vancouver, British Columbia, where I am a professor in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University. I am also a scholar of film history and critical theory. I have a B.A. in German Literature from Cornell University, a Masters in Resource and Environmental Management from Simon Fraser University, and a Ph.D. in Literature from Duke University

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My current film and photographic work is primarily focussed on the ways in which landscapes are changing before our very eyes as well as the ways in which humans live with--sometimes cooperatively, sometimes antagonistically--the natural or "non-human" world. All landscapes today are to one degree or another deeply human--shaped and impacted by human actions. Currently I am making a long-form experimental documentary about the birds and landscapes of the Pacific Flyway migratory bird route. For this project I am travelling to various sites between southern Chile and Argentina and northwest Alaska.

 

Through my work I hope to help see the world with fresh eyes, to quietly move beyond the clichés and ossified conventions that dominate the images we have of the land, and to help understand our terrible capacities to damage the natural world as well as our ability to help it flourish.

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My films have shown at international festivals including the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Aspen Shortsfest, Sebastopol Documentary Festival, among others.