Video
A selection of Ben's recent video work: Documentary, Video Art, Narrative Shorts & Media Installation
For a complete artist CV/Resume please download here.
Artist & Audience
Sometimes we are our own worst critics...
A comedy short that pulses between concert film and clown turn, exploring duality of self.
Starring legendary Ukrainian musician and TikTok star Boris Sichon in both leading roles.
Written, Directed and Produced by Ben Gorodetsky.
Cinematography by Bob L'Heureux.
Costumes by Faina Sichon.
Editing and Audio Post-Production by Jacob Irish.
Colour by Blayre Ellestad.
Funded by The Shevchenko Foundation & Pinch Arts.
Still from Landscape, Displacement, Memory Part 1: Dolik’s Clothes (2020)
Landscape, Displacement, Memory (Video Series)
Landscape, Displacement, Memory is an experimental documentary series. Made up of four parts (36 min total) the videos use aesthetic language of aerial drone photography documenting site-specific dances and rituals in natural spaces at the edge of Waterloo, Ontario. These aerial movement visuals are juxtaposed to family oral histories of immigration, displacement, memory and trauma. Ben interviewed family members, including his octogenarian grandmothers, about their experiences of starvation during WWII, the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent immigration to Canada, and intergenerational psycho-emotional inheritances. The war-ravaged city of Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine (where Ben was conceived and almost born) features prominently in these oral histories.
LDM was created with support from the Canada Council, Shevchenko Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, and Region of Waterloo Arts Council. The live performance component was developed and premiered through the Guelph Dance Festival’s Artist in Residency program (2021/2022).
parent/CHILD
Dance film created for Guelph Dance's Screen Dances Series, curated by Aria Evans.
A three part series exploring parent/child relationships through dance. Variations on roles and collaborative structures: parent behind the camera with child in front, both parent and child in front, and child behind camera with parent in front.
Ben Gorodetsky, Lucy Rupert, and Pulga Muchochoma.
parent/CHILD | 2023
Music: Jan 8th by Matthew Cardinal
A Hole in the Ground
Feature documentary exploring Inter Arts Matrix's "A Hole in the Ground" artistic residency project:
Death, art, time, community, and a grave-shaped hole in a public park.
6 months, 10 artists, 1 hole in the ground.
Film by Ben Gorodetsky.
Music by Eiyn Sof.
Audio mix by Jacob Irish.
2024.
I Could Tell You About The River, Or We Could Just Get In
Media Art Piece & Installation | 13 minutes Digital Video & 2 Channel Sound
Aerial drone footage of the Willow River (colonially The Grand) juxtaposed with a sonic collage that counterpoints field recordings, river songs, and memory fragments/stories of the river.
A meditation on flow and place.
Commissioned by Open Ears Festival 2024
With contributions from: Norah Wardell, Karen (Kéké) Houle, Sheila Brewster, Brenda Mabel Reid, Ciarán Myers, Julie Hall, Stephanie Florence & Eugene Gorodetsky
Ushers
Ushers is a narrative short film co-created with Aashay Dalvi and Lauren Prousky, and edited by Floating Head Video. Written and shot in one week, as the 2023 artists-in-residence at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener.
Ushers is a cinematic exploration of the labor dynamics and power imbalances encountered by front-of-house staff at a regional theater. It delves into the inner worlds of two ushers, offering a stylized journey into their desires for recognition and agency, typically unseen by theatergoers.
In this hallucinatory narrative, the ushers reimagine themselves in the spotlight: Aashay's character’s dream sequence unfolds as an absurdist neo-noir homage to the femme fatale archetype, while Lauren’s character’s vision presents a poetic and parodic scene that challenges the language of white feminism and Instagram self-help poetry. Their shared fantasy culminates in a rebellion against the male gaze and the institutional gatekeeping of artistic expression. Portrayed through scenes that blend campy confrontation with genuine encouragement and support, Ushers frames creation as an act of class solidarity and care.