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The Blood Records: Written and Annotated

4:50 min excerpt

Lisa Steele & Kim Tomczak. 1997. Video, colour and b/w, sound, 52:00.

Set in a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1944 in the heart of the Canadian prairies, The Blood Records: written and annotated explores the world of a young girl, ill with tb. Struggling to escape her diseased body, her spirit roams freely throughout the long days and nights, reminiscing about her family, fearful of the fate of a beloved older brother who is fighting in The War, missing her native language (French) which is now foreign to her tongue after two years in the English hospital and idolizing the handsome but distant war correspondent who has just been admitted. A haunting tale of disease and loss, the work infuses the irrevocably sad memories of the girl with a hope only possible through survival. Visually compelling, with austere tableau shot on location in real sanatoria lending a feeling of inevitability to each scene. A tale told within the skin of consciousness.


The Self-Isolation Ward by Donna Lypchuk. EYE WEEKLY, Dec. 4. Winter, 1997.

Blood Records re-examines treatment of tuberculosis by Christopher Hume. The Toronto Star, Dec. 6, 1997.

Genealogies of Blood and Breath by Sky Glabush. Border Crossings, 2005.

Ghaznavi, Corinna. Interview Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak. Canadian Art Magazine Volume 17 No.4 winter 2000: 68-71. Print.

Ditta, Su. Eyeing the Sublime: Poetic Politics in the Work of Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak. The Blood Records Written and Annotated: Critical Symptoms. Oakville, Ont.: Oakville Galleries, 1999. Print.

Hoolboom, Michael. Mourning Pictures. The Blood Records Written and Annotated: Critical Symptoms. Oakville, Ont.: Oakville Galleries, 1999. Print.

Lamoureux, Johanne. THE BLOOD RECORDS: Idle Identity. The Blood Records, Written and Annotated.Oakville, Ont.: Oakville Galleries, 1999. Print.