I have been meaning to write about Caroline Martel’s film, The Phantom of the Operator, since I saw its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. Simply stated, the film exposes the legacy of the telephone operator through artfully-edited (and rarely seen) archival films.
This one-liner about what the film’s skeleton is reveals little about where the magic in the film lies. Magic is always a little hard to describe, but in this case it may have something to do with the expertly crafted combination of archival film, a poetic voiceover, and haunting original score telling the story of the telephone operator on the frontlines of a telecommunications boom. Though today, the operator may be seen by many to be a charming relic of the past, this film paints a portrait of the one tenacious speck of humanity amid the cables and wires, that played a pivotal role in the technological developments of the time. The operators, known as “voices with a smile”, made the experience with the vast and growing telecommunications system pleasant, comforting, a painless experience for the end user. They held the system together and made it work, while also providing a human touchstone.
I’m really excited and honoured to be working with the raw material of this remarkable film in a performance I’ll be doing on Thursday May 19th, with musicians Suzanne Binet-Audet and Karèya Audet. Our performance is called La Revange des Opératrices (The Revenge of the Operators). Suzanne is a leading exponent of the wonderful and unusual musical intrument, the Ondes Martenot, and Karèya will be providing live sound effects and other “sonic landscaping”. As Suzanne and Karèya improvise live, I’ll be remixing the visuals from the film. I’m hopeful we’ll be able to capture a little of the magic from the film that I can’t describe in words, but might be able to represent by playing with elements of the film itself. For more info on the show, check out the website for the festival that is hosting us, the HTMlles International Biennale of Cyberart.