
Directing
Clark Nikolai
Place of birth
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Known for
Directing
Credits
13 titles
Originally from Saskatchewan, where he made films and videos in Saskatoon’s vibrant punk and parallel art scenes, Nikolai's work covers all genres and often combines found footage, music and experimental visual effects, stylized staging and dream-like experimental narratives. He is an early pioneer of video art in the Canadian prairies, and was a founding member of both the Open Air Audio Visual Co-op (1984) and Video Vérité Artist Centre (1989) of Saskatoon (now PAVED). Since 1981, he has produced over fifty videos and films, which have screened and received awards around the world. His practice has also included still photography and experimental music.
Known for
NRTroublemaker on the Frequency is a short experimental video that explores mis-communication through found sound recordings, amateur radio, and glitch.
Troublemaker on the Frequency
2016
NRAsking for help at a seaside mansion, a ship captain is told " You're just in time for coffee. Come on in." He then is sucked into a world of discussions about video art.
Cockleidoscope
2023
NRA journey to a lake to find danger.
Frolic
2010
NRAn experimental film involving ice cubes melting in a trough at a leather bar.
Avalanche
2007
NRAn experiment in found-footage and archival processes. Subkonscio Rapida was originally shot in 1988 and then... forgotten. Forty years later, the 16mm film has been rediscovered and recut. Completed by the same artist at two very different points in his life, Subkonscio Rapida is a meditation on memory, time, and rediscovery.
Subkonscio Rapida
2025
NRUsing found footage, several members of royalty inform the citizens of an impending doom from space coming toward Earth.
A Message
2012
Film credits
Behind the camera
NRTroublemaker on the Frequency is a short experimental video that explores mis-communication through found sound recordings, amateur radio, and glitch.
Troublemaker on the Frequency
2016
NRAsking for help at a seaside mansion, a ship captain is told " You're just in time for coffee. Come on in." He then is sucked into a world of discussions about video art.
Cockleidoscope
2023
NRAsking for help at a seaside mansion, a ship captain is told " You're just in time for coffee. Come on in." He then is sucked into a world of discussions about video art.
Cockleidoscope
2023
NRAsking for help at a seaside mansion, a ship captain is told " You're just in time for coffee. Come on in." He then is sucked into a world of discussions about video art.
Cockleidoscope
2023
NRA journey to a lake to find danger.
Frolic
2010
NRAn experimental film involving ice cubes melting in a trough at a leather bar.
Avalanche
2007
NRAn experiment in found-footage and archival processes. Subkonscio Rapida was originally shot in 1988 and then... forgotten. Forty years later, the 16mm film has been rediscovered and recut. Completed by the same artist at two very different points in his life, Subkonscio Rapida is a meditation on memory, time, and rediscovery.
Subkonscio Rapida
2025
NRUsing found footage, several members of royalty inform the citizens of an impending doom from space coming toward Earth.
A Message
2012
NRPsychiatric labelling imparts new meanings to found footage of 1980s TV and home movies from Saskatoon's punk scene.
Exempli gratia
2013
NRA young man in the Alps is confronted with his culture's fears of nature, wolves, sexuality and wildness. Based on the short story Peter and the Wolf by Angela Carter.
Petrus et Lupa
1995
NRA frustrated jet-setter who can't travel discovers video superimposition. Through the magic of video technology, he is relegated to a box at the bottom of the screen as other people's pictures of faraway lands are shown. The protagonist reflects his generation's acceptance of today's diminished expectations. He is left to film his seemingly blank space coupled with his amusing narrative as others explore the world.
Travel Sketch
1991
NRA man and a woman attempt to start a conversation with a third person. A spinoff of Spanghew Decorum.
Mary Manic's Decorum
1983
