Archiving R69 is an interactive database film based on Montréal artist Charles Gagnon’s R69 archive. It is composed of the mixed archival documents that surrounded the completing of my father’s posthumous film, R69. Begun in 1969, the film features interviews with artists, and an intimate view into artist Yves Gaucher’s studio and the painting of R69. The film was left unfinished on my father’s death in 2003. Archiving R69 is composed of the original film, ancillary archival elements and ephemera, combined with new material reflecting on the multimedia archiving process itself.

Using the Korsakow System created by Florian Thalhofer, Archiving R69 permits viewers to undertake an interactive narrative exploration of 100 film segments, sound clips and other archival elements – much like encountering the disparate elements of the original archive itself. One encounters the constellation of images and traces that are Charles Gagnon’s film, R69, and an exploration of the processes and people involved in its provisional completion.