Vanessa Renwick, the founder and janitor of the Oregon Department of Kick Ass, is now adding the title of DVD self-distributor to her job description. Renwick has recently kicked off a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter, so she can release a compilation of some of her best work in a deluxe DVD edition entitled North South East West.

Naming her DVD after the four main compass points is extremely appropriate as the majority of her films deal with traveling and people’s relationships to their sense of place. Renwick has made over 40 short films and installation pieces that have played at festivals and in museums and art galleries all over the world.

The Underground Film Journal has personally been a fan of her quirky, extraordinary work since way back in 2001 when I sat in on a retrospective of her films at the New York Underground Film Festival. The lineup then consisted of amazing films like Crowdog, The Ugly Film, Worse, The Yodeling Lesson and Yawn. These films were impossible not to love!

There currently is a DVD available with some of Renwick’s films on it. It’s the compilation DVD Nomads and No-Zones, released in 2005 by Other Cinema, which also has a few films by fellow filmmaker Greta Snider. Since it is a shared DVD, it only has 6 of Renwick’s films on it. So, North South East West will have more films and come in really unique printed packaging featuring cover art by Margaret Kilgallen.

Renwick goes into detail on the production of the DVD in the below video, which also includes clips from a few of her films, plus the filmmaker soaking in the tub. Although, she doesn’t say entirely what will be on the DVD — the woman does have over 40 flicks to choose from! — you can flip through her extensive filmography on the Oregon Department of Kick Ass.

Please consider supporting this wonderful artist and filmmaker by visiting her Kickstarter page.