[1] Although he continued to produce films, his rate of production improved drastically after he was diagnosed with HIV in 1988 or 1989; this gave a "new urgency" to his works.

During his three years there he became known for his works which, according to Canadian film critic Geoff Pevere, "demonstrated a consuming interest in navigating the outer limits of perception, of language, of self, of mechanical reproduction, of bodily sensation and experience".

[1] Hoolboom, while serving a two-year stint at the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, was diagnosed with HIV in 1989, after going to donate blood.

[2] The eight-minute film dealt with an unnamed man, portrayed by Callum Keith Rennie, who considered himself the "Michael Jordan of sex", losing his lover Frank to AIDS.

[5] That year also saw the creation of two further works: Valentine's Day, which followed a man who splurged on making a film after being diagnosed with AIDS; and Kanada, in which Wayne Gretzky serves as prime minister and uses broadcast rights for a civil war to pay off the Canada's debt.

Robert Everett-Green of The Globe and Mail wrote that Valentine's Day was reminiscent of the works of Marquis de Sade and the 1973 French/Italian film La Grande Bouffe.

[5] Three years later, in 1996, Hoolboom released Letters From Home, based in part on a speech by LGBT rights activist Vito Russo.

However, the exact number is uncertain because he regularly "prunes and reshapes his filmography: cutting some films, merging others and completely removing others from circulation.