Artist

Lorna Boschman

Born in Carrot River, Saskatchewan, Lorna Boschman has been a documentary and media artist since the 1980s. She was awarded the 2016 Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award in Film & New Media. In March 2011, she was a guest of Panorama of Quebec and Canadian Video, 29 FIFI Festival International Du Film Sur L’Art, in Montréal. Curated by Nicole Gingras, the program presented two retrospective evenings of media works directed by Lorna Boschman. Her productions have won two Golden Sheaf Awards at the Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival.

In collaboration with Sebnem Ozpeta and Vancouver’s grunt gallery, Lorna has co-facilitated community digital storytelling workshops for almost a decade. They are featured on Digital Stories Canada [1]. Boschman and Ozpeta co-curated a program, Aftershock, from GIV’s collection as part of the Archive/Counter Archive Project, presented in Montréal in late 2024. They were also part of the group that conducted research from 1999-2023 on BC-based community digital storytelling practitioners.

Lorna’s most recent collaborations involve geo-location audio projects [2] with artists, gardeners (Cottonwood Community Garden [3]) and other locally community-led initiatives.

As a media artist, Lorna Boschman is best known for her collaborations with the 1990s lesbian art collective, Kiss & Tell (
True Inversions and Drawing the Line), experimental docs such as Scars and Our Normal Childhood and her film Butch/Femme in Paradise. Kiss & Tell are the subject of a 2025 publication, Lesbian Art & Activism [4], from the Art Institute of Canada.

Since 2000, Boschman has directed several videos, including
Before the New Millennium (2007) about the performances of Kiss & Tell, a Vancouver-based collective whose work examined lesbian sexuality and censorship. Lorna wrote and directed Queers, Christians and Canadian Justice for OUTtv in 2019 about Trinity Western University's attempt to establish a law school. Her most recent collaboration, How I Got My Queer Back, was co-written and co-directed with Rojina (RJ) Farrokhnejad and Aerlyn Weissman in 2025.

Additional Links:
1. https://digitalstories.ca/
2. https://digitalstories.ca/storycloud/
3. https://en.guidemate.com/guide/Cottonwood-Community-Garden-66e8478860569056e18d244b
4. https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/kiss-tell/

Artist Code: 098

Videography

How I Got My Queer Back

2025, 15:09 minutes, colour, English (English subtitles available)

Before the New Millennium

2007, 26:56 minutes, colour, English

Walking Woman

2004, 27:24 minutes, colour, English w Fr. sub

kickstART! A Celebration

2003, 13:00 minutes, Colour, English

BoyGirl

1999, 14:00 minutes, colour, English

Dr. Lorna's Seven Day Poodle Diet

1998, 53:00 minutes, colour, English

A Cancer Video

1996, 23:00 minutes, colour, English

Sunnybrook

1995, 45:00 minutes, colour, English

Fat World

1994, 25:00 minutes, colour, English

Big Fat Slenderella

1993, 15:00 minutes, colour

True Inversions

1992, 24:00 minutes, colour

Drawing The Line

1992, 07:30 minutes, B&W, English

Doing Time

1991, 27:00 minutes, colour, English

Family Secrets

1990, 06:00 minutes, colour

Our Normal Childhood

1988, 11:25 minutes, colour, English

Butch/Femme In Paradise

1988, 05:00 minutes, colour

Scars

1987, 11:37 minutes, colour, English

Critical Writing

Connective: A Screening of Feminist Video Art by Canadian Women
by Nancy Jo Cullen. Calgary: EMMEDIA, 2011.
The (fetishistic) cut
by Jean-Paul Kelly. "(Mary, Mary) Are these the hands that cut?", 2006. Toronto: Pleasure Dome, 2006.
Magnetic North
by Jenny Lion. Minneapolis: Walker Art Centre, 2000.
The Absurdity of Dieting
by Cynthia Sharp. Kinesis, Mar. 1998.
Seven Day Poodle Diet spoofs our obsession with weight loss
by Fiona Hughes. Vancouver Courier, Mar. 1, 1998.
La rentrée vidéo
by Marie-Michèle Cron. VOIR (Montréal edition), Aug. 28, 1997.
The Political Sex Toy
by Sharon Raynard. Montréal: articule, 1996.
Mirror Machine: Video and Identity
by Janine Marchessault. Toronto: YYZ Books, 1996.
Smashing Icons: Vancouver Feminist Video Art and the Female Body
by Jennifer Blair. C Magazine, Fall 1994, no. 43.
Women in focus for independent filmakers' meet
by Susan Walker. The Toronto Star, June 9, 1994.
Twenty Bold, Brash and Beautiful Years
by Lynn Wanyeki. Fuse, Spring 1994, v. 17, no. 3.
Beyond Queer Alibis / Thoughts on The Fruit Machine and Little...
by Thomas Waugh. Parallelogramme, 1994, v. 20, no. 3.
The Fruit Machine
by Thomas Waugh. Cinematheque Film Programme Guide, Fall 1994. Toronto: Cinematheque Ontario, 1994.
Retrospective gives voice to silenced women
by Karen X Tulchinsky. Xtra! West, May 20, 1994, no. XW20.
Les Absences de la photographie/The Absence of Photography
by Nicole Gingras and Claude Forget. Montréal: Cinéma Libre, 1994.
Images 93 an exercise in temptation
by Cameron Bailey. NOW, Apr. 22, 1993, v. 12, no. 34.
Flesh Thefts:: Poaching in Popular Culture
by Lisa Robertson. Parallelogramme, 1993, v. 18, no. 4.
Survey samples Images' scintillating indie talents: Images 92...
by Cameron Bailey. Now, Apr. 23, 1992, v. 11, no. 34.
A Parade of Memorable Images: Images 92 Festival of Independent...
by Noah Cowan. EYE WEEKLY, Apr. 23, 1992, no. 98.
Fourth New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival
by Susan Kealey. Fuse, Winter 1991, v. 14, no. 3.
"Tell Me About..."
by Teri Chmilar. Guelph: Ed Video Media Arts Centre, 1991.
The Video and Film by Artists series: Recent Acquisitions
by Susan Ditta. National Gallery of Canada, 1990.
Images '89
by Donna Lypchuk. Cinema Canada, Sept. 1989.
Hot Tramp, I Love You So!: Rebel Girls: A Survey of Canadian...
by Christine Conley. Fuse, Fall 1989, v. 13, no. 1 & 2.
Cinema Canada: Festivals
by *Not Documented. Cinema Canada, Sept. 1989.
Locked Out of the Women's Room: Montreal International Festival of...
by José Arroyo and Jamie Gaetz. Cinema Canada, 1988, no. 155.
Cold Snaps: Images 88, Northern Visions showcase of new film and video
by Andrew J. Patterson. Cinema Canada, Sept. 1988, no. 155.
Video Verities: Images 88, Northern Visions showcase of new film...
by Andrew O'Hehir. San Francisco Sentinel, June 17, 1988, v. 16, no. 25.