Beyond the Narrative: Addressing Race and Erasure in Queer Experimental Film Collections
Beyond the Narrative: Preserving and Mobilizing Canadian LGBT2Q+ Films from 1970 - 2000 in the CFMDC Collection, 2024
Archive/Counter-Archive, 2024
"This guide series is focused on material generated through the "Beyond the Narrative: Preserving and Mobilizing Canadian LGBT2Q+ Films from 1970 - 2000 in the CFMDC Collection" A/CA Case Study. Many queer works in the collection from this period exist solely on celluloid or in outdated video formats. These formats reflect the influx of affordable technology that became available to queer artists— beginning with more economical film equipment, and then to a greater extent, in the 1980s and 1990s, with video technology. The rapid obsolescence of these formats in the early 2000s, however, has made this era of CFMDC’s LGBT2Q+ collection elusive to scholars, programmers, and the public.
"These educational guides and their corresponding film programs raise important questions such as: How do these films open up the ways in which the LGBT2Q+ community historicizes themselves in the era of digital technology and retroviral drugs? What do these films reveal about LGBT2Q+ histories that extend beyond the narrative of HIV/AIDS memorialization or queer confessional films? How were women filmmakers in Canada representing LGBT2Q+ identities on-screen during this period? What do these films reveal about LGBT2Q+ resistance?" (Taken from the Archive/Counter Archive website.)
Beyond the Narrative: Addressing Race and Erasure in Queer Experimental Film Collections focuses on five films curated by Mahlet Cuff for classroom viewing, each focusing on racialized queer artists. The program includes an essay by Mahlet Cuff and discussion questions for students to answer.
ITEM 2024.022 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
Two/Doh – Michelle Mohabeer
Exposure – Michelle Mohabeer
No You Cyant Touch It! – Rhizome Syndrigast Coelacanth Flourishing
The Batty Boys Revenge – Alison Duke
Wash Day – Kourtney Jackson