Thursday, October 24, 2024
Doors open at 6:30 pm
Screening: 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Vtape, Bachir/Yerex Presentation Space
401 Richmond Street West, 4th floor

The four events in the series, screenings accompanied by conversations with the artists, recontextualize feminist film and video work as constitutive of archival futures; a future imperfect: what will be seen to have been. Too often, feminism is narrated and historicized as wholly outdated/transphobic/racist, invisibilizing BIPOC feminists who were leaders in the Canadian feminist movement and its art practice. Feminists themselves may attempt to disavow previous iterations of the movement. And yet, many examples of early feminist video engage, or invent avant-garde strategies, while also engaging in intersectional interrogations. The delimiting of the history of feminisms implicitly excludes much of the intersectional cultural work that was central to feminist projects. This is especially pertinent as American hegemony – the undoing of abortion rights, the war on trans bodies – continues to inform local and national contexts in Canada. The films and videos in the programs come from the last three decades of the 20^th century when feminist political organizing was inextricable with women’s cultural production. This screening series emerges from the SSHRC-funded project “The Personal is Digital: Remediating and Digitizing Canada’s Intergenerational Feminist & Queer Media Heritage,” co-directed by Drs. Marusya Bociurkiw and Jonathon Petrychyn, with additional curation by Lexie Corbett and administration by Em Barton.

Program #2: Fantasy/Memory/Media

The Ancient Mariner and my Sister Sailboat, Rhonda Abrams, 1984, 12:28 min.

Dinner, Marnie Parrell, 1989, 4:00 min.
Shot over a Thanksgiving weekend, this film reflects the aimless, happy warmth of a late fall road trip. The layering of images through multiple exposure reinforces a where-are-we feeling.

Blood, Buseje Bailey, 1992, 6:00 min.
This tape deals with a personal, intense view of self – race and representation. A sense of personally touching the sexual self, of representing one’s sexuality. It is a reaction to the exploitation of Black Women’s sexuality in history and contemporary media imaging.

T.V. Love (a made for tv love story), Elizabeth Chitty, 3:40 min.

This work was created for an artists’ television project, Prime Time Video. It attempts to represent gender mutuality within a structure of references to television. It refers to a conventional narrative device, gives it a hyper-condensed treatment, uses special effects and plays with light.

Untitled – A Tape About Memory, Su Rynard, 1985, 4:00 min.
“I wanted to make a tape about memory, not just ‘about’ memory. I wanted to re-create the actual sensation of memory through texture, colour, mood and movement. I also wanted to examine time in relation to memory and visual experience. ” -Su Rynard

Domestic Bliss, Wendy Geller, 1987, 3:45 min.
A burst of claustrophobia, xenophobia, terror, anxiety, cunning and violence. Is this tape the re-creation of standard movie shots showing women enclosed within their “own” environment, or one woman’s drama played out in the terms lodged in her sub-conscious?

The Basement Girl, Midi Onodera, 2000, 11:40 min.
Abandoned by her lover, a young woman finds comfort and safety in her basement apartment. The Basement Girl breaks new cinematic territory by employing multiple formats from traditional 16mm film to toy cameras, including a modified Nintendo Game Boy digital camera and the Intel Mattel computer microscope.

Image credit: Blood, by Buseje Bailey (1992)

VIDEOS OF THE MONTH! FREE ONLINE SEPT. 30 – OCT. 31

For this year’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we asked Heather George, Executive Director of the Woodland Cultural Centre, to select a video from Vtape’s distribution catalogue for us to present from September 30th through the month of October. To coincide with the National Day, the WCC is unveiling the site of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School as a site of conscience. Thanks to Heather, and congratulations to the whole team at the WCC for successfully completing this huge and transformative project!

Heather couldn’t narrow it down to one title, so we’re presenting two videos for the month! Enjoy Danis Goulet’s Divided by Zero (2006) and Amanda Strong’s How to Steal a Canoe on demand until October 31st).

 

Divided by Zero, dir. Danis Goulet (2006, 16 min.)
Ashley, a young Indigenous crusader of all causes, is stopped in her activist tracks after an awkward conversation with her boyfriend’s well-meaning mother. In a determined attempt to reassert her “cultural authenticity,” Ashley builds a tipi in her suburban bedroom using internet instructions.

 

How to Steal a Canoe, dir. Amanda Strong (2016, 4 min.)
A song telling the story of a young Nishnaabeg woman and an old Nishnaabeg man rescuing a canoe from a museum and returning it to the lake it was meant to be with, and on a deeper level, of stealing back the precious parts of us that were always ours in the first place. The spoken lyrics are by Nishnaabeg poet Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and the original score is by Cree cellist Cris Derksen.

 

Heather George shared her thoughts on the works and her selection:

“As someone who grew up ‘off reserve,’ Danis’s work spoke deeply to me – the struggle of accessing and practicing Indigenous knowledge alongside the expectations of non-Indigenous folks that you will represent ‘all things Indigenous’ reminded me of many moments in my own life. It also reaffirmed my belief in the work we do at Woodland Cultural Centre, where at the site of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School, we are welcoming Indigenous and non-Indigenous visitors at all different levels of knowledge and experience to come and learn through stories, art and interactive workshops and language lessons. Spaces like Woodland are essential to reclaiming and rebuilding the knowledge that Residential Schools tried to take away from us. I connected with the angst, anger, sadness and determination of the main character and her search for connection to her nation, and it reminds me of how lucky I have been to have the opportunity to continue my learning and growth and support opportunities for others to do the same.

“I first encountered Amanda Strong’s work in 2018 on a visit to Wanuskewin; artistically her work is magical and moving. The theme of this short film, in particular, spoke to me as someone who has worked for over two decades in the museum sector, often finding the practices, protocols and methods of museology at odds with Indigenous teachings about material culture and belongings (artifacts). The idea that some of these institutions hold precious beings hostage, away from their purpose, community and ‘natural environment’ continues to be deeply troubling to me and I hope that organizations like Woodland can become a middle ground and a new type of museum space that views collections and belongings as living entities deserving of affection, care and ongoing use in community. In 2022, the Canadian Museums Association responded to TRC #67, reviewing the relationship of Indigenous people and museums, and came up with recommendations, promising practices and training for the sector – but without better funding for all museums and galleries, especially those based in Indigenous communities, the work continues to be a monumental challenge.”

 

Image credits: home page: Divided by Zero, Danis Goulet (2006); How to Steal a Canoe, Amanda Strong (2016)