Film Categories: art & artists

First Love

“First Love” is the first video in the “Misadventures of Pussy Boy” trilogy, made in 2002, our outcast 2Spirit youth Alick is seduced by femme Lesbian siren Kay with token resistance. Kay is also an outcast because of her Metis status, this shared outsider status draws them together in order to survive the tyranny of high school bullies against their queer romantic attraction.
Sick

“Sick” is the second video in the “Misadventures of Pussy Boy” trans trilogy, produced in 2003. Alick is verbally and physically queer bashed at school, Kay shares with our anti-hero the power of reclaiming hurtful words like “sick”. Our protagonists find safety, comfort and acceptance in each other’s arms.
Trans Cabaret

“Trans Cabaret” is half hour long “edutainment” cabaret of sketches about “all things trans”, performed by members of the trans community for the purposes of bringing “translightenment to the masses”. The video also goes behind the scenes to show the performers coping with being homeless, dealing with transphobia in the shelter system, telling parents about being trans and dealing with abusive partners. During the cabaret the performers rehearse tongue-in-cheek sketches by “characters” in the cabaret. The video demonstrates through the cabaret an open attitude about the basics of gender reassignment surgery, gender identities and orientations, the myths and realities of…
Audrey’s Beard

“Audrey’s Beard” was shot on my beloved Bolex camera. The film was conceived as a time-lapse documentary film experiment with shots of this once butch dyke filmmaker’s beard growing in over a 21-day period in the early 1990’s. At the time it felt like it was a very transgressive act as an artist, transitioning gender, to grow the beard I had felt ashamed of for so many years, using my body to tell a story, coming to terms with the shame of being born Intersex in a creative and empowering way. Ten years later, in 2001, a potent voice over…
A Day With My Family

Some video segments of a day with my family at the farm. At editing, I had fun doing something more meaningful. The message of this film is: family, love, friendship are important things in life.
6 Permutations

A trial-and-error attempt to reconcile presence and absence.
All She Wrote Anthology

A series of shorts films about a group of talented, passionate and brave women who make their voices heard though the art of graffiti.
Another Day in America

This film profiles three Japanese women artists. Monterey-born Grace Munakata works with abstract collages which evoke an attempt to locate her family’s past, especially her parents’ lives in internment camps. Japanese-born Rumi Sakata has worked for the past twenty years as a traditional brush painter. Her life celebrates freedom and individuality within her own traditional mode of artistic achievement. The third artist, Jan Yonemoto, fronts a Jazz fusion quintet, Crosswinds. Her musical artistry celebrates talent over gender.
Badassery

This compelling exposé takes a look at three female DJs who are unapologetically disrupting the Toronto hip-hop scene. The film chronicles the journey of women who are pursuing their passions and crafting their careers in a male-dominated industry. From the up-and-coming independent curator to the global powerhouse, these creatives have crafted a brand for themselves as industry leaders, without compromising who they are. They are paving the way for a generation of women and LGBTQ people, previously excluded from the social and cultural norms of the hip-hop world. It is the weirdos and nonconformists who are now redefining what it…
Nadia’s Songs

“Nadia’s Songs” follows a teenage boy who finds a collection of CDs that used to belong to a stranger known only as Nadia. In their shared taste in music he imagines her life story while in turn reflecting on his own. One part essay and one part love letter to second-hand music shops, “Nadia’s Songs” explores the many ways we can forge our identities through the art we consume and things we collect as young adults.