Film Categories: Politics + Policy

Queer Camp Trilogy

The Queer Camp Trilogy is a series of experimental films exploring the hidden dimensions of queer Japanese American wartime history. This trilogy, made up of Looking For Jiro (2011), Warning Shot (2016), and On the Line (2018), was inspired by first-generation Japanese Americans who were incarcerated by the US government during World War II. These subjects left subtle yet discernible traces of same-sex intimacy or gender nonconformity in the archive, despite the enormous pressure put upon Japanese Americans to accept their imprisonment quietly, prove their patriotic loyalty, and smile for Ansel Adams during their unlawful imprisonment. I approached their enigmatic…
Button OUT!

Button OUT! is a lively animated personal homage to the filmmakers own history of protest and the wider story of LGBTQ2S+ experiences contained in the collection of over 1200 buttons housed at The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives in Toronto. Originally part of commissioning program: “Now and Then” — a video-art exhibition developed by the RT Collective in collaboration with the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA), Myseum of Toronto and the Gladstone Hotel. **Programmer’s Choice Best Short Film, Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival, 2020**
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…
May 35

A haunting commemoration of the Tiananmen Square uprisings made from fragments of censored archival imagery transferred onto film using razor blades and scotch tape. “May 35” speaks to the difficulty of remembering in the absence of memory, especially when June 4 histories have been censored and obscured. It is a tribute to the thousands of lives devastated by this upheaval. Sound Design: Kadet Kuhne
Le Dormeur Du Val

Art essay video, free interpretation of Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “Le Dormeur Du Val”, aimed at pointing the absurdity of war: through history and continents, no matter their race or religion, soldiers, instruments of the authorities, represent one and only person: another victim.
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…
THE GENDER LADY: THE FABULOUS DR. MAY COHEN

Roe v Wade and women’s abortion rights are under concerted attack in a number of American states. In Canada abortion has been legal for more than 30 years, but access to abortion services varies considerably across the country and conservative MPs and MLAs are increasingly participating in anti-choice strategy gatherings. Into this retrogressive context arrives a timely documentary: the compelling story of a courageous, pro-choice feminist campaigning Canadian family physician, “The Gender Lady – The Fabulous Dr May Cohen”. Dr. May Cohen has advocated for women’s health, women’s rights, abortion rights, LGBT rights and human sexuality for more than fifty…
Extractions

A personal film about Canada’s extraction industry and its detrimental effects on the land and Indigenous peoples. This film parallels resource extraction with the booming child apprehension Industry currently operating in Canada which is responsible for putting more Indigenous children into foster care than were in Residential Schools. As the filmmaker reviews his life and how these Industries have affected him, he also reflects on having his own eggs retrieved and frozen to make an Indigenous baby.
Doing and undoing: poems from within #1 radiotherapy

It deals with interventions that I had made with my mother during her cancer treatment. The film is part of large project dealing with my mother’s cancer healing process. Hacer y Deshacer: Poems from Within (2019) is an interactive video installation. Most of the video sequences show Gelis’s mother undressing, one strand of yarn at a time, sometimes in Panama’s Casco Viejo (historic district), sometimes in the turbulent waters of the Pacific. Using her mother’s body, she tells the story of a cancer survivor, the story of countless others. Gelis invites us into the healing process: the viewer can change…
The Island

A garden between Oakland and Berkley where its inhabitants, marginalized by gentrification, plant fruit trees and flowers to pay homage to their loved ones who died in battles against poverty. This is a space of love and freedom cared by Brian for the last 25 years. The island resists, as a living legacy of the Black Panthers who were the first to organize the neighbourhood.