Film Categories: Race + Ethnicity

  • Colour Theory

    Goethe’s colour theory dealt with the optics of colour relations while Rudolf Steiner’s and Kandinsky’s theories attribute emotional, musical, and spiritual affects to colour. North American Natives see personality traits, states of mind, seasons, races and the four directions in the four colours: red, yellow, white, black. What’s in a name, what’s in a word? A world of colour

  • DP2

    DP2 is the restored version of the film DP (Displaced Person), originally released in 1982. Uniquely melding documentary and contemporary performance art, DP2 is based on the reminiscences of a displaced Ukrainian who spent most of World War II in Nazi Germany and miraculously survived forced labour, concentration camp internment, and near-deportation to Siberia. Intercut with the narrative are dynamic movement sequences shot in a vast glass and marble structure, choreographed and performed by Lily Eng (Canadian Spotlight Artist, Reel Asian International Film Festival, 2011). Eng’s action sequences expand the intellectual and emotional resonances of the narrative, and vice versa. Her…

  • Edgy Sexy Modern

    Edgy Sexy Modern is shopping as ritual — a twenty-first century, yet primeval dance. Edgy Sexy Modern was shot entirely inside mega-malls with a pocket camera that was dismissed or unnoticed by security guards and public alike. By using many creative editing techniques, this film unmasks mass behaviours and intimate, unguarded moments between individuals. The ritual is enacted in front of logo texts like Armani, Lacoste, Holt Renfrew, Banana Republic, Apple, and Tesla. No product is ever shown, but we know what these logos signify. Outside class, race and ethnicity may divide the cosmopolis, but inside the mega-mall the diversity…

  • Escapades of the One Particular Mr. Noodle

    A comedy of obsession and assimilation that charts the true account of a first generation Chinese-Canadian’s attempt to fit into a white middle-class suburb. After an alienated childhood, she eventually lands a job at an unpopular pasta bar, walking the streets as a 10-foot egg noodle. A transformation occurs when her new persona, Mr. Noodle, supersedes her own identity – only to confront a similar alienation as a noodle human.

  • ANCESTRIES

    An anagram of “resistance,” ANCESTRIES is a layered piece that encodes the dialectics of colonialism, de-sexualization, desire and resistance. An Asian is seduced by, and in turn, seduces a Caucasian whilst simultaneously reframing and performing two arias from Samson et Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns. ANCESTRIES suggests possibilities for resistance vs. outright rejection by having the Asian turn the colonized culture against itself. At the same time, it brackets the Western de-sexualization and feminization of Asian males (and high voices), while simultaneously exemplifying and subverting the stereotypes of submission. The use of male bodies also calls out the worship of hard,…

  • DELILAH JUKEBOX

    DELILAH JUKEBOX (aka DJ) toys with the notion of loops, repetition, and dichotomy like the A-B sides of a vinyl record. Delilah is not just a woman, she is the embodiment and projection of fear and fantasy; her name conjures diverse images and prejudices of the lover, the traitor, the fallen woman, the temptress, the patriot, and the vengeful, etc. Through a series of repetitions of Delilah’s aria “Printemps qui commence” (from the opera Samson et Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns) in a series of domestic spaces, male mezzo Stephen Chen explores the representation of the feminine by deconstructing and re-imagining…

  • Process

    Experimental texture dictates the plot of Process, which explores male/female relationships in crisis.

  • Sarnia 1

    Lights dance to a beat filling the screen with colour and simile while travelling through Canada.

  • Shopping Cart

    Humankind’s penchant for overindulgence is explored through images of a shopping cart in a vast deserted parking lot.

  • Talking to my Mother

    Talking to my Mother is a 17 minute film about love, acceptance, and missed opportunities. It tells the story of a young man trapped in a culture clash where traditions stunt his quest for personal happiness. The film explores the complicated relationships between Michael, a second generation Chinese American man, his mother, Mrs. Yue and Julianne, his girlfriend of two years, to whom he plans to propose. After a twist of fate, Julianne accidentally discovers Michael’s secret. One that would change their lives forever. Will Michael be able to face the truth with his loved ones – and most importantly,…