Film Categories: Work by Women

  • Cha ni chinu chi’in ñu’un / Construida de tierra / Built of Earth

    Cha ni chinu chi’in ñu’un / Construida de tierra / Built of Earth is an experimental documentary project consisting of a short film, a publication, and a collaborative installation that explores the immense and ancient family home at the centre of Jamiltepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. The cavernous adobe house is in the process of being restored after a devastating earthquake that saw a portion of its roof collapse in February 2018. The short film follows the restoration process, with its focus on traditional building materials and techniques, creative reuse, and local artisanal production. In doing so, it explores the origins of…

  • Abgad Hawaz

    Robin Riad’s short hand-drawn analogue film ostensibly teaches the pronunciation of the Arabic Alphabet in 28 easy steps. In actuality, the hand-drawn letters were printed using a laser jet printer onto the optical soundtrack of 16mm film, and what you hear in the film is the projector reading the letters, and interpreting them into sound. Riad uses humour to play with and sit with her mother tongue, offering a ‘false’ lesson in pronunciation. A response to a digital form of anti-Arab hate that Riad witnessed online coming out of the genocide in Gaza, Abgad Hawaz is a way for her…

  • Her Soil Is Gold

    “Cause and effect… result of thousands of years of looting and pillage… people remained steadfast…” From the banks of the Nile and the pyramids through modern-day Cairo, the film creates a sense of the timelessness of Egypt which climaxes on a tourist boat in the shimmering heat of the Red Sea. Optically printed, a manipulation of image, time, colour, and subtle light. A subtle statement on white, middle-class values.

  • Marrow of my Bones

    Marrow of my Bones is a short experimental film that has been created through a mixture of digital special effects, compositing, frame by frame animation, and 16mm hand processed film. Through material-based exploration, this film plays with the concept of post-humanism via the return to nature and the body in a tactile and gritty manner. The score is an electroacoustic soundscape, a playful mixture of voice, analog synthesizers, and field recordings of foraged sounds such as insects, wind, and fire. These sounds were then processed through hardware effects such as low-pass filters, reverb & delay. The soundscape is a mixture…

  • Astrov at the Lemonade Stand

    In the aftermath of a medical malpractice trial, Dr. Astrov’s tragic day takes a bizarre turn when he encounters two 11-year old girlbosses running a lemonade stand.

  • Her Violet Garden

    Through painful and nostalgic recollections, a young refugee woman tries to come to terms with the losses of war, her shattered life, and the alienation between her and her mother. “…It is with subtlety and a touch of magic that Irena Joannides manages to delve into this woman’s inner world, unfolding in front of the viewer’s eyes her protagonist’s nostalgia, her most intimate thoughts and desires, which recount lost persons and places.” – Ricardo Lopes, Cine-Epiloge

  • Bodyrebuilding

    How diversity work led to chronic pain and my journey to healing through weightlifting (Commissioned by Polygon Gallery)

  • Sex is Sex

    Sex is Sex is a new collaborative video series between Vivek Shraya and Christopher Sherman that playfully challenges assumptions about sexual roles and preferences based on appearance and gender.

  • Heroes: A Transformation Film

    The filmmaker asked three friends to tell their stories of ordinary heroism to the camera. Sarah, Olga, and Martha talk about what was the hardest time in their lives, how each got through that time, and what she learned that she can share with others.

  • through the bushes and the trees, you’ll find me

    “through the bushes and the trees, you’ll find me” intertwines the personal and political histories of Hanlan’s Point Beach, the site of Canada’s first pride gathering in the early 1970s. A hole punch serves as a symbolic peephole, reflecting the cruising areas on the beach that invite both spectatorship and participation. By situating the tender moments of queer affection amidst the vast body of water surrounding the Toronto islands, the film celebrates and interrogates the histories and spaces of queer love and resistance. This work was made by hole punching frame by frame using a cricut machine, then manually taping…