Genres: documentary

  • Cross Examination

    A short film by Lori Hiris about the Clarence A. Thomas-Anita F. Hill hearings. The camera remains fixed on the eyes of a black woman who occasionally sheds tears while portions of testimony from the hearings are heard. A statement about feminism and race accompanies the closing titles.

  • For a Woman in El Salvador, Speaking

    Claudina Calderon, pregnant, with a small son, disappeared in San Salvador, abducted by government security forces. Her plight generates this filmic meditation, creating the voice of her mother through poetry, music, and murals to dramatize the story of one woman who stands for many. This film was made for the Women’s Association of El Salvador (AMES). With Susan Freundlich, sign artist, and the voices of Carolyn Forche and Yanira Chacon.

  • Killarney, August 11th, 2018, Scattered Showers

    “Killarney, August 11th, 2018, Scattered Showers” is a slow-moving painting depicting the passage of time in a timeless place through twelve split-screens, each corresponding to a different time of the day.

  • Beaver Lake, August 25th, 2018, Ciel Variable

    “Beaver Lake, August 25th, 2018, Ciel Variable” reimagines the length of a day in three screens, corresponding to Morning, Afternoon and Night, that are slowly revealed through zoom outs that travel from abstraction and slow motion to an ever-faster, ever-more-complicated panorama unveiling all the hours of a day.

  • 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…

  • Porn Yesterday

    Queer people remember their first experiences with porn.

  • A Sublime Failure

    Writer and essayist David Schmader reflects on his twenty year obsession with the notorious Hollywood flop SHOWGIRLS.

  • GEDE VIZYON

    GEDE VIZYON is a short, experimental documentary shot in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as part of the 5th Ghetto Biennale. Produced in collaboration with Marcos Serafim (Brazil), Steevens Simeon (Haiti), Jean-Daniel Lafontant (Haiti), Evelyne Thelus aka Mambo Jacqueline (Haiti) and Jefferson (Zé) Kielwagen. Using a goat and two portable cameras, we captured video footage of the Port-au-Prince Grand Cemetery. Later, in response to this footage, Ougan (priest) Jean-Daniel Lafontant created the poetry that became the narration, and Mambo (priestess) Jacqueline sung the religious songs that became the soundtrack. These audio recordings happened at the house (shrine) of Ogou at Temple Narivéh, in…

  • 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**

  • Misadventures of Pussy Boy Trilogy

    “Misadventures of Pussy Boy” is trilogy of short videos subtitled “First Love”, “Sick” and “First Period”, each video’s running time is approximately 6 minutes, all videos are animated in a fashion that is very much “do-it-yourself” aesthetic, as told from the point of view of a transgendered youth in rural Cape Breton. Each video was animated by hand, the backgrounds were created like theatre back drops, with the characters hand painted and cut out, performing each scene in front of the matching background for the scene. Camera work involved shooting each shot for 3-5 seconds and then manipulating the characters…