Film Categories: Anthropology

  • One Day

    “One Day” is an experimental film that delves into the depth of a single photograph. Captured by the artist during her initial exploration of film photography in Toronto, this snapshot becomes the centerpiece of an experimental piece. The passage of six years before its development mirrors the artist’s personal journey- a journey that leads her to choose Toronto as her permanent abode after traversing Iran, Montreal, and Europe. Relocating with her family in 2009, the city’s embrace as a second home poses a poignant challenge. The haunting presence of immigrant status looms large, leaving an indelible mark on the artist’s…

  • Hoa

    Before developing her memory disorders, my grandmother Trần Thị Tuyết Hoa wrote an autobiographical book about her life and its events. The book is titled “Hồi Ức Tuyết Hoa” (Memories of Tuyết Hoa), and subtitled “Khi Đất Nước Tôi Thanh Bình: Hồi ức của một nữ sinh viên Sài Gòn” (When My Country is Peaceful: Memoirs of a Saigon Female Student). She now reads this book everyday in her Hanoi home. In the form of a poetic letter, this short film is dedicated to her, from me, a grandchild.

  • Cod Story

    This is a case study of the Canadian cod fisheries collapse of 1992. It investigates what the future of natural resource management holds, and what we can learn from our past mistakes.

  • Where the snow-fed Rio del Llano met the edge of the desert

    Where the snow-fed Rio del Llano met the edge of the desert(2023 Length: 04:56 min), is a site specific film, in 2019 I visited the geographical location, Pear blossom Highway in California which is near the Antelope Valley (the armpit of California). A place also known as The Socialist Ruins. Here, Job Harriman, a socialist lawyer who ran for Vice President of the United States, Governor of California and Mayor of Los Angeles, founded in 1914 the cooperative colony – Llano del Rio which means plain by the river and the colony flourished for four years between 1914 to 1918.…

  • 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…

  • Digital Evangelism

    Set in Montreal/Tiohtià:ke, where religious monuments and the remains of colonization can be found everywhere, Digital Evangelism observes technology’s increasing presence and replacement of religion in society. Juxtaposing catholic iconography, filmed on a vintage camera, with overlays of technology-themed GIFs notes how technology is worshipped, and internet usage feels like a religious experience, from AI being the all-knowing source, online figures being praised, and devoting hours a day to our phones.

  • Night and fog in Kurdistan

    Night and Fog in Kurdistan is a documentary by a Kurdish female filmmaker that follows seven Yazidi teenage girls who survived the 2014 ISIS genocide. The film traces their five-year journey from refugee camps in Turkey to resettlement in Europe, showing the effects of genocide, displacement, and the challenges of migration. Using illustration, self-storytelling, and first-person perspectives, the film lets the girls share their own experiences of survival and adaptation.

  • BLU In YOU

    Walter Benjamin suggests that film is comparable to surgery, the instrument allowing the operator to penetrate the body of the subject while, paradoxically, maintaining his or her distance. This statement self-reflexively sets up the female spectator at the helm of the art-installation opening of Blu in You—an eloquent essayist film with visual conversations that dissects historical and contemporary representations of the black female body, sexuality and subjectivity. The female spectator (Melanie Smith), views the staged art installation conversations between visual arts curator (Andrea Fatona) and writer (Nalo Hopkinson). The conversations begin with a cultural history of violence, ethnographic display and…

  • 6500

    The color temperature of different light sources is measured in Kelvin. 6500 Kelvin corresponds to the value of overcast daylight and is used as a standard for the neutral registration of white surfaces. Unconsciously the human eye adapts to different light conditions, while cameras need adjustment through white balance. 6500 is a short video essay on the relativity of words, questioning the application of absolute values in an argument, visualized through a play on colors, their spaces, and their highly subjective perception. Quotes from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s “Remarks on Colour” emphasize this rhythmic flickering and slightly absurd conversation between colour and…

  • Burning Mountains That Spew Flame (Montañas ardientes que vomitan fuego)

    The interior of the earth became a refuge from the threat that moved closer and closer to the island. The volcanic tubes served as communication vessels between time and space. This was where they experimented their resistance.