Film Categories: Gender

Audrey’s Beard

“Audrey’s Beard” was shot on my beloved Bolex camera. The film was conceived as a time-lapse documentary film experiment with shots of this once butch dyke filmmaker’s beard growing in over a 21-day period in the early 1990’s. At the time it felt like it was a very transgressive act as an artist, transitioning gender, to grow the beard I had felt ashamed of for so many years, using my body to tell a story, coming to terms with the shame of being born Intersex in a creative and empowering way. Ten years later, in 2001, a potent voice over…
Things That Happen in The Bathroom

In the intimate sanctuary of the bathroom, a lonely young queer yearns for love, and learns how to survive heartbreak. For Jak (John Calvin Pierce), the bathroom is a refuge, a place where they can exist without wearing the mask they present to the world. But when their feelings of loneliness threaten to overwhelm them, Jak invites a new hookup into the bathroom – opening up to all the pleasure, embarrassment and self-discovery that comes with queer intimacy.
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
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…
The Gender Lady: The Fabulous Dr. May Cohen Short

This is a short preview of the full documentary The Gender Lady: The Fabulous Dr. May Cohen. Dr. May Cohen is a brilliant Canadian physician and women’s rights trailblazer. For over 60 years, she has advocated powerfully in Canada and internationally for women’s reproductive rights, women’s health and women physicians’ advancement — and in the end, for us all. May is widely recognized for her many contributions to women’s health, sexuality, abortion choice and human rights. Numerous medical awards bear her name. The Gender Lady explores Dr. Cohen’s life and career and her extraordinary gender equity and human sexuality contributions.…
The Ritual of the Sex Magick Warriors

The Sex Magick Warriors are organizing, they reveal themselves to the city and risk it all to carry out an obscure objective. The colors pink and teal are the embodiment of Magick, Art and Sexuality and their use by the warriors -through empathy, telepathy and tactile care- spills the tea on their means for survival in these harsh urban environments. The ritual exposes the hardships of this army of lovers and reveals their sensual strategy for self preservation.
Knowing

We are always seized with the exaltation of loving someone unknown, someone who will remain so forever: a mystic impulse: we know what we do not know.
The Dandelion Club

A gang of queer kids stylishly loiter about town. Pollinating. A collective resistance that collects at the margins of society and develops even on its fringes. No patch of concrete too solid to bloom through. An existence as a pest. A nuisance. And a fabulous one at that. Negotiating identity as: weed or flower?
Waiting (انتظار)

A young woman journeys to visit her grandmother. What transpires between the unsaid and silence propels into a prolonged moment of tension and desires of connection. Image description: A young woman and her grandmother sit next to each other on a couch. They both look straight ahead with stony-faced expressions, not talking.