Film Categories: Identity

  • Tear Jerker

    Elliot can’t cry and he needs to. He’s recently been dumped by his ex- girlfriend, who has decided she wants to exclusively date “real” men. His mother is descending deeper and deeper into the progression of her Alzheimer’s disease. And the testosterone he takes regularly seems to have made his body forget how to grieve. “Tear Jerker” is a portrait of a transgender guy faced with difficult life circumstances trying to find new ways to express old and familiar feelings.

  • A Doll’s Eyes

    In his personal essay film, filmmaker Jonathan Wysocki searches for the meaning behind his lifelong obsession with the movie ‘Jaws.’ Wysocki recounts the terror that kept him out of the ocean during his childhood and the dark desire that drew him back as an adult. He returns to the ocean to discover a fear deeper than the shark stalking his imagination.

  • When The Bullying Ends (Being Enza Anderson)

    Enza Anderson continues to make international news for her work as an anti-bullying and queer rights activist yet behind the headlines is a trans woman who is being bullied out of living a normal life. Honourable mentions at the 2016 Kolkata film festival, India.

  • Luna e Santur

    “Originally commissioned as a short for Ben Coonley’s My First 3D Part 2 at Microscope Gallery, I expanded this project into what it currently is: hooded figures, violent passion, and stroboscopic tenderness brought on by a paranormal encounter I had in the summer of 2015.” –JGS ‘‘A visually assaultive threnody for losses never fully revealed and composed for monstrous times, LUNA E SANTUR mingles sex and death with the supernatural and subnaturalistic.’-Colin Beckett “Moon and sun are elliptically and stroboscopically conjured in Joshua Gen Solondz’s cloistered yet operatic Luna e Santur. In milky, hand-processed images, hooded figures recalling Magritte’s The Lovers enact a…

  • Every Day 1, 2, 3

    “Every Day 1, 2, 3″ is a set of three small artist zines about the relation between film and life, living and filmmaking as Sternberg sees it. The books reference different experiences of time respectively: 1. Daily, repetitive; 2. Random, contingent; 3. Cumulative. Book 3’s images document Sternberg’s studio: film strips, cans of film, editing equipment, optical printer, and Bolex camera. Price: $15.00 + applicable taxes & shipping CREDITS: Text and Photographs: Barbara Sternberg Size: 5″ x 5 1/4” Pages: 28 p. per booklet Year of Production: 2016 Designer: Ann O’Callaghan Production: Shawn Samson Country of Production: Canada Edition Size:…

  • Watergazing

    Watergazing is as old as humanity. It is the practise of calmly and peacefully studying the water, its motion and its shimmerings in order to experience images rising from our own depths. The flowing water becomes a metaphor for time, which assists the practised watergazer in seeing into the past and the future.

  • Stillness (Inertie)

    Through an innovative and unexpected approach to 16mm frame-by-frame cinematography, Pelletier offers a deconstructed and introspective view of portraiture. Idle faces come in and out of existence through a dance of light and texture, toying with our perceptual need to project our own image onto the abstract. Reminiscent of a meditative state, the concept of self can be fleeting.

  • Pilgrimage (Pelerinage)

    A simple walk in the park can become a spiritual experience, a moment of discovery, a pilgrimage. This film explores the meditative nighttime allure of the Parc Lafontaine in Montreal, Canada, turning this public space into a dark sanctuary.

  • 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…

  • Handsome & Majestic

    “Handsome & Majestic” follows the story of Milan Halikowski, a teenager from the rural city of Prince George, BC. As a recently transitioned transgender boy, Milan deals with discrimination and abuse from his peers and teachers at school, as he seeks to find other kids like himself. Throughout these hardships, he becomes a role model and an advocate for trans people in his small community and beyond. OutTV People’s Choice Award, Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2016