Film Categories: Puppetry

  • Whatever Happened to Jackie Shane?

    Toronto, 1963. Jackie Shane – a black, queer, soul-singing, flamboyant Nashville-born, Toronto-based musician – had a hit song on the charts. The song was a sensation, and with the lyrics “Tell her that I’m happy, tell her that’s I’m gay; tell her I wouldn’t have it any other way”, it was also an underground gay anthem. But before being able to fully enjoy the fruits of this success, Jackie suddenly disappeared. Uncovering this forgotten piece of Toronto queer music history, artists Hortie and Reynolds recreate Jackie’s story using original shadow puppets, overhead animation and stop motion techniques. Follow Jackie through…

  • Midnight at the Continental

    Toronto, 1955. In the heart of Chinatown, a new bar opens: The Continental. It’s dark, grimy, and attracts an unusual clientele. Local tabloids scream in 20-point font: “Sapphos overflow Chinatown!” The bar becomes the meeting place for two of Toronto’s marginalized communities: Chinese-Canadian men and lesbians living “the life” full time. Recounting this forgotten piece of Toronto queer history, artists Hortie and Reynolds tell the story of Toronto’s first long-standing lesbian bar using original shadow puppets, overhead projector animation and archival images. Pull a stool up to the bar and watch lesbians and Chinese men stand side by side, battling…

  • Meet Me Under the Clock

    “Meet Me Under the Clock” explores a little-known time in Toronto’s LGBTQ history when an underground Halloween tradition became an annual confrontation between an invisible gay community and a fascinated, often hateful public. “Meet Me Under the Clock” tells the story of Halloween at the St Charles Tavern, a Yonge Street gay bar, throughout the 1970s. Each year, thousands of straight spectators would gather to throw eggs and jeer at the men attending the bar’s annual drag party. This unknown Toronto history highlights the role that LGBTQ spaces play in providing sanctuary and community, the complicated relationship between the LGBTQ…

  • M3RM41D

    based on past research to find gender radicalism in the wild, this rock was !discovered! with a moderately blown-out tri-colour weave and wearing a mad decent lipstick. I danced with it for a few minutes before i realized it wouldn’t be able to survive outside of its natural habitat, thus i released it back into the wild.

  • The Evening Thread

    An old woman prepares to die. Accompanied by her granddaughter, she reflects on the memories of her life, and on the profound experience of being human, before taking the next step into the unknown.

  • Hatch

    After Marcy suffers a horrible miscarriage, she is plagued with daily reminders that keep her bound to her solitude. Though her mother makes valiant efforts to help her cope, her guilt outweighs her willingness to move on. One night, she discovers a strange alien egg buried in her backyard. She brings it inside, apprehensive at first, but begins to form a motherly bond with it. When the aliens return for the egg, it is trapped inside her home and can’t get out, leaving it stranded on earth. Marcy must now decide if she’s really ready to move on from her…

  • Cam Boy

    A student takes up sex camming as a means to pay his rent; he becomes good at it until one of his sex toys, whom he is friends with, wants to go to the next level.

  • I Must Be Going

    A young finger puppet retrieves a letter left behind by her recently deceased brother.

  • Marble presents “IT’S MY HOUSE”

    Made in the style of a karaoke music video, this is part homage to Diana Ross’s 1979 single “It’s My House,” and part exploration of the messes and pleasures of having and sharing a “space” to call our own. Intertwined with the characteristic lyric titles of karaoke videos is a collection of scenes filmed on Super 8 where two people and a puppet move in and out of the frame, caught in the act of something… Part consciousness-raising, part illicit concoction, part inventory of liquids, text fragments and scattered objects, these scenes accompany such lyrics as “there’s my chair /…

  • Husbandry

    Mary Imrie (1918 – 1988) and Jean Wallbridge (1912 – 1979) operated their architecture firm—the first run by women in Canada—at Six Acres, the home they built for their work and life together overlooking the North Saskatchewan River in west Edmonton. When Mary Imrie passed away, she bequeathed the records of their remarkable architectural practice and adventurous life, along with their home, to the province of Alberta. With a title borrowed from a telegram in the collection, GLAD YOU CLOSER HOME / NEW WHITE WHISKER MARY is Cait McKinney and Hazel Meyer’s immersive exhibition that playfully imagines and speculates in…