Film Categories: Violence

  • A Thousand Little Trees of Blood

    Stella and Guilio are on one of their many, stressful dates, when a small catalyst creates a huge issue.

  • Determinations

    1988 & 2023 4K revision (Revision sponsored by Telefilm Canada Reignite program (for historical valuable Canadian films and to archive such films) which allowed me to transfer my 1988 16mm film to 4k video. A post-punk gonzo doco from the 1980’s restored for the digital realm. The Squamish Five story — a significant historical Canadian recollection, a refreshment of memory in a time of ever increasing environmental suicidal somnambulism & social, political dementia. The Reagan era (1981 – 1989) in the USA marked a time of heightened tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, with the deployment of…

  • Goin ape 2

    Three stories intertwine in a climatic double ending, Ape is stuck in the middle.

  • Meditation 4 Black Women

    Four women, with seemingly unrelated lives, meditate on identity setting off a mystical event that allows them to breathe again.

  • The Blactor

    On route to a “gansta” audition, a young Black actress must prove to a cop that she’s not the role she’s auditioning for.

  • The Royal Women Association

    THE ROYAL WOMEN ASSOCIATION tells the story of a group of South Asian women in Calgary who have banded together to overcome the isolation and loneliness so common among older members of their community. The women break out of their shells and overcome their demons by sharing songs, poetry, food, and laughter at the group’s monthly meetings. As they plan an event that calls attention to domestic violence in the community, one member, Sarbjit, tries to come to terms with the trauma of her own past.

  • Warning Shot

    One death. Three versions of the crime. James H. Wakasa, a 63-year-old Japanese American bachelor, was shot to death by military police at Topaz concentration camp during World War II. Was it justifiable homicide, an accidental fatality, or second-degree murder? The press said he was trying to escape, the shooter claimed it was a warning shot, the case file suggests he was killed while walking a dog. This experimental film essay uses the “Rashomon effect” to juxtapose the conflicting accounts detailing the circumstances and cause of Wakasa’s untimely death. Part of the Queer Camp Trilogy.

  • Looking for Jiro

    “Looking for Jiro” explores the hidden dimensions of same sex intimacy for Japanese Americans incarcerated by the US government during World War II. This experimental performance video is inspired by Jiro Onuma, a gay Issei (immigrant) who was imprisoned at Topaz concentration camp in central Utah. He worked in the prison mess hall and was also an avid fan of homoerotic male physique magazines. How did this dandy gay bachelor from San Francisco survive the isolation, humiliation, and homophobia of imprisonment? This queer musical mash-up video features drag king performance, US propaganda footage, muscle building, and homoerotic bread making. This…

  • ALTERATIONS

    J’s manic depressive mother, Mary Jane, had a heart attack when J told her that she wanted to live as a woman. Now J is making a movie to sort things out. When Mary Jane awoke from her coma, she woke up believing that she is someone else. J’s brother insists that J patches things up with their amnesiac mother and when the two meet again for the first time as women, an innocent, weekend adventure to face each other’s fears manages to keep their monsters at bay. Protected by their new identities, the two women find a best friend…

  • Potamkin

    In 1933, at age 33, Harry Alan Potamkin died of complications related to starvation, at a time when he was one of the world’s most respected film critics. In his writings, he advocated for a cinema that would simultaneously embrace the fractures and polyphony of modern life and the equitable social vision of left radical politics. This film-biography is assembled out of distorted fragments of films on which he had written, an impression of erupting consciousness. At the Odessa steps, trampling gives breath to the child. The bullet miraculously reforms the face. The Cossacks march backwards, retreating unseen into their…