Film Categories: Work by Women

  • HOME MADE

    Home Made is an intimate, contemplative portrait of two queer tattoo artists navigating an industry traditionally dominated by white, straight, cisgender males. The film weaves together the parallel narratives of Jasmine, a shop owner in Philadelphia, and sally, a stick-and-poke artist in Brooklyn, through their trials and triumphs.

  • Slumberparty 2018

    Slumberparty 2018 is a remake of a 1984 Super 8 film called Slumberparty made by the Positive Pornographers, a mostly queer collective of Toronto-based artists, activists and sex-workers. Commissioned by A-Space Gallery’s “Developing a Women’s Erotic Language on Film” workshop, Slumberparty was made as a direct intervention in Toronto’s feminist porn debates. They wrote, “we didn’t set out to make a work of art. We set out to make something that might turn us on. Join us for what one previewer called “Mary Poppins’ first lesbian orgy. Slumberparty screened twice in public in 1984 then disappeared until 2016, when the…

  • Emergence

    “Emergence” is a video installation created to counter the violence of blackface in its representation of Blackness. This piece re-asserts the beauty of Blackness and challenges the reductive nature of contemporary Canadian blackface through extreme close-ups of black faces in all their diversity. Shot in extreme slow motion and projected by two projectors at a large scale on two screens, the images appear to be stills at first, but reveal themselves over time to be moving. These parts of lips, noses, eyes, posit the face as a signifying landscape. Serene images contrast with others that depict faces and arms pressed…

  • Elegant Flower

    ‘Elegant Flower’ is a diaspora story that follows the life of a Hungarian refugee over the course of his 60th birthday weekend. Burdened by the separation of his beloved family and little sister, Zoltán Király engages in activities to bridge this chasm of geography and time. Incorporating beautiful 8mm found film and distinctive Toronto landscapes, one is given a subtle revelation and connection into this quiet and passionate man’s internal struggle.

  • Embers In The Night: A New Folklore of War

    Embers in the Night’ is a short dramatic narrative that features the tale of a young boy’s journey into the bitter world of violence and hate. Fuelled by an unexplained prejudice in a remote backwater village, the boy is forced to flee for his life.

  • The Solitary Life of the Stoic

    The ‘Solitary Life of the Stoic’ is a short documentary project that juxtaposes the formidable life story of a dignified woman in her nineties with imposing architectural structures and expressive imagery. Shot in Central Europe and integrated with portraits of Leah Laufer in Toronto, this film aligns visual poetry with the wisdom of an old friend, candid confessions of life at her stage and the gratitude of a Holocaust survivor.

  • Insect Express

    This is a music video for the song “Insect Express” by Brooklyn-based musician, El Tryptophan. The video explores an intersection of species; insect flight patterns and modes of industrial travel merge as collective rituals in a fever dream.

  • Witch’s Work

    This animation weaves together a series of surrealist scenarios inspired by the monstrous women of Ancient Greek mythology. The animation begins with the ritual of the Graeae, a trinity of sisters from Greek mythology, who pass their divining shared eye between them. The first vision is a pan of a river, which reveals the figure of Lilith, who represents female sexuality in Jewish mythology. Lilith gives birth to an owl, a crystal, and a glowing orb. This orb transforms into a dancing, humanoid blob, which undergoes a physical transformation into a snake. The snake makes its way to a nest…

  • Video Home System

    ‘Video Home System’ traces the convergence of popular culture and politics in Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s. This video showcases the connections between pop culture and nationalism, and how bootleg economies kept the cinema industry alive during periods of censorship. Image description: A young man sits at a desk behind a pile of VHS tapes, illuminated by a desk lamp. The wall behind him is vivid green.

  • SHE IS THE OTHER GAZE

    Every encounter with an image, every interaction searches for its own form. SHE IS THE OTHER GAZE describes the encounter with female visual artists mostly of an older generation who were part of the Viennese art scene in the 1970s and were engaged in the women’s movement. In dialogue with the filmmaker and her camera they share early works and artistic practices. They remember how their self-determination evolved between artistic ambitions, economic constraints, adaptation and resistance to the prevailing patriarchal social structures. In their role as feminist pioneers the protagonists are a great influence on the contemporary art scene and…