QUEER GEOGRAPHIES of the QUEEN CITY: Moving Out of the Archives

  • Event

QUEER GEOGRAPHIES of the QUEEN CITY: Moving Out of the Archives

Wed, 06/24/2015 - 18:30 to Thu, 06/25/2015 - 20:45

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 

Doors: 6:30PM Screening: 7PM (PWYC)

Buddies in Bad Times Cabaret Space, 12 Alexander Street, Toronto

“Queer Geographies of the Queen City: Moving Out of the Archive” is a 90-minute program of moving image works culled from MEDIAQUEER.CA, a new online catalogue of Canadian moving image art by and about LGBTs. Curated by author and film scholar Thomas Waugh and Montreal-based filmmaker and educator Kim Simard, this selection of works will be brought to the Buddies in Bad Times cabaret space for a one-night free event in partnership with the Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives, Inside Out, and Vtape.

Organized to coincide with Toronto’s renowned Pride celebrations, this screening will show both canonical and lesser-known works by filmmakers from across the country. The selection reveals queer and queered spaces: from 60s Yonge Street to millennial suburbs, from wintry Scarborough bluffs to sweltering Hanlan’s Point, 70s lesbian clubs, and the fauna of some wild Pride parades. Chosen from a range of video art, documentary, activist and experimental shorts, narrative features, installation, and animation, the 15 works span 5 decades of moving image production, with an equally wide range of formats and aesthetics. The program’s diversity reflects the multiplicity of lenses that have recorded the Queen City in all its sexual, physical, historical, political and affective richness.

The Queer Media Database curators intend this program to be a prismatic sample of works from eras bygone and timeless: “unashamed stories” of romance, comedy, epidemic(s), labour, cultural identities and testimonials. The familiar and the unknown come together in “Queer Geographies of the Queen City” – this very first of 7 screenings which will introduce viewers across the country and abroad to Canada’s first and only online catalogue and archive of queer film and video. We invite everyone to attend this free screening and see where your stories and your work may also fit in. Visit MEDIAQUEER.CA to learn more, and to submit information about your own moving image work and bio so that you can become part of our shared queer history.

The Queer Media Database Canada-Québec gratefully acknowledges the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, Heritage Canada, and Concordia University.

Program:

  1. No Safe Words (G.R.I.D.) - Noam Gonick, 2009, 4 minutes, colour, (single channel version of multi-channel installation).
  2. Winter Kept Us Warm- David Secter, 1965, 81 minutes, black & white, (5-min excerpt).
  3. The ADS Epidemic- John Greyson, 1987, 4 minutes, colour.
  4. Prowling by Night- Gwendolyn & Co., 1990, 12 minutes, (7-minute excerpt).
  5. Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives - Lynne Fernie & Aerlyn Weissman, 1992, 84 minutes, colour, (5-minute excerpt).
  6. Labyris Rising - Margaret Moores, 1980, 14 minutes, colour, (5-minute excerpt).
  7. Pride and Resistance: Part Two - Nancy Nicol, 2007, 16 minutes, (3-minute excerpt).
  8. Two/Doh – Michelle Mohabeer, 1996, 5 minutes, colour.
  9. Hi I’m Steve- Robert Kennedy, 1999, 6 minutes, black & white.
  10. Running Red Lights - Jason S.W. Lem, 2004, 6 minutes.
  11. When Night Is Falling- Patricia Rozema, 1995, 93 minutes, (5-minute excerpt).
  12. Bollywood/Hollywood- Deepa Mehta, 2002, 105 minutes, (5-minute excerpt).
  13. Chinese Characters- Richard Fung, 1986, 20 minutes 30, (8-minute excerpt).
  14. Proud Lives - Mirha-Soleil Ross & Mark Karbusicky, 2002, 5 minutes, colour.
  15. RSVP - Laurie Lynd, 1991, 24 minutes, colour.

 Followed by Q&A with some directors present. For more info contact Jordan at info@mediaqueer.ca