Two-Spirit Archives and Imaginaries: Indigenous video 1994-2017

Sunday Feb. 4, 11AM-12:45PM - In Collaboration with ReelOUT

Location: THE SCREENING ROOM – 120 rue Princess, Kingston, ON, K7L 5M6

MEDIAQUEER.CA presents Two Spirit Archives and Imaginaries, an exciting program of queer indigenous and Two-Spirit short films originally screened at Montréal’s First Peoples’ Festival in August 2017. Narrative fiction, performance, essay, documentary, and animation are each employed in the nine works programmed for this special collaboration with ReelOUT. The Queer Media Database Canada-Québec presents a program of shorts that covers an epochal shift in self-representation and moving image art by indigenous and Two-Spirit people of which Zachery Longboy’s 1994 short Water into Fire (10 min) is just one an early example. Well known to Kingstonians for his current show at the Agnes Etherington, Kent Monkman’s futurist coming-out tale – in the shadow of a dystopian plague – sets the tone for a screening that contains equal parts humour, audacity, and emotional impact. The power and trauma of the past meet with the empowerment and complexity of the various forms of “present” in Two-Spirit Archibes and Imaginaries, which proudly features the Kingston premiere of Thirza Cuthand’s 2 Spirit Dreamcatcher Dot Com (2017, 5min) and exceptional new queer works from Wapikoni Mobile, a Montreal-based video hub for young indigenous artists. Special thanks to Queen's University Dept. of Cultural Studies and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre for co-presenting this event.

Programme:

Future Nation (2005, 16min, Vtape) Kent Monkman

Water into Fire (1994, 10min, VideoPool) Zachery Longboy

2 Spirit Dreamcatcher Dot Com (2017, 5min, Vtape) Thirza Cuthand

Untouchable (1998, 4 min) Thirza Cuthand

Feeling Reserved: Alexus’ Story (2011, 6min, GIV) Jessica MacCormack + Alexus Young

Bloodstorm (2010, 9min, Video Out) Terry Haines

Selfie Queen (La Reine des égoportraits) (2017, 5min, Wapikoni) Melvin Gilpin, Robert Gilpin

The Hearing (2013, 5min, Wapikoni) Russell Ratt Brascoupé

Respecter la roue (2016, 5min, Wapikoni) Melissa Mollen Dupuis