VICTORIA

@ OPEN SPACE (510 Fort St.)

Screening 1: FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 @ 8:00PM »
Screening 2: SATURDAY, JANUARY 19 @ 8:00PM »

Two Snakes

Kristin Li | 2015 | 9:33 min

An experimental animation and documentary about diasporic desires for foundational myths. Seeking a home in reclaimed ancestry and seeking a self in reappropriated narratives and finding fragments instead.

I Want To Kill Myself

Vivek Shraya | 2017 | 8:32 min

Contemplating suicide: a biography.

Where We Were Not – Feeling Reserved, Alexus' Story

Jess MacCormack & Alexus Young | 2011 | 6:00 min

An experimental animated documentary about criminalization in Canada. In “Feeling Reserved” Alexus shares her story of a 'starlight tour', a practice of police brutality against First Nations peoples in Canada where individuals are driven out of town, stripped of their coats and shoes and left to freeze to death. In Alexus' case a couple happened to drive by her and she was saved. Nonetheless the emotional scars remain, and many people were not so lucky. The realization that these murders are a continuation of the genocide of First Nations peoples today is horrifying for all. This work highlights the systemic violence at play and the silencing effect it produces.

Do I Have Boobs Now

Milena Salazar & Joella Cabalu, | 2017 | 6:42 min

In 2015, Victoria-based trans activist Courtney Demone launched the viral online campaign #DoIHaveBoobsNow, in which she posted topless photos of her transition on social media while undergoing hormone replacement therapy. One year later, Demone revisits the global conversation she catalyzed on social media censorship policies and the sexualization of feminine bodies, and reflects on the impacts of being thrust into the critical spotlight as a visible trans activist and queer feminist.

Call Tony

Mée Rose & Wy Joung Kou | 2018 | 9:00 min

Call Tony is an experimental documentation of queer kinksters exploring safety, healing, belonging, and play.

Bedding Andrew

Blair Fukumura | 2011 | 4:42 min

On the eve of his 30th birthday, Andrew Morrison-Gurza reflected on his life as an LGBTQ man with Cerebral Palsy, and the event that helped shape his identity as a gay man. With wit and candour, Andrew's unvarnished recounting of his loss of innocence shines a light on the culture of desire perpetuated within the LGBT community, and ideas of body image, abelism and gay identity.

Casualties of Modernity

Kent Monkman | 2015 | 14:20 min

Celebrity artist and humanitarian Miss Chief Eagle Testickle (Kent Monkman) tours a hospital specializing in the treatment of conditions afflicting Modern and Contemporary Art. Led by the Doctor of Fine Arts (Quinton Neufeldt), and closely supervised by the no-nonsense head Nurse (Gillian Edwards), Miss Chief encounters romance, tragedy and triumph.

Doppelgänger Memorandum

Clark Nikolai | 2017 | 6:00 min

In this claustrophobically surreal and comical short, a film-score composer is distracted by a haunted video monitor in the confines of his sound studio, where he watches scenes of disconnected conversations as a result of mis-dubbing. The slippage between dream and reality, past and present, here and there, leaves the viewer in a perplexed state.

Outcognito

Wrik Mead | 2017 | 5:00 min

Fear meets gay desire against an audio background of sitcom homophobia and jarring personal testimonies. Textured layers of figures, rotoscoped and real, move in and out of difficult scenarios, resolving into knowing acceptance.

Niagara

Shelley Niro | 2015 | 5:00 min

A simple story of love and loss. Niagara originally called Ongniaahra, a Mohawk word, from the Haudenosaunee Nations.

Blue

David Geiss | 2010 | 7:47 min

Filmmaker in attendance. Blue serves as the filmmaker's exploration of the sights, sounds, form, and function of the historical Johnson Street Bridge in Victoria, BC. Built in 1924 as a bascule-style drawbridge, designed by the same company that would later build the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, "Big Blue" is currently at a politically controversial crossroads. After sitting for years in dire need of seismic upgrades and maintenance, Victoria city council pressed forth with an expensive plan for demolition and replacement. While citizens fought back with a petition, which forced a referendum, demolition remains the official course of action.