Re:collections

Re:collections – Discussions on archiving and counter-archiving.

Check out event photos on facebook!

Saturday April 28th, 2018 at the Toronto Media Arts Centre (32 Lisgar Street)

FREE ADMISSION, CHILDCARE and LUNCH provided

SCHEDULE
11:30am – 1:00pm | Panel: Reclaiming Archives
1:00 – 2:00pm | Lunch
2:00 – 3:30pm | Panel: Home Movies as Archive

ACCESSIBILITY
Toronto Media Arts Center (TMAC) is a barrier-free space
There will be ASL Interpretation available

Questions or concerns? Contact homemade@regentparkfilmfestival.com or 416 599 7733

ABOUT

How do we take the idea of an archive, and its difficult, racist, exclusionary history, and turn it around? How can it become an opportunity where our personal and political histories shine in all their complexities?

Re:collections brings Indigenous artists and artists of colour to share how their work engages, re-frames and re-defines the archive. Whether the archive is a collection in a formal memory institution or a recently dusted off basement find.

Re:collecitons is made in partnership with Charles Street Video and Toronto Media Arts Centre

Thanks to our symposium sponsors: Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT) and Rabble.ca

PANEL Discussion – Reclaiming Archives

11:30 – 1:00 pm

Meet three artists taking back the archives. Whether refuting institutional erasure of black queer and trans bodies through alternative archiving practices, bringing colonial state documents to their correct context, or responding to racist representations of Inuit communities by stitching together footage found on the web, these artists reflect on their process and the imperative of self-representation.

Featuring panelists: Stephen Puskas, M. Mohamed, Lisa Jackson

Moderated by Ariel Smith

PANEL Discussion – Home Movies as Archive

2:00 – 3:30 PM

What are the politics of putting the personal on screen? How do artists weave the intimate stories of themselves and their loved ones to speak to large systems at play?

Featuring panelists: Michael Roderick Keshane, Maria-Saroja Ponnambalam and Julia Huynh

Moderated by Esery Mondesir

Moderator

Ariel Smith is an award winning nêhiyaw and Jewish filmmaker, video artist, writer, and cultural worker. She was the Executive Director of imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival from 2016-2018. She is currently the Artistic Director of Native Women In The Arts and guest curator for an upcoming International Indigenous Quinquennial exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada.

Panelist

Stephen Agluvak Puskas is co-founder and former producer for Nipivut, Montreal’s Inuit community radio show. Stephen works to improve Indigenous representation in media and to shed light on the exploitation of Inuit culture like with Ungava Gin. Stephen is currently an associate producer at the National Film Board, and working on the Labrador Doc Project.

Panelist

Drawing from black feminist thought and queer theory, M. Mohamed examines social and collective memories of colonialism, racial formation, and its varied entanglements with queerness.

Panelist and Artist Mentor

Lisa Jackson‘s films have screened widely, including Berlinale, Hotdocs, SXSW, and London BFI, aired on many networks in Canada, and earned her a Genie award. She is Anishinaabe, works in fiction and documentary, and upcoming projects include a multimedia installation. a VR piece Biidaaban: First Light, an IMAX film on lichen, along with more traditional film and TV. See more at lisajackson.ca

Moderator

Esery Mondesir is a Toronto-based filmmaker born in Port-au-Prince, Haïti. He has worked as a high school teacher, book designer and labour organizer prior to receiving an MFA in cinema production from York University (2017). His work, which includes documentary, fiction and experimental narratives, takes a critical stance on modern-day social, political and cultural phenomena to suggest a reading of our society from its margins.

Panelist

Saroja Ponnambalam is a Latinx South Asian filmmaker and community arts facilitator. Saroja is passionate about critical geography, and working with a variety of media within the spectrum of documentary – animation, photographs, home video, and interviews. Pandi is an intimate moving diary that explores the mysteries behind her uncle’s life and sudden death via his personal archives.

Panelist

Michael Roderick Keshane grew up in north-central Regina, Saskatchewan and is currently based in Toronto, Ontario. Keepers for the Old People is a journey of pain and loss that helped Michael understand his family and friends through the guidance of his tradition.

Panelist

Julia Huynh is an interdisciplinary artist currently studying Film & Photography Preservation and Collections Management at Ryerson University. Her practice uses personal and familial imagery including family photographs, home videos, and iPhone footage to unpack identity and cultural diaspora.

Artist Facilitator and Project Mentor

Kerry Swanson is a seasoned arts professional with over 14 years experience leading change. She has worked in leadership roles at the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council, launching a number of new programs including the $5 million annual Indigenous Culture Fund and the TAC Leaders Lab at the Banff Centre. Kerry is Board Chair of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, where she previously was Executive Director. Kerry is from northern Ontario, and is a member of the Michipicoten First Nation, with familial ties to Chapleau Cree First Nation.

Artist Mentor

Elder Duke Redbird is a game changing poet, activist, filmmaker, teacher actor and so much more. In the ’60s Duke was featured at the Mariposa Folk Festival. In the ’70s he served as VP of the Native Council of Canada.1981 saw the release of the critically acclaimed Love Shine and Red Wine collection of poetry. Never one to slow down he consulted at OCAD University in2012 and currently consults with the TDSB in the area of Indigenous culture and education for all students across the GTA.

Artist Mentor

Ali Kazimi is an award winning filmmaker and critically acclaimed author whose work deals with race, social justice, migration, history and memory. His feature documentary Random Acts of Legacy inspired the Home Made Visible project. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema & Media Arts, York University.

Artist Mentor

Michèle Pearson Clarke is a Trinidad-born artist who works in photography, film, video and installation. Based in Toronto, she holds an MSW from the University of Toronto, and an MFA in Documentary Media Studies from Ryerson University, where she was a contract lecturer for the fall 2017 semester. Currently, she is the EDA Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Artist Mentor
Award-winning filmmaker Danis Goulet’s short films have screened at numerous festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Sundance, imagineNATIVE and Berlin and have been broadcast on CBC, APTN, Air Canada, and ARTE. She is the former Artistic Director of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival and currently programs Canadian Features for TIFF.