Project and donor(s) contributed description follows: “In 2008, Shenaz sets up her Super 8 camera to test it out on the trip from Scarborough to North York and back again. The footage moves at double time, in a time lapse, due to the short filming capacity of Super 8 cameras. Her aunt accompanies her on the first leg of the trip, her expression almost static in the bright winter sunshine. As her aunt exits the car at her destination, Shenaz sets up the camera on the dashboard to face her for a moment, slipping on her sunglasses. The camera is later refocused on her father in the passenger seat, as she drives him to his chemotherapy session. For the last portion of the road trip, Shenaz turns the camera onto the road itself, finally parking in front of her home where she began.”
Guyanese
As a child, Shenaz wandered Mahaica Market with her mother shopping for the weeks groceries. As an adult and as a filmmaker, she wanted to capture her childhood memories and archive the vendors at the market. For Shenaz, recording her trip back to her childhood community on super 8 had less to do with being Guyanese and more to do with creating an aesthetic look as a filmmaker and an artist.
A video recording from 2005 consisting of employees at their desks working and drinking beers. Recording also features the CN tower with cranes and construction of Liberty Village in the foreground. Project and donor(s) contributed description follows: “Liberty Village in 2005 was a rapidly changing place, and Shenaz Baksh, equipped with a brand new Super 8 camera decided to document it. The community had changed so much and by the brief shots of construction seen outside her office window, would only continue to change more. This gave Shenaz all the more reason to archive her workplace of five years. Nearing 15 years later, Shenaz’s coworkers marvelled less at how spaces change over time, like Shenaz had intentioned, but more at their youthful appearances.”
Project and donor(s) contributed description follows: “It’s Christmas, 1992, and within the short span of this clip the presence of almost Leah Burke’s whole family is felt. From her dad offscreen singing along to gospel (Mahalia Jackson’s ‘Go Tell It On the Mountain), to her brother, the then sullen teenager, seen cooking pancakes for family breakfast, to finally Leah, who weaves through the house filming. She reveals herself as the documentarian in a mirror reflection waving ‘Hi’. In present day, Leah recalls, ‘This is a typical Burke house family moment’.”
A video clip recording from Christmas Day in 1992 narrating the sunrise and featuring panning shots of a snowy street and building in Peterborough. Project and donor(s) contributed description follows: “‘This is Friday, Dec 25th, 1992,’ Leah’s dad, Sam, begins the voice-over in this clip made in the Burke’s family home in Peterborough, ON. Her father describes the beautiful sunrise that clear Christmas morning. It contrasts the weather from just a week prior when there was a record breaking 70 cm of snow, which was the worst snowfall in the province in 90 years. This filming style and voice-over in the Burke’s home movies was characteristic of her father, Leah says, ‘He wouldn’t wait for anybody, he would just start filming.'”
