Join us for a night of Queer Shorts!
The closing event of the Festival of Original Theatre will take place at Innis Town Hall and feature dazzling and provocative film shorts including:
A RED GIRL’S REASONING
(10 minutes, 2012), Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
After the justice system fails the survivor of a brutal, racially-driven
sexual assault, she becomes a motorcycle-riding, ass-kicking vigilante who
takes on the attackers of other women who’ve suffered the same fate.
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is an emerging filmmaker, writer, and actor. She is
both Blackfoot from the Kainai First Nation as well as Sámi from Norway. In
2012, she was a winner in Vancouver’s Crazy8s Competition and was able to
make her second short short film, *A Red Girl’s Reasoning. *This film went
on to receive numerous awards including Best Canadian Short Drama at the
2012 ImagineNATIVE Film Festival, The 2013 Kodak Image Award at The
Vancouver Women in Film Festival, Best Narrative Short at the 2013 SWAIA
Class X, and the People’s Choice Award at the 2013 Bay Street Film
Festival. *A Red Girl’s Reasoning* was also included as a part of the 2013
imagineNATIVE Spafax/EnRoute Air Canada inflight entertainment program.
IT HAPPENED IN THE STACKS
(9 minutes, B/W, 1997), Hope Thompson
In this queer-noir, one woman confronts her deepest desires and references in
the stacks of the city’s oldest public library. Starring Canadian theatre luminaries
Sky Gilbert, Sarah Stanley, Moynan King and Eileen O’Toole.
Hope Thompson writes for film and theatre and has recently begun her first book
project, Sharp In The Dark. Read a new chapter every two weeks at
dailyxtra.com.
GAY MEAN GIRLS
(14 minutes, 2014), Heyishi Zhang
A coming of queer dramedy about how relationships shift as we redefine ourselves. Lucy Kim, president of the prom committee seeks to establish Gay Prom Royalty to pursue a crush on her best friend, an out lesbian YouTube beauty vlogger. This is a story about rising above your haters and looking flawless, cause girl you woke up like this.
Heyishi Zhang is a Chinese Canadian filmmaker in her fourth year of Film
Studies at Ryerson University, in which she co-founded the Ryerson Alliance
of Women Filmmakers. Gay Mean Girls is her debut as a Writer/Director and
received Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Film at Ryerson’s
Third Year Showcase. Heyishi’s work often deals with the politics of
identity and it’s influence on beauty.
NOSTALGIA DE VOS
(4 minutes, 2014), Ideated, directed and edited by Elia Nadie with Mara Pieri
Can a silly pop song become the match point for two distant lovers, accidentally listening to the same radio station? A stupid jingle becomes the rhythmic excuse to explore a transition in a motel. A love conversation becomes a symbiotic monologue, that finally reaches its definite, precarious final shape of a pornographic consideration on gender, through a iridescent skin transformation. Though, the only real pornography lies in the voyeuristic eye of the observer which, in the private and intimate space of a hotel room, looks for genitals, or some kind of secondary sexual feature, to keep quiet the fear of uncertainty.
Goghi&Goghi is an artistic collective project born by the ideas of Mara Pieri, actress and performer, and Elia Covolan, director and illustrator. Goghi&Goghi work on several artistic projects aiming at fusing different artistic languages. Their production is especially focused on gender issues, transexuality, migration, identity and sexuality. They have worked in Italy, Argentina, Chile, Norway and Spain, with the aim of creating a continous, reciprocous dialogue between approaches and skills.
http://www.goghiandgoghi.net
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WHAT YOU WILL
(11 minutes, 2014), James Resendes
Born female, Sebastian has been acting for his entire life. From wearing pink dresses to singing Spice Girls with his twin sister, he spent almost two decades immersed in the role of femininity. Sebastian quickly developed a passion for theatre and expression on stage. Yet his characters extended long after the curtain closed, his gender forcing upon him an identity he needed to perform on a daily basis – a role he knew he could not play forever.
“What You Will” winds back through Sebastian?s journey of identity, and explores the difficulties he faces today as a male actor. While it focuses on his personal story, the film ultimately looks at the difficulty we all face in finding and defining a personal identity in a world that is constantly trying to assign one to us.
James Resendes is a young filmmaker from Brampton, ON. An aspiring director, production designer, and editor, James is finishing his studies in Film Production at Ryerson University. His films have played in festivals in Regina, New York City, Sydney, and at Toronto’s very own Inside Out LGBT Film Festival. His work often focuses on themes of personal identity and relationships, told through the lens of LGBT characters.
BOI OH BOI
(9min, 2012) Thirza Cuthand
After a long period in life identifying as a Butch Lesbian, Cuthand considers transitioning to male. After a considerable amount of thought and discussion, Cuthand changed her mind and decided to remain a Butch Lesbian. Explaining her decision, she touches on the desire to maintain a connection to the Lesbian community, as well as the sexy genderfucking that happens when one is a masculine woman. Shot partially on location in Hamburg, Germany, riding back and forth on the UBahn is a metaphor for her eventual acceptance of fluctuating between a masculine and a feminine gender.
Thirza Jean Cuthand was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and grew up in Saskatoon. Since 1995 she has been making short experimental narrative videos and films about sexuality, madness, youth, love, and race, which have screened in festivals internationally, including the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, Mix Brasil Festival of Sexual Diversity in Sao Paolo, Hot Docs in Toronto, ImagineNative in Toronto, Frameline in San Francisco, and Oberhausen International Short Film Festival in Germany. She completed her BFA majoring in Film and Video at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Her work has also screened at galleries including the Mendel in Saskatoon, The National Gallery in Ottawa, and Urban Shaman in Winnipeg. Currently she is completing her M.A. in Media Production at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario.
MAVRICKS
(19 minutes), Salazar Films
Jay Whitehead, co-founder of Lethbridge performing arts group, Theatre Outré, discusses how the organization provides a voice to those who live on the fringes of sexual norms and gender expectations in Southern Alberta.
FOOT 2015 