THUNDER BAY

@ DEFINITELY SUPERIOR ART GALLERY (250 Park Ave.)

Featured Artist: Thirza Cuthand »

Screening 1: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15 @ 8:00PM »
Screening 2: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16 @ 8:00PM »

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.

Thirza Cuthand is an Indian Within the Meaning of the Indian Act

Thirza Cuthand | 2017 | 8:56 min

Contemplating mixed race identity in Canada, Cuthand presents us with images of blood ties and land ties for indigenous people, and questions the use of the words "white passing" and "light skinned." As a light skinned indigenous woman, Cuthand reiterates that racism and discrimination still happen for her, just in different ways. Community belonging is contrasted with the difference experiences she has from her darker skinned family. Ultimately, a video with more questions than answers, it situates the artist's body in historical trauma and ongoing colonial survival.

Paskw‚w Mostos Iskwísis (Buffalo Girl)

Howard Adler, Candy Renae Fox & Leo Koziol | 2017 | 4:00 min

Set in the backdrop of colonial violence and the extermination of the buffalo. The Genocide of the buffalo parallels the loss of Queer Indigenous and Two-Spirit knowledge. In this film a Buffalo Spirit transforms into an Nhiyaw Iskwesis (a young Cree women), and a ghost like apparition sings Maori songs and underscores the links between colonialism on Indigenous peoples across the globe.

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.

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.

HOME MADE

Diana Khong | 2017 | 10:00 min

Home Made is an intimate, contemplative portrait of two queer tattoo artists navigating an industry traditionally dominated by white, straight, cisgender males. The film weaves together the parallel narratives of Jasmine, a shop owner in Philadelphia, and sally, a stick-and-poke artist in Brooklyn, through their trials and triumphs

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.

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.