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Projects |
Residencies & Commissions, Youth & Community Programs | |
Residencies & Commissions: In addition to our training seminars and workshops, CSV occasionally offers opportunities to work at the facility as a resident-artist or to produce commissioned work. We often link our residency and commissioning programs to local exhibitions or media art festivals.
Resident and commissioned artists are generally selected by peer assessment committees in open competitions. Further information is available on our website. We welcome new opportunities to collaborate with festivals and other exhibition/art organizations. Contact us if you are interested in discussing a partnership.
Youth & Community Programs: CSV offers a wide range of support to youth groups and community organizations interested in engaging in a media art or film production program. We specialize in curriculum development, technical support, and facilitator training/mentorship. With our expertise in professional digital cinema equipment and arts education we work with our partner organizations to create innovative community-based programming.
CSV accepts ongoing submissions from interested groups to work with us as youth and community partners. We are always eager to build new relationships and develop new programs, and we would love to work with you and support your community-based media art work.
Maker Space: CSV welcomes artists, collectives, and curators interested in promoting dialogue and experimentation about media art. Through our maker space program we are facilitating an open door opportunity to engage with our space and resources.
Applications will be considered on an ongoing basis. We are interested in supporting projects with a focus on media art (creation, discussion, and exploration), creating collective artistic spaces, and experimental/dialogical work.
We will give preference to projects that work in and animate our space such as community based media programs, exhibitions, and others. We encourage artists from traditionally marginalized groups to apply. If you have questions or would like to discuss a project idea please email greg@charlesstreetvideo.com.
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Residency Project2024Christian Anderson ResidencyWe are proud to announce Christian Anderson as our 2023 Media Art Creation grant co-winner!Nobody Falls is an important project because it centres the experience of a Black, nonbinary & queer protagonist who not only is dealing with the psychological toll of a pandemic but also the emotional anguish of realizing that they are in a controlling relationship that has and will continue to ultimately put their health and well being at risk. We’ve seen time and time again, the Black feminized character often expected to lower their expectations while also simultaneously being told to pour into people that don’t regard them with the same kind of reciprocal care. The narrative of this project rejects that trope and instead dares to take us on a journey of deprogramming. In this film our protagonists is motivated by their solitude to reach for the connections and experiences that they actually want out of life. Pushing past heteronormative and codependent programming our protagonist is forced to wade through their own complexity and guilt, as someone who has deviated from traditional relationship norms, to make peace and humanize their needs.
Due to the fact that polyamory is underrepresented and sensationalized, there is often an expectation that people participating in polyamorous dynamics have to be a model representative of the love style. This expectation can put a lot of pressure on people and can be extremely isolating especially when relationships end because it’s difficult for others to understand. This project is important because it seeks to destigmatize break-ups within polyamory and to normalize seeing Black and racialized people engage in these styles of romance, to overall promoting a perspective on having multiple lovers that isn’t slut shamey or based in traditional polygamist expectations that are grounded in misogynoir.
This project will be made in collaboration with predominantly Black queer people of marginalized genders so it is also important that this project receive funding so that we can facilitate the creation of stories that are authentic and rich with complex characters that reflect people and experiences within our own community.
Bio
Christian Anderson is an award-winning Afro-Latinx writer & director based in Toronto, Canada. A recent graduate of York University’s film production program, their work, such as “Teen Dream” and upcoming series “Bloom Room”, center queer diasporic perspectives through unique and immersive storytelling. They are an alumnus of Oya Media’s Emerging Filmmaker’s program and the Nia’s Centres Creative Connect community. Her work has been screened at the 2015 & 2020 Regent Park Film Festival, the 2022 Stella’s Place’ Get Reel Film Festival in Toronto, and in Winnipeg at the 2018 & 2019 Afro Prairie Film Festival. Additionally their short film Teen Dream has been recognized by the Canadian Screen Academy in their 2020 Black Canadian creators list for February.
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| | Residency Project2023Media Creation Grant 2023 RecipientsCongrats to CSV members Christian Anderson and Aaron Jones!CSV is proud to continue efforts to support our members artistic practice. We are excited to present the two recipients of our 2023 Media Art Creation Grant: Christian Anderson for their experimental drama 'Nobody Falls' and Aaron Jones for his exhibiton 'Sound & Body /Untouched Spaces/ Whispering Spirit'
Christian Anderson is an award-winning Afro-Latinx writer & director based in Toronto, Canada. A recent graduate of York University’s film production program, their work, such as “Teen Dream” and upcoming series “Bloom Room”, center queer diasporic perspectives through unique and immersive storytelling. They are an alumnus of Oya Media’s Emerging Filmmaker’s program and the Nia’s Centres Creative Connect community. Her work has been screened at the 2015 & 2020 Regent Park Film Festival, the 2022 Stella’s Place’ Get Reel Film Festival in Toronto, and in Winnipeg at the 2018 & 2019 Afro Prairie Film Festival. Additionally their short film Teen Dream has been recognized by the Canadian Screen Academy in their 2020 Black Canadian creators list for February.e efforts to support our members artistic practice.
Aaron Jones (born 1993 in Toronto) graduated with a BA from OCADU in 2018 and is a founding member of the BAU Collective. His work has been included in the exhibitions Three Thirty at Doris McCarthy Gallery, From the Ground Up at NIA Centre for the Arts, Ragga NYC at Mercer Union, all in Toronto, and Propped at Oakville Galleries, Oakville, ON. Jones was awarded The Gattuso Prize for his exhibition Closed Fist, Open Palm for the 2020 CONTACT Photography Festival.
About the Jury:
Tristen Sutherland is a writer/director/producer whose stories highlight BIPOC members of the LGBTQ+ community. “Halfway Boy,” their latest television project was selected for the EAVE on Demand Access Program, presented by the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI). They are an alumni of Oya Media’s Mentorship Program, one of Reelworld Film Festival’s Emerging 20 for 2020 and was shortlisted for the BIPOC TV & Film’s Reel Work Initiative. They co-created a web series “Bloom Room” made in tandem with Oya Media. Their latest documentary, which they co-directed,“Reel Black: Our Stories” won the Best Short Documentary at the Caribbean Tale International Film Festival and is available to stream on CBC GEM.
Jess Murwin is a nonbinary Indigenous (Mi'kmaq, Scottish and Welsh) filmmaker, curator and educator based in Montreal, Quebec They received formal artistic training from Notre Dame de la Tilloye (France) and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Canada), as well as informal training on various sets, at artist centres and in workshops in Canada and Europe. Their work is largely community-based and draws on genre and storytelling traditions to imagine social change.
As a programmer, they have worked for the Atlantic International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire à Montréal, among others. Their focus in presenting films and media artworks has always been to champion stories by 2SLGBTQ+, and Indigenous artists. They see this work as a critical way of reclaiming narrative
spaces.
Noor Khan (b. 1994) is a community-engaged multidisciplinary artist, art director and producer. She was raised in Scarborough (a suburb of Toronto), born in Saudi Arabia, with roots in South Asia. Due to constant migration and nomadic Pashtun ethnic lineage, she was often a subject of surveillance between and within national borders and grew up lacking a consistent communal experience and privilege to maintain relationships with land and people. Having experienced different societies, Noor became interested in human-made design, including architecture, infrastructure, and other everyday objects & materials created to facilitate cultural and socio-political activity. As a result, her artwork is a manifestation of her memory and imagination in relation to these designs, and explores the circle of life informed by them. She holds an M.F.A in Community Arts and a Certificate in College Teaching of Art from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), a Certificate in Digital Art from OCAD University, and has a B.A. in Community Development from University of Toronto. Noor has won several awards for her practice as an emerging artist, and gained recognition from local organizations such as Scarborough Arts, to national institutions such as the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Her projects have been supported by Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, FACTOR Canada, and New York Foundation for the Arts.
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| | | | Residency Project2023Noelle Perdue Streaming ResidencyWe are excited to welcome Noelle Perdue who was selected to participate in our first ever Streaming Residency. The purpose of this residency is to explore live streaming as an artistic medium.
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| | Residency Project2022Sarah Carrier - ImagineNative/CSV ResidentThis residency was developed to offer a mid-career or established Indigenous artist the opportunity to expand their practice and to experiment with the latest video technologies in the creation of a new short video work. This program offers the opportunity to enhance a current project create a short film (5-10min) using in-kind resources of the partnering artist-run centre (up to $3500 value), monetary support and mentorship.
Sara Carrier is the 2020 imagineNATIVE/CSV 2022 Commission recipient for the creation of the short film Next Year.
Sarah Carrier is an emerging Cree filmmaker from Regina, Saskatchewan and is a registered member of Piapot First Nation. She has a diploma in film production from the Recording Arts Institute of Saskatoon and most recently completed the CBC New Indigenous Voices internship at the National Screen Institute. Sarah has worked on various large and small scale film productions as a production assistant, 3rd assistant director, and as a film editor’s assistant. Sarah has a keen interest in writing and directing, as well as in post-production as a film editor. Sarah currently works at POV Film as a project lead for Indigenous programming and facilitates a program that teaches Indigenous youth how to be production assistants in TV and Film. Sarah currently resides in Toronto.
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| | Residency Project2022Media Creation Grant 2022 RecipientsCongrats to CSV members True Daley and Emily Ryder!CSV is proud to continue efforts to support our members artistic practice through such difficult times. We are excited to present the 2 recipients of our Media Art Creation Grant: True Daley, for the production of her hybrid feature-length doc BOSSLADYSK8, and Emily Ryder for the creation of experimental narrative mothering. Big thanks to our jurors and congrats to the recipients!
True Daley
This multi-disciplinary artist recently delved into storytelling behind the camera as an emerging director and screenwriter. Her first short, Love Underground was selected for the 2016 Toronto Urban Film Festival, which screened on subway platforms throughout the city reaching over 1 million daily commuters.
In 2020 she was ]shortlisted for the CBC Creative Relief Fund as a first-time documentary filmmaker. Her treatment for BOSSLADYSK8 stood out amongst 9000 submissions. She has appeared at Manifesto, NXNE, Toronto Urban Music Festival, Honey Jam, When Sisters Speak, The Urban Music Awards, MuchMusic, CBC, HBO and the Reelworld Film Festival. The Honey Jam alumni's first single "Comin In' was featured on Universal Music Canada's first all-female compilation "Honey Drops". The single and video garnered UMAC and VideoFact Awards among others. She then released an EP on her indie label Jahmecca Recordings entitled 'Stranger Than Fiction" and her single ''Pain and Confusion” was featured on the CHRY's compilation "Message In A Bottle".
She has also taken her talents of writing from the stage to the page and has been a senior writer for music and lifestyle publications for over 20 years including Peace!, Sway, The Toronto Star, ByBlacks.com, CBC Parents and more.
Emily Ryder
Emily Ryder is passionate about telling stories that explore queer becoming, womanhood, and the complexity of intergenerational relationships. To date, their shorts have screened at a number of festivals, including the St John's International Women's Film Festival, Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival, and the Irish Film Institute’s GAZE International Film Festival. In addition to writing and directing, Emily is also a passionate advocate for queer representation both on and off-screen, and in Fall 2021, they were invited to speak at the Ontario Screen Creators Conference on a panel dedicated to diverse perspectives behind the camera in Canada's film industry.
Looking ahead, Emily hopes to continue to develop their creative voice within the landscape of contemporary Canadian film, television, and media, and when it’s not their turn to speak, they hope to use their diverse skillset to amplify the voices of those creating art around them.
Jurors:
Amanda Ann-Min Wong (she/they) is a Toronto-based film director, writer, sound artist, and musician.
The winner of Reel Asian's DGC Ontario & WIFT-T Film Award in 2021, Amanda's documentary films ("A Hundred Joys","The Way We Are", "An Object of Merit" and digital series "How T.O. Art") explore themes of loss, nostalgia, and memory, as well as finding purpose and community through the arts.
They are currently working on a narrative short, entitled "Rosa's Flowers", and writing their first feature. In their free time, they love rocking out with their band, cutsleeve.
Peter Rahul is a Toronto-based visual artist who specializes in video and interactive installation. His research into vintage video equipment and contemporary computer graphics results in video art that looks simultaneously nostalgic and futuristic. Rahul's art practice has taken the form of animation, stage design, VJing, interactive video sculptures & VHS mixtapes. Peter Rahul also helped co-found two A/V artist collectives in Toronto; BUMP TV, Toronto's online public access television station as well as The Analog Preservation Network, a stage design and video production collective.
Jahmal Nugent (b. 1993) is a Toronto-based photographer treating post-capture photo manipulation as a creative practice in its own right. He enjoys experimenting with urban landscapes and cyberpunk aesthetics. His work ranges from site-specific portraiture, cityscapes, and sub/urban wildlife to the documentation of diasporic subcultures such as breaking, anime-based cosplay, and drag.
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| | Residency Project2022Bill Perry ResidencyA MakerSpace Project
360° VPC 2.0: PROJECTION
Bill Perry will be testing his 360° Video Projection Cylinder, enabling 360° projection with still images. By this process inviting, encouraging, facilitating, and demonstrating 360° photo projection at CSV, for members interested in the same or more complicated, full motion, audio/video, 360° video projection.
Bill Perry's first substantive artform was photo essays. In 1974, during his freshman year in fine arts at York University, the Ontario Arts Council funded his “Photographic Documentary of Hard to Adopt Children in CAS Group Homes”. The same year, he also shot one of the first 360 photos in Canada, called “The Woman In The Window” from the roof of the Church of the Holy Triinity, surrounded today by the Eaton Centre.
In the early 80s, Bill became Canada's most prolific Telidon “videotex” artist. He created a pre-web, online, electronic magazine called “Computerese: The Electronic Media Magazine”, which reached 1000+ homes and businesses in Quebec and Ontario, from 1981 to 1985. Highlights of his electronic publishing include "ART vs Art", "Pictures of Democracy" and "Videopage" along with many sites he created for artist run organizations such as TSV, The Funnel, ARC and others. Over the years he founded numerous art organizations and projects such as Starside Softworks, Telidon at Trinity Square Video, Toronto Community Videotex, Videopage, The Colour Workshop, Comedia, The Copy Chai and The Friday Cafe. In 1987 Bill left electronic publishing, Toronto and art to open a photocopy/fax storefront in Meaford, Ontario, named "Wm. Perry: Digital Text Service". The business evolved into a printing company and then an independent publisher. Print publications include the best selling "Be Nice In 60 Languages" and the better selling "Be Rude In 60 Languages.
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| | Residency Project2022Kim Ninkuru Residency, 2021-2023Digital Now ProjectFor the past year, CSV has been working with Kim Ninkuru to produce the work, These Are My Reparations, which will be presented in the winter, 2023.
Conceptualized by Kim Ninkuru, These Are My Reparations is a sci-fi*, multi-media installation that directly addresses the way in which Black feminine bodies are taken, used and distorted for mass consumption. The work uses a hybrid of video projection, sculpture, sound, and online interactive media to tell the story of Honey, a Black woman who is abducted by “The Company” (WT), a corporate entity built to reproduce sound and visual content for the purposes of social control. Set in a future where live entertainment has ceased to exist, Honey is forced to sell her image and music to be used by an AI robot named RadioHead, which is accessed by the rich elite.
Charles Street Video has partnered with:
Wildseed Center for Art and Activism,
XSpace Cultural Center and Interaccess
for the presentation of this multi-site project.
This project was made with the assistance of Strategic Initiative funding from the Canada Council for the Arts.
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| | Residency Project2021Media Creation Grant 2021 Recipient Lu AsfahaCSV is proud to continue efforts to support our members artistic practice through such difficult times. We are excited to present the recipient of our newly established Media Art Creation Grant, Lu Asfaha, for the production of her short horror film Fresh Meat
Recipient:
Lu Asfaha
Lu Asfaha is an award-winning filmmaker whose films bend genres to explore what it means to belong. In 2018 she released the short documentary 'Freedom Summer' on CBC Gem, wrote and directed fantasy short 'Paladin' and was part of the post production team on CSA-winning documentary 'Mr. Jane and Finch.' Most recently, she was a Hot Docs Film Festival Doc Accelerator Fellow, a ScreenCraft Finalist, and won the RBC Emerging Director Award at Regent Park Film Festival. Lu is currently developing the horror thriller 'Fresh Meat.'
We also thank the esteemed jurors, Fallon Simard, Kourtney Jackson, and Hiba Ali, who dedicated their time and efforts.
Jurors:
Fallon Simard
Fallon Simard is an Anishinaabe-Metis artist, educator and policy writer. Through, memes, workshops and videos, he layers text and images, transposing popular and informal methods of public address to carry pointed political critique. His artwork and pedagogical practices captures how racism and colonialism intercede to form the bases of capitalism’s devastating attempts at cultural erasure and genocide, but also reveals its ultimate failure to control the terms of indigeneity, which remains present and lived. Thirza Cuthand in a review in Canadian Art describes Simard’s work “as firmly situated within a strong history in Canada of experimental Indigenous video art. Their experimental, politically charged work gets to the heart of issues of Indigenous sovereignty and struggle.” Simard graduated from OCAD University through the interdisciplinary Masters of Art, Media and Design program. He has exhibited at the Art Gallery of Peterborough, curated for the Queer Art Festival in Toronto, written policy for the Yellowhead Institute at Ryerson University and participated in Plug In ICA’s Summer Institute.
Kourtney Jackson
Kourtney Jackson is a Toronto-based filmmaker and current Sundance Ignite Fellow. Her award-winning documentary, Wash Day, premiered at TIFF Next Wave and is currently on its festival tour. Her work integrates documentary media and community arts programming to support creative environments that ideate accessible storytelling in theatre and performance arts. Through film and other lens-based media, Kourtney continues to explore the nuances in her ethnic, cultural, and spiritual identity.
Hiba Ali
Hiba Ali is a digital artist, educator, scholar, DJ, experimental music producer and curator based across Chicago, IL, Austin, TX, and Toronto, ON. Their performances and videos concern surveillance, womxn/ womyn of colour, and labour. She studies Afro-Indo-Arab geographies across the Indian Ocean through music, cloth and ritual. They conduct reading groups
addressing digital media and workshops with open-source technologies. She is a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at Queens University, Kingston, Canada. They are an Assistant Professor of Art, New Media Artist/Feminist Art Discourse, College of Design, Art & Technology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. She has presented their work in Chicago, Stockholm, Vienna, Berlin, Toronto, New York, Istanbul, São Paulo, Detroit, Windsor, Dubai, Austin, Vancouver, and Portland. They have written for C Magazine, THE SEEN Magazine, Newcity Chicago, Art Dubai, The State, VAM Magazine, ZORA: Medium, RTV Magazine, and Topical Cream Magazine.
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| | Residency Project2020Kiley May - ImagineNative ResidentJanuary to October 2020This residency was developed to offer a mid-career or established Indigenous artist the opportunity to expand their practice and to experiment with the latest video technologies in the creation of a new short video work. This program offers the opportunity to enhance a current project create a short film (5-10min) using in-kind and monetary resources of the partnering artist-run centre (upto $5000 value), plus a $1,000 CAD bursary, along with mentorship support.
Kiley May is the 2020 imagineNATIVE/CSV 2020 Commission recipient. Her project, Disclosure, is a trans romantic dramedy.
Kiley May
Kiley May is Hotinonhshón:ni, Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) and Turtle Clan from Six Nations reserve, now rooted in Aterón:to (Toronto). She is a two spirit transgender multidisciplinary storyteller - an actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. Watch out for her short film Disclosure, a trans romantic dramedy, premiering at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in October.
About the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival:
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the largest international festival of its kind that celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples on the forefront of innovation in film, video, radio and new media. The imagineNATIVE Institute, a department within the organization, also runs year-round professional development opportunities for Indigenous screen creatives.
Disclosure
Genre
Short film, romantic comedy, 2SLGBTQIAP+
Logline
When a handsome, charming stranger asks out a trans woman, she battles with disclosing her trans identity - only to learn he has something to reveal too.
Characters
Libbie is a cute, quirky, slightly awkward Indigenous trans woman. A witty, bright, romantic feminist on a mission, she is thrown off-kilter when a chivalrous man expresses interest in her.
Martino is a fresh, athletic and virile cisgender Italian Canadian man. A go-getter who's perceptive with old-worldly charm. He meets an alluring trans woman who makes him look deeper within himself.
Why it matters
While dating for most people is normalized, the particular experience of dating while trans is not. The uncertainty of the Russian roulette scenario of disclosing one’s trans identity is not discussed enough, nor is trans-attracted men's reality. This film reveals this virtually unknown undiscussed world of trans women dating and the men who date them. The intention is to generate a conversation. Understanding, sensitivity and empathy for trans and trans-attracted people in these circumstances are needed, as is destigmatizing and normalizing trans attraction and relationships.
Why it will succeed
Amusing and illuminating, Disclosure is a fresh take on a romcom, fulfilling the demand for authentic storytelling and intersectional representation. Right now, audiences need escapist, lighthearted and funny stories like this one, about the thrills and joys of the dating gamble. Though a niche experience, the themes of revealing oneself, vulnerability, taking a risk, fear of rejection and acceptance are immensely relatable.
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| | Residency Project2020Thoughts Running Residency
New-Zealand-Canadian composer Juliet Palmer is known as a “post-modernist with a conscience” (The Listener) whose work “crosses so many genres as to be in a category of its own” (Toronto Star). Based in Toronto since 1997, Juliet was Artist-in-Residence at Sunnybrook Research Institute in 2018 and is currently a Chalmers Arts Fellow researching music and sound outdoors. Recent works: Ukiyo, floating world, for video and ensemble (Urbanvessel and Thin Edge New Music, Toronto); Oil and Water (Detroit Symphony Orchestra); Inside Us, audio-video installation and performance (Western Front, Vancouver); Warsaw, January 2011, with Miriam Harris (Best in the New Media category,New Media Film Festival, Los Angeles); Sweat, a cappella opera, librettist Anna Chatterton (National Sawdust, New York and CalArts, Los Angeles); and TOUR with Millie Chen (Albright-Knox Art Gallery).
Link to Thoughts Running video
Juliet holds a PhD in composition from Princeton University and an M.Mus in performance, composition and time-based art from Auckland University.
Upcoming: Choreography of Trauma (Continuum & The Element Choir); Snag (Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra); and Every Word Was Once An Animal, performance installation with Carla Bengtson, Darion Smith and Jessie Rose Vala (Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art). www.julietpalmer.ca
Sonja Rainey is a designer for a broad range of performance styles, a multidisciplinary artist, community based arts facilitator and a curious tinkerer in many mediums. Her work has been produced in Canada, the United States and as part of the Prague Quadrennial. She is a two time Dora Mavor Moore nominee for her set and costume designs and has most recently worked with Toronto based companies the Canadian Opera Company, The Bicycle Opera Company, Urbanvessel, Jumblies Theatre, Making Room Community Arts, The Community Arts Guild, MABELLEarts and Ahuri Theatre. She holds an MFA in Theatrical Design from the University of Texas at Austin, a BFA specialization from Concordia University in Design for the Theatre and most recently studied at the Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance.
Dan Tapper is an artist who explores the sonic and visual properties of the unheard and invisible. From revealing electromagnetic sounds produced by the earth’s ionosphere, to exploring hidden micro worlds and creating imaginary nebulas made from code, his explorations use scientific methods alongside thought experiments resulting in rich sonic and visual worlds. Dan also regularly uses his skills as a creative coder and interactivity designer to help artists and musicians facilitate projects, these range from building a 20 ton stone boat embedded with interactive soundscapes and pressure sensors to digital video feedback software and audio reactive light environments. Dan studied Creative Music Technology at Bath Spa University, and is currently completing an MFA in Visual Studies at York University. Recent solo exhibitions include: Turbulent Forms, Factory Media Centre, Hamilton (2019) and Canadian Music Centre and New Adventures in Sound Art (2017); Physical Media Matter, Degrassi Art Space, Toronto (2016); and A Machine to Listen to the Sky, American Museum, Bath, UK (2013).
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| | Residency Project2020Media Art Creation GrantCharles Street Video is proud to present the participants of our first Media Art Creation Grant. CSV is proud to launch this pilot project in an effort to support our member media art practices.
We are pleased to announce our two grant recipients, Yasmine Mathurin and Jawa El Khash.
Recipients:
Yasmine Mathurin
Yasmine Mathurin is an emerging filmmaker and award-winning podcast producer. In 2011 she was selected to take part in the United Nations Human Rights Fellowship program for People of African-decent. This became the starting point for her to pursue her career in journalism and filmmaking. She previously worked as an associate producer with CBC Original Podcast, where she produced the audio-fiction podcast The Shadows which won Gold in the fiction category at the 2019 Canadian Digital Publishing Awards. She also produced the CBC podcast Tai Asks Why, which won a Webby people’s choice award in 2019.
She’s an alumni of the 2019 Netflix-Banff Media Diverse Voices Fellowship, the UnionDocs Feature documentary lab, the DOC Breakthrough Program and the Hot Docs Accelerator lab. She’s currently in production on her first feature documentary film with Sienna Films and the support of the CBC documentary Channel and the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund. She's also in development on a short hybrid-fiction film supported by the Canada Art Council.
Jawa El Khash
Jawa El Khash is an artist and researcher. Her work blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, using technology such as virtual reality and analogue holography to investigate the paradoxes and obscurities of the everyday nature of living in the world. She uses the contradictions inherent in the spatial mediums as a starting point to build environments that act as portals that investigate how we experience agriculture, architecture, archeology, and lepidopterology. The marriage of technology and art is the backbone of her everyday research, process and thinking, through studying optics, 3D and VR technology to creating replicas of reality.
We also thank the esteemed jurors, Ayo Tsalithaba, Cara Mumford, and Aram Collier, who dedicated their time and efforts.
Jurors:
Ayo Tsalithaba
Ayo Tsalithaba is a visual artist originally from Ghana and Lesotho. Their primary mediums include film, photography and illustration. They enjoy exploring issues of identity, specifically societal expectations of race, gender and sexuality through their films. Ayo has been featured in Huffington Post Canada, The Fader, The Kit, TFO, the University of Toronto magazine, Munch Magazine and they have made music videos with Tika, Bernice, Desiire and Emma Frank. They have screened their films and appeared on panels at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Free, University of Toronto, George Brown, the Revue Cinema, Xpace Cultural Centre, and more.
Cara Mumford
Cara Mumford is a Métis filmmaker, writer, and collaborative artist from Alberta, living in Peterborough, Ontario since 2010. Since becoming a filmmaker in 2006, Cara’s short films have screened regularly at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, and throughout Canada, in addition to festivals in the United States, Finland, and Australia. She has received industry training through Telefilm Canada (2010/11), Bell Media’s Diverse Screenwriters Program (2012), and the imagineNATIVE Film Festival’s Story Lab (2014) and Producer Mini-Lab (2015). Cara completed one year of development for her futuristic project, The Red Card, with the National Film Board’s Digital Studio (2016/17) and created a short film set in that world through the 7th annual CSV/imagineNATIVE residency. She is currently working on her MFA in Film at York University.
Aram Collier
Aram is a filmmaker, educator, and film festival programmer. He has a background in documentary, editing the award winning feature documentary Refugee and directing/editing the short doc Who I Became both which broadcast nationally on PBS in the United States. His subsequent dramatic and experimental film work has played festivals in the United States, Canada, Japan, and China. From 2011-2014, his omnibus live music and film project Suite Suite Chinatown toured Canada, Asia, and the United States. In 2017, he completed the Telefilm Canada funded feature film Stand Up Man, which he wrote, directed, edited, and produced. The film had its World premiere at the Atlantic Film Festival and its International Premiere at the Hawaii International Film Festival. Most recently Aram directed and edited the short documentary A Sweet And Sour Christmas for CBC. He is currently the Head of Programming at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Based in Toronto, Canada, Aram is a mixed race Asian Canadian/American (Chinese and English/Dutch/German) and a San Francisco native who has a BFA and MFA in Film Production from the University of California at Santa Cruz and York University respectively.
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| | Residency Project2020Festival of Recorded Movement ResidenciesFestival Of Recorded Movement (F-O-R-M) was created as a platform for movers and filmmakers to share and create short films that revolve around the body in motion.
Charles Street Video provided technical and gear support in 2018 to 2 selected commissioned artists (Jennifer Su and Francesca Chudnoff). Our partnership continued in 2019 with interdisciplinary artist Ty Sloane, Jordan Campbell, and Tamar Tabori.
Our 2020 resident Kendra Epik created award winning short film Sunglow Gecko
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| | Residency Project2019imagineNATIVE & CSV ResidencyJune to October 2019
The eighth iteration of the annual Residency provides a mid-career Indigenous artist the opportunity to expand their practice and to experiment with the latest video technologies in the creation of a new short video work. This program offers the opportunity to enhance a current project create a short film (5-10min) using in-kind and monetary resources of the partnering artist-run centre (upto $5000 value), plus a $1,000 CAD bursary, along with mentorship support.
Kathleen Edwards is our 2019 resident who entered into post-production with her short documentary Mni Wiconi: Mitakuyelo
Synopsis:
Nearly a year after meeting at the Oceti Sakowin camp during the NoDAPL resistance movement at Standing Rock, five Indigenous Water Protectors reunite in Toronto, Ontario. Brought together by a calling to protect the water, their experiences moved them to further elevate their voices in solidarity with the global Indigenous community.
About the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival:
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the largest international festival of its kind that celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples on the forefront of innovation in film, video, radio and new media. The imagineNATIVE Institute, a department within the organization, also runs year-round professional development opportunities for Indigenous screen creatives.
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| | Residency Project2019F.O.R.M CSV ResidencyMay - September 2019
Festival Of Recorded Movement (F-O-R-M) was created as a platform for movers and filmmakers to share and create short films that revolve around the body in motion. Charles Street Video is providing technical and gear support in 2019 to the selected commissioned artists (Ty Sloane, Jordan Campbell, and Tamar Tabori).
Jordan Campbell and Ty Sloane (Toronto):
Jord and Ty are notorious queer fashion-fueled party girls who love to dance all night. SEE QUINN RUN is their second dance-fashion film collaboration; last summer they created THIS CITY ISN’T DEAD, which was performed alongside a live dance performance at the New Blue Emerging Dance Festival.
Jord Camp is a queer performance artist who creates and performs solo genderfucked club kid performance art drag numbers. He is half of the POP ART performance duo xLq, dedicated to radical performance forms and complicit audience experiences. Jordan is also a drama teacher with Purple Carrots Drama Studio, which provides workshops for neurodiverse artists of all ages with varying abilities.
Tyler J Sloane is a multidisciplinary theatre/performance artist. Their personal mandate is to emphasize marginalized voices that intersect: race (specifically mixed race, east asian diaspora, and indigenous communities intersecting urban areas); fluid sexualities; trans, non-binary, and fluid gender expressions; non-monogamous relationships; and class.
FILM CONCEPT: SEE QUINN RUNN
A glamorous romp through alterna-queer Toronto nightlife, one sequin at a time. We follow one dancer, a genderfucked club kid, through dozens of outfits dripping in sequins. The animation of the sequins against iconic Toronto hotspots allows us to find a little dirty glamour in this ugly city.
Tamar Tabori (Toronto):
Tamar Tabori is a Canadian-Israeli contemporary dancer and a multi-disciplinary collaborator. Her dance studies began with classical ballet at the age of four. At the age of thirteen, she expanded her training to include contemporary dance. She studied at The National Ballet of Canada, Interplay School of Dance, then completed the Contemporary Dance Program at Concordia University in Montréal. As a member of Concordia’s Fine Arts program, interdisciplinary collaboration became a focal point of her practice. Layering, shaping, and weaving together different streams of art into one cohesive performance (whether live or digital) allows her to take things beyond her technical limitations. For her, this allows for a conversation between art, rather than about art. This is most prominent in her personal dance-video editing projects. With strong influences coming from her classically trained background and unusual imagination, she offers a unique approach to choreography and performance. She combines passion and technique in order to create works that merge the familiar with the bizarre.
FILM CONCEPT: Run-of-the-Whip-Poor-Will
A strange habit for one person is common and typical, even mundane, for another. Perhaps others don’t think twice about it. Exploring this state of ongoing, sometimes gradual, understanding (and misunderstanding) through movement in seemingly ordinary spaces creates a disruption of normalcy. Do we rehearse the normal of others? How much effort do we put into our own normal? In this case, is it normal at all? Questioning the typical is a way of inquiring about the strange. The more you sit and think about it, the more the normal becomes bizarre. If “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” then one man’s ordinary is another man’s extraordinary.
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| | Residency Project2018Home Made Visible Commissioned Artistswith Regent Park Film FestivalHome Made Visible, an archival project by The Regent Park Film Festival, has the pleasure of commissioning seven projects by media artists from Indigenous and visible minority communities across Canada. With critical support from our project partner and artist-run centre, Charles Street Video, artists will receive access to production equipment and facilities to bring their works to life. A complete list of commissioned filmmakers is provided below.
Home Made Visible celebrates the domestic histories of Indigenous and visible minority communities by digitizing and archiving their home videos and then reflecting on the stories that they have the power to bring to life. The commissioned projects reflect on how how archives shape our relationship to the past, how can we re-frame them to build new histories? And in what ways can this inquiry into familial and community archives connect the vast and varied histories of Indigenous people in Canada and the visible minority communities who have settled here?
“Home Made Visible is a welcome effort that addresses the lack of Indigenous contributions to our public archives. I’m looking forward to being a part of a group of artists and scholars who are enthusiastic about changing the nature of archives to reflect a nuanced Canadian history full of a variety of experiences belonging to people of colour and Indigenous people.”- participating filmmaker Jennifer Dysart (Hamilton, ON)
“This project can expand awareness in a time when we are seeing so much anti-immigrant sentiment...I look forward to co-creating something that re-defines what being Canadian means.” participating filmmaker Maya Bastian (Toronto, ON)
The six commissioned filmmakers were selected by a jury from a nationwide callout. A seventh special curated visual artist was commissioned to compliment their moving image works All works will premiere at the 16th Annual Regent Park Film Festival, Nov 14-17th, 2018. The works will then tour through library branches across Canada into 2019 with accompanying workshops.
Our commissioned artists are:
Aeyliya Husain is a documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on issues of representation, war, women and photography. She started her career at the National Film Board of Canada and has exhibited her work festivals nationally and internationally.
Landed, is a short experimental documentary film that views the various stages of the Regent Park development from 1949 to the current transformation, while critiquing the use of land, urban living and how population growth has dictated lifestyle. The film combines locational filming, archival footage, and photographs with narration.
Jennifer Dysart is a director of short films. She is also a set dresser/decorator, assistant director, a field producer, an archival researcher, and production coordinator. Jennifer was born
in Alberta, raised in BC and has Cree roots from South Indian Lake, Manitoba. She is an archives enthusiast with a deep love of found footage and experimental films.
Violet's Caibou: can combining found footage from public archives with home movies change the absence of Indigenous influence in Canada’s archives?
Lisa Jodoin is a writer/filmmaker working out of Fredericton, New Brunswick. Her short films include Tracing Blood, a video poem about Indigenous identity, and In Search of Laura Fearn. She recently completed a feature length documentary for the New Brunswick Aboriginal People’s Council and the Urban Aboriginal Knowledge Network Atlantic.
Part documentary, part scripted narrative, this [untitled] film explores the ways that our histories often find us and the surprising ways that archival collections can link us to our ancestors.
Maya Bastian is a writer, a filmmaker and an artist. Her work often explores socio-political themes as they relate to ideas of community and culture. In 2017 she was a recipients of the Al Magee Screenwriter Mentorship and included in Reelworld Film Festival’s Emerging 20.
The Arrival Archives will be a short, experimental documentary created to highlight the stories of those who are contributing to our changing cultural landscape in a way that serves their identities and memories.
Nadine Arpin is a Two-Spirited Métis filmmaker based in Sioux Lookout, Ontario where her film production company Cedar Water Films is located. Since 2014 she has been producing and directing independent short films which have screened both nationally and internationally.
Mi Vida Canadiense: in Cali, Columbia, Luis España married a Cree woman from Canada and returned with her to NWO to be the only Latin American immigrant in a town of 5000 people. There Luis found, arguably, the most iconic job in Canada, driving and operating the Zamboni at the local rink.
Parastoo Anoushahpour and Faraz Anoushahpour have worked in collaboration since 2013. Using various performative structures to work in relation to specific sites, their projects explore collaboration as a way to upset the authority of a singular narrator or position.
Pictures of Departure: Tashrih-e Mansuri explores the crucial role of the body as a source of consciousness establishing limits between the self and the other. The film moves between the physical body containing lived experiences of the self, to the represented body of the other as it is archived in institutions through language, illustration and text.
Melisse Watson is a disruptionist, earthworker and multidisciplinary artist. Through the archiving of activism work done by Black and Indigenous peoples in Tkaronto, and exploring access, gender, conflict, Melisse explores speculative futures and their preparations.
A was adopted. Where I am from is somewhere I have never been. The stories from the grandparents I never knew, and aunties I’ve never seen - though can sometimes hear them laughing, or smell their southern cooking. In Marietta, Georgia there are more people that share my blood than any place I was ever raised - even my birthplace in Americas west coast, on
Gabrielino-Tongva Territory. This is a place, back in Cherokee and Chickasaw Territory, that will be my home made visible.
For a full summary of Home Made Visible, please click here.
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| | Residency Project2018Steven Whalley ResidencyAbout the Project:
Thinking through images as space: Marks made and left in physical and virtual places.
How does inhabited space start to frame imagination and perspective as image and abode? Where does external image merge with internal realities?
Thinking in images reveals mimetic tendencies in translating imagination and experience into image and space. Using hand drawn image, animation and 3 D projection mapping, Steven Whalley intends to use the Charles St. facilities as a test ground for mapping constructed experiences with physical space and material investigation; looking at scale, size and repetition to build anti narratives and fragmented space closer to that of their particular body experience.
About the artist:
Steven Whalley is a MFA candidate at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. He lives and works in Toronto. His work investigates unfinished gestures and vague spaces as places and artifacts of processing; translating moments through images constructed by internal dialogue and external environments. Through the work he aims to further articulate an index of altered sensory experiences that map perspective in practice, using forms, artifacts and landmarks from daily routines and past experiences that focus on and process otherwise obscure experiential moments.
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| | Residency Project2018Jonathan Elliott ResidencyimagineNATIVE & CSV Resident 2018imagineNATIVE and Charles Street Video (CSV) are pleased to announce that filmmaker Jonathan Elliott has been selected for the 8th Annual CSV/imagineNATIVE Residency.
This residency was developed to offer a mid-career or established Indigenous artist the opportunity to expand their practice and to experiment with the latest video technologies in the creation of a new short video work.
Through the residency, Jonathan will have the opportunity to create a new short work (5-10 mins) to premiere at the 2018 imagineNATIVE Festival. After the festival, Jonathan will also have the opportunity to deliver a workshop/artist talk to CSV and imagineNATIVE members to detail his work and creative process.
Water Drum is a short film about loss, grief and the power of family. The story follows Jolene, an impoverished Tuscarora woman raising her young son David in the wake of her teenage daughters disappearance.
ABOUT
Jonathan Elliott is a Tuscarora filmmaker from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. Since receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from York University’s film production program, he has worked as a Director, Cinematographer and Editor on a variety of projects, including: Wild Archaeology (an APTN tv series), Glitch (multiple film festival selected short-film), Blood Child (horror feature-film premiered at Blood in the Snow film festival), Teens 101 (an upcoming City TV series), and Two Wolves (multiple film festival selected short-film). Jonathan’s recent short film, This Wild Season, premiered at ImagineNative’s 2017 festival and is continuing a successful run on the festival circuit. Jonathan’s previous work has been to various film festivals internationally in Italy, Germany, the United States and Canada. Currently, he is completing work on his new short film, Hear and Seek. He is a co-founder, producer, and creative director of Toronto-based production company, Paper Frame Pictures.
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| | Residency Project2018The Smiling Room ResidencyMaker Space ProgramA Charles Street Video and Maker Space Program residency with The Smiling Room.
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| | Residency Project2017Deafening DarknessCSV ResidencyCSV is proud to have provided significant support for this film
About the film
Jade's search for her missing friend leads her into the dark and dangerous world of a Deaf alien struggling to come to terms with his traumatic past.
Starring
Ali Saeedi
Directed By
Mark Trifunovic
Written By
Mark Trifunovic
Screenplay By
Mark Trifunovic
Produced By
Candice Leigha
Ali Saeedi
Mark Trifunovic
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| | Residency Project2017Alice Il Shin ResidencySo You Think You Can Pitch? Established Artist 2017HARU’S NEW YEAR (ON-GOING)
Logline: A newly immigrated Asian girl wants to make friends in her new school, but struggles with speaking English. The moment she gives up on communication, she is given a new opportunity.
Introduction of Project: The film follows a young Asian immigrant to Canada dealing with isolation and loneliness in a new land. Haru, the main character, has difficulty reaching out to the other students in her new middle school. Haru feels embarrassed and frustrated all day long on her first day. The moment Haru gives up on communication, an eccentric girl named Frances appears to Haru. Haru shares her feelings with Frances at the end of the day.
ABOUT
Alice Shin is a Korean filmmaker who received her formal film training at Nihon University, Japan. She began her career in national broadcasting with the NHK Educational Broadcasting Company, Japan. Since then, she has worked in Japan, Korea, and the USA as a director, producer, editor, and other supporting roles. Her independent work has screened at numerous international film festivals, including Cine Rail International Film Festival (France) and Jeonju International Film Festival (Korea), and has been showcased on major networks like Fuji TV (Japan).
Outside her film work, Ms. Shin has worked in commercial photography, music videos, and promotions for major Korean and Japanese celebrities. As an educator, Ms. Shin has also enjoyed passing on her knowledge as a filmmaking teacher in the Korean secondary school system, and created educational films in partnerships with Seoul National University and the National Institute of the Korean Language.
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| | Residency Project2017Cara Mumford ResidencyRED CARD ONE: MIGIZIKWEMetis filmmaker, writer and collaborative artist, Cara Mumford was selected this year for the 7th Annual CSV/imagineNATIVE Residency.
This residency was developed to offer a mid-career or established Indigenous artist the opportunity to expand their practice and to experiment with the latest video technologies in the creation of a new short video work.
"Set 150 years in the future, Red Card will immerse viewers in a time when the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg people have regained a large portion of their territory while much of world outside is in turmoil, leading many non-Indigenous people to apply for their “Red Card” and seek a life in the territory. This project will combine animation, film, concept art, and interactive elements to explore “Indigenous futurisms”―an optimistic envisioning of an insecure future through an Indigenous lens."
For more information, visit Cara Mumford's website here.
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| | Residency Project2016Marnie Parrell Residencyin partnership with Imaginative 6th Annual CSV/imagineNATIVE Residency Program
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival and Charles Street Video (CVS) are pleased to announce that Métis filmmaker, writer and artist Marnie Parrell has been selected for the 6th Annual CSV/imagineNATIVE Residency.
This residency was developed to offer a mid-career or established Indigenous artist the opportunity to expand their practice and experiment with the latest video technologies while creating a new, short video work.
Marnie Parrell is a Métis filmmaker, writer, artist and artmaker who began her film practice in 1988. Her films and videos have been screened nationally and internationally at many festivals and galleries, including: YYZ Artist Outlet, Cinematheque Ontario, Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival, imagineNATIVE Film and New Media Festival, Hallwalls Buffalo and The Power Ball Toronto. Parrell has received several awards and grants and fellowships, among them the Cynthia Licker’s Sage Award and Chalmers Arts Fellowship. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Toronto and an MFA at York University in film production, where she wrote, directed and edited The Future, a 'so-last-week', half-hour 'femsploit-action' sci-fi adventure.
"This residency provides a unique opportunity to experiment with the production facilities and equipment at CSV. I look forward to enhancing my skills, working with the knowledgeable staff at CSV and completing a new piece, the intent of which is to provide a space, however brief, where the viewer can allow themselves to find a moment's peace,” said Marnie Parrell.
Parrell’s films are hybrids - short, experimental, narratives and documentaries. Her early work was small gauge and low-tech including regular and super-8 film and the Fisher Price Pixelvision. She also has an interest in wearable electronics and found objects/art, with which she continues to bridge the gaps between high and low tech.
For more information and to view examples of her work please visit marnieparrell.com. Parrell’s films are available through V Tape.
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| | Residency Project2016Sabine LeBel and Alison TaylorArtist Residency Sabine LeBel and Alison Taylor have been working together, mostly on films and videos, for over 15 years. The first video they ever made together was a stop-motion animation involving some very disturbing dolls. It is on VHS. They can’t find it. But hence, the name: mutantoy.
Their current work centers around a low-fi sci-fi trilogy entitled ‘messages from visitors.’ The first instalment was ‘dispatches from the future,’ and it centers around a grieving woman who believes she’s being haunted through her car. In the second instalment, ‘diary from the brink of collapse,’ her car runs out of gas as her ghosts threaten to become more tangible. ‘Diary’ recently screened as part of In Your Pocket: Dear Diary, at Inside Out LGBT Film Festival. The third video, 'landing in the present tense' was shot entirely during the Neo Future residency at Arteles Creative Centre in Haukijärvi, Finland in May, 2016 and is currently in post-production. Here emerges a cross-temporal love story, set in a future that is neither apocalyptic nor utopic, where two chaotic creators are trying to orchestrate positive ecological changes by making unlikely allies, human and otherwise.
Sabine is an educator, researcher, and artist. These days, Sabine is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto. Her current academic research is on e-waste, affect, and the visual.
Alison is a film and video editor, writer, artist and dabbler in stand-up comedy. She has edited a wide range of TV formats and films. She was recently nominated for a CCE award for Best Editing in a Lifestyle/Documentary Program. Exile Quarterly published her short story 'Spud Gun.' in 2013, and she is currently shopping around her first novel.
Sabine and Alison live near, but outside of the Junction in Toronto with a collection of sci-fi goggles and two cats who also think it’s fun to rip the heads off dolls. For more info, visit mutantoy.squarespace.com.
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| | Residency Project2015Thirza Cuthand ResidencyA CSV/ImagineNATIVE ResidencyimagieNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival and Charles Street Video (CSV) are pleased to announce that award-winning experimental Cree/Scottish filmmaker Thirza Cuthand has been selected for the 5th Annual CSV/imagineNATIVE Residency. This residency was developed to offer a mid-career or established Indigenous artist the opportunity to expand their practice and to experiment with the latest video technologies in the creation of a new short video work. Thirza will be enrolled in CSV’s workshops, receive technical support and training from CSV staff, be provided with access to CSV’s production and post-production equipment, and receive additional financial and resource support from imagineNATIVE and CSV.
”CSV is very excited about bringing Thirza’s amusing treatment to life and we look forward to seeing it develop during her residency,” says Greg Woodbury, CSV’s Operations Director. “CSV exists to support media art practice and Thirza’s track record speaks for itself. She’s exactly the right person to be working at our facility.”
Daniel Northway-Frank, imagineNATIVE’s Manager, Festival Initiatives adds, “In addition to a fresh and witty project idea, the Selection Committee recognized that, with Thirza’s skills and past experimentation, this residency would be an important step in further honing her practice with creatively versatile video equipment offered through this program.”
Cuthand, originally from Regina, Saskatchewan has been making short experimental narrative videos and films about sexuality, madness, youth, love, and race since 1995 that have screened internationally including the Tribeca Film Festival, Oberhausen Short Film Festival and imagineNATIVE. She is currently completing her MA in Media Art at Ryerson University.
Thirza’s submiited proposal, a biting and comedic Two-Spirit “how to” infomercial is rife with opportunity for new experimentation with new technology. The Residency recipient had this to say about her selection: “I am delighted to have the chance to create new work with the assistance of Charles Street Video and ImagineNATIVE! I am thankful for the recognition of the importance of Two-Spirit identities in my next video.”
This initiative continues the yearly partnership between imagineNATIVE and one of Toronto’s most respected non-profit, artist-run centres, Charles Street Video. Cuthand will premiere her new video at the 16th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, October 14-18, 2015.
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| | Residency Project2015Ellen Moffat ResidencyEllen Moffat is an independent media artist whose work spans solo, collaborative and interdisciplinary projects. Rooted in the language of sculpture - the body, space and materials – her primary media is sound. Using deconstructed spoken word, field recordings and experimental soundmaking, her projects range from multi-channel installations, to interactive electroacoustic instruments, to performance, to live actions in gallery and off-site venues. Her work is a poetic and conceptual inquiry into sound and space, language, composition and social relations. Born in Toronto, she lives in Saskatoon.
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| | Residency Project2015Celeste Koon ResidencySo You Think you Can Pitch Emerging Artist 2015Working in children's media and entertainment has always been Celeste's dream. She has a vivid imagination and a creative outlook on the world, which she brings to her work. Celeste has written, directed and designed two independently produced children's shorts: Paper Princes, Gypsies, and the Boy With No Return Address (2009) and The Intergalactic Space Adventures of Cleo and Anouk (2012). Both films played at numerous international film festivals across the globe. In 2013, Celeste wrote, directed and designed two segments for Season 44 of PBS's Sesame Street: 'A' is for Adventure and 'O' is for Ocean. Celeste also has five years of experience working on various industry television and film productions in the art department and recently worked with Radical Sheep Productions developing children and youth properties, while at the same time writing 44 scripts for their preschool show Can You Imagine That.
November 10th 2014, Celeste won the Charles Street Video/Reel Asian International Film Festival's 'So You Think You Can Pitch - Emerging Filmmaker' prize and will be shooting her new short, The Ghost of Granpa Tong, early 2015!!
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| | Residency Project2015Romeo Candido ResidencySo You Think you Can Pitch Established Artist 2015Romeo is an award winning, international content creator with seasoned strengths in factual and narrative storytelling for film, television, advertising and digital platforms. With a solid foundation in traditional arts and media, Romeo has actively branched off into the digital space using mobile and online platforms to deliver engaging stories, immersive experiences and connecting with viewers and users in impactful ways.
A new media pundit, energetic community leader and public speaker, Romeo’s valuable expertise invokes engagement from all audiences.
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| | Residency Project2015Melanie Gilligan CommissionThe Common SenseGilligan is in the process of creating a new project titled The Common Sense. Commissioned by the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and Charles Street VIdeo. The Common Sense is an experimental narrative drama in the style of a television miniseries. The project is currently in production. Half of the film was shot in January 2013 in Toronto, and the other half was filmed in 2014 in the Netherlands. The work will be shown throughout 2014/2015 in three parallel solo exhibitions planned in the Netherlands at De Appel, Amsterdam, Casco, Utrecht and De Hallen in Haarlem. All episodes of The Common Sense will be made available for viewing online. As with Gilligan’s previous video works, Crisis in the Credit System, Self-Capital and Popular Unrest, this long-form video piece will use drama and fiction to contemplate broader social, political and economic issues.
The story of The Common Sense revolves around a new technology that allows people to feel one another’s embodied experience, physical sensations and emotions. Worn on the roof of the mouth, the “neural entrainment device” is given the informal name “The Patch”.
Technologies change us - our attitudes, our behavior and our bodies. The film charts a future moment where the widespread use of the Patch has created pronounced neuroplastic change in the brains of its users, transforming their capacities. As our story begins, The Patch has existed for ten years and in that time the relation between self and other, individual and collective, and also between subjects and their economic survival, have been profoundly transformed as the physical conditions of individual existence are technologically remade. Conceptions such as empathy and solidarity have been replaced with the ability to have concrete sensations of other people’s situations.
The story spans the period of a decade, and will show the social and political effects of The Patch over time. In doing so, it will grapple with how social contact between people forms subjectivity, how structural conditions affect such contact, and how political possibilities are shaped by these interactions. The time of the story is - like our own - one of ever intensifying competition and economic polarization. Living standards are declining rapidly for many in a culture that desperately prioritizes business and financial growth over the wellbeing of its population. Collective political resistance is emerging in many places around the world. However, the technology’s role in these shifts is ambiguous. While this technological development creates possibilities for new modes of existence and collective social formations, it also leads to new contradictions and conflicts.
Gibson is a university professor who teaches a class on technology and society. As our story begins, Gibson’s students sit down to watch a television program relevant to their studies. The TV show takes place many years ago when the Patch was first released. Events that take place in this television program are discussed by characters within the wider narrative and we see the social changes caused by the technology through their eyes. Then, in the world outside the TV show, a calamity occurs: the Patch network breaks down for the first time in its history. Everyone is utterly shocked. Nothing like this has happened before. The students of the class are faced with a disorienting few days, in which they alternately feel the need for constant social contact, but feel a discomfort with contact that is unmediated by the Patch. The anxiety makes each of them retreat to their own homes.
When the Patch network is repaired, something is very different in the world. Our story and its structure has suddenly changed. We still follow episodes of the TV show, but now when we return to our main story, it is split into two parallel realities: one where wide scale political disruptions have broken out, and another where life continues as it was before. These two realities continue in parallel and will create a physical disconnection in the story, which will be borne out in the mode in which the work is displayed.
Biography
Melanie Gilligan completed a BA (Hons) Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in 2002 and was a Fellow with the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in 2004/5. She has presented solo exhibitions at institutions including Chisenhale Gallery (London), Kölnischer Kunstverein (Cologne), Transmission Gallery (Glasgow), The Banff Centre, (Banff), Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Toronto),and VOX centre de l’image contemporaine (Montreal). In 2008, commissioned by Artangel Interaction, Gilligan released Crisis in the Credit System, a four-part fictional mini drama about the recent financial crisis. In 2009 she received a Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists and in 2010 she won the Illy Present Future Award. Gilligan has taught widely in Europe and North America, and has appeared in numerous group exhibitions worldwide, including Manifesta 8 (Murcia, Spain) in 2010. Her writings on art, politics and finance have appeared in magazines such as Artforum, Texte zur Kunst and Grey Room.
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| | Residency Project2015Maker Space Resident: Party Like It's 1669Maker Space ResidencyFrances Adair McKenzie and Aleks Schürmer form the collective Party Like it's 1699. The collective's aim is to take classical music from the confines of the modern concert hall and to reclaim it as a popular medium in the form of a digital Baroque opera.
Aleks and Frances will be doing a two week research and development residency at CSV to develop their project Le Pop d’époque which is an immersive multidisciplinary work, combining classical music, dance, theatre and performance with digital scenography and four channel electronics. The collective is concerned with exploring how new forms can touch on the past while simultaneously pursuing innovation in terms of style and technique. http://partylikeits1699.com/
Frances Adair Mckenzie is a multi-media artist who combines genres and technologies as a means to invoke the construction of fantastical internal and external worlds. Her work in motion-design, animation and immersive installation evokes a din of concentrated effects that meld both high and low cultural references and technologies. With a simultaneous eye to the history of art and the culture of Pop she extends upon the precedents of feminism and digital culture only to foreground the spectacle as a D.I.Y. space of subversion and tool of empowerment.
Frances lives and works in Montréal. She attained a diploma in New Media from B.C.I.T. and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University. The National Film Board of Canada has commissioned her animations and her work has been exhibited at the Musée d'art Contemporain de Montréal, and in the Satosphere of the Société des Arts Technologiques. Frances is based in Montreal but originates from 100 mile house, BC and thanks her origins for a strong dutch protestant work ethic. She strongly agrees with Nietzsche that, “we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” http://francesadair.com/
Aleks has performed 17th and 18th century music on period instruments with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, l'Ensemble Arion, Les Idées heureuses and his own ensemble les tabarnaks d'époque. He holds a Master of Music Degree from McGill University. He studied flute under Patrick Gallois.
His compositions have been played on CBC radio, at the Société des Arts technologiques (SAT), M for Montreal, Montreal Baroque, Pop Montreal, HTMlles, Suoni per il popolo, Toronto Music Gallery, Montreal Fringe, Ottawa Chamber Music and University of Toronto New Music festivals. His works have been called “major discoveries” (Stephen Ritter, American Record Guide 2003). http://www.aleksschurmer.com/
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| | Residency Project2015Seeking a stand-up fellow...A 'Maker Space' project Toronto mixed-media artist/ graphic designer Xenia Vakova documents results of her Craigslist w4m posting experiment through text-based video, sound, and illustration, to discuss heteronormative gender roles on the internet. The tongue-in-cheek installation also includes an interactive component which encourages viewers to enter into the male identity narrative. Join us on August 14th to launch this week long installation project as part of our maker space program.
Artist Statement
Seeking A Stand-Up Fellow: Installation by Xenia Vakova!
My multi-media installation “Seeking A Stand-Up Fellow” consists of three parts: audible, visual, and tactile. I am using these three learning styles to describe the collection of responses I have received to my craigslist personals ad. !
This experiment involved describing myself with the goal of meeting a local man for casual sex. The overwhelming 200 e-mail responses have been organized by naturally-emerging segments, such as “Greetings” and “Self Descriptors”, and compiled into one piece of text totalling over 4,000 words. I did not otherwise edit the information, leaving spelling and grammar as is.!
Having viewed the original text, the audience is invited to create their own responses using the provided magnetic phrases (taken from the entirety of the original text) and the photocopier. They are instructed to make one copy of their creation as a personal keepsake and to post another on the provided wall space with some tape. At the end of the exhibition, these audience creations will be compiled into a zine publication which can be made available for purchase at Charles Street Video.
My intent is to document this experience in order to question gender norms around sex and illustrate what is lost and gained through electronic communication. I believe the quantity of the responses shows how a posting of a sexual nature, by a heterosexual woman in my age group, is quite unusual and unexpected. !
My hope is that my audience shares my personal curiosity in the content of this text. The repetition of particular words and phrases strikes me as a fair assessment of cultural norms and expectations, as well as male-bodied self-representation.!
! By engaging personally with the text through the magnetic “fridge-poetry” aspect of the show, the audience is pushed further to explore the questions exhibited through the prints and the voice narrative. The format achieves this exploration without intimidation or self-importance, and rather through the acts of humour and play.!
Bio
Xenia Vakova (1987, Moscow, Russia) is a multidisciplinary artist, working in visual media as well as music and creative non-fiction. Influenced by the work of Sophie Calle and Darren O'Donnell, text based projects, interactive works, and installations are close to her heart. !
! Leaving Russia at a young age to begin a new life in Toronto without her extended family has left Vakova with an interest in memory and archives. Often questioning the role of personal narrative in larger stories, she combines a rich sense of family and cultural mythology with an urban sensibility. Her work exists in the intersections of many media, examining what it means to be an artist and woman in a modern world. !
! Vakova studied at NSCAD University, OCADU, and Humber college, receiving a BFA in printmaking from OCADU in 2013.!
*Each digital print was produced on archival recycled paper in editions of ten and is valued at $60. Please inquire with CSV regarding sales.
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| | Residency Project2014Susan Blight ResidencyImagineNative Resident 2014Susan Blight is Anishinaabe from Couchiching First Nation. A visual artist, filmmaker, and arts educator, Susan’s films and video work have been screened nationally and internationally at such venues as Media City International Film Festival, Experiments in Cinema, and the ImagineNative Festival. In addition, Susan has exhibited across North America, most notably at Gallery 44, The Print Studio, Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts, and the Art Gallery of Windsor. Susan is co-founder of The Ogimaa Miikana Project, an artist/activist collective working to reclaim and rename the roads, streets, and landmarks of Toronto with Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) and in July 2013, she became the fourth member of the Indigenous Routes artist collective which works to provide new media training for indigenous youth. Susan Blight received a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Windsor in Integrated Media, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies from the University of Manitoba. She is the host of Indigenous Waves radio show.
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| | Residency Project2014Gloria Kim ResidencySo You Think you Can Pitch Established Artist 2014Born in Seoul, Korea, Gloria Ui Young Kim comes from a long line of media makers. With a degree in English Lit at U of T, she worked as a journalist at Maclean’s. She attended Ryerson: Image Arts and the 2008 Canadian Film Centre’s Director’s Lab. Her short film, ROCK GARDEN: A LOVE STORY, described by Atom Egoyan as “absolutely beautiful”, has won numerous prizes including the CBC Canadian Reflections Award. Her CBC film, THE AUCTION, premiered at the 2010 Sprockets TIFF, and won Best Short Film, the Audience Choice Award: 2012 WIFT Short Film Showcase and Children’s Jury Prize: Seattle Film Festival for Children, and is now part of the John VanDuzer Film Collection at TIFF BellLightbox. Her other works have won numerous Golds, at the Bessies, the Marketing Awards, One Club; her OAC-commissioned work, Why Do I Dance… has had over 800,000 views on Youtube since April, 2012; she was in the 2009 TIFF Talent Lab; is a mentor for youth (Female Eye Film Festival , Reel Asian Film Festival, Hot Docs). She has recently directed the Ontario Arts Council’s 50th Anniversary film, Live, Love Art…which won Best Interview Film at PR Daily Video Awards. Her script, Debra and Mona won the 2013 Telefilm New Voices Award.
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| | Residency Project2014Betty Xie ResidencySo You Think you Can Pitch Emerging Artist 2014As an emerging filmmaker, Betty believes that extraordinary stories are embedded in the everyday life of ordinary people, and she is on a life-long search for extraordinary/ordinary narratives. Specifically, she is interested in themes of diaspora, migration and identity. Betty has written and directed the fiction short Girlfriends, which was screened at the 2013 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival and 2014 Reel World Film Festival. Currently, she is directing and co-producing the documentary The Home Promised, the winning project from the 2013 "So You Think You Pitch Competition" (emerging category) at Reel Asian Film Festival.
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| | Residency Project2013Gita Hashemi ResidencyA Charles Street Video/A-Space ResidencyGita Hashemi’s transmedia practice focuses on historical and contemporary issues. In 2013, her
solo exhibitions included Time Lapsed at A Space Gallery in Toronto and The Idea of Freedom at MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), and she participated in The Third Space exhibition at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre as part of Tirgan Festival of Iranian Art and Culture. Drawing on visual, media and performance strategies and using different techniques and technologies, she explores social relations and the interconnections of writing as embodied language with cultural
imaginary and politics.
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| | Residency Project2013Stephanie Law ResidencyReel Asian So You Think you Can Pitch Emerging Artist 2013Stephanie Law is a Toronto-based film/TV/transmedia writer.
She is a recent participant of the WGC-Bell Media Diverse Screenwriters program and the Canadian Media Production Association’s national mentorship program.
Little Miss Jihad won the 2011 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival’s ‘So You Think You Can Pitch?’ competition in the emerging category.
Stephanie holds a BFA honours degree in film production and screenwriting from York University and is currently developing several feature and TV scripts of her own.
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| | Residency Project2012Keith Lock ResidencySo You Think you Can Pitch Established Artist 2012Magical Coincidence - Synopsis
Ben, a Chinese-Canadian super 8 filmmaker who does not speak Chinese, meets Amy, a Caucasian woman who speaks perfect Mandarin. A strange message sends them on a journey into a mysterious world of fate and coincidence. A unique film. Referencing John Cage, the filmmakers used a random coin toss to dictate decisions within the story, casting and production.
Short Bio
Born in Toronto, Keith Lock holds an M.F.A. degree in film from York University. He was a founding member and first Chair of the Toronto Filmmaker’s Co-op, Canada's first film co-op, which morphed into LIFT. His student film, Flights of Frenzy, won the Best Super 8 Award at the UNESCO 10th Muse International, Amsterdam, 1969. Early in his career, Keith worked as Claude Jutra’s assistant as well as Michael Snow’s cinematographer on a number of works. He is also Canada’s first Chinese Canadian filmmaker and directed the first feature film by an Asian Canadian. Keith’s experimental film, Everything Everywhere Again Alive, (1975), was presented at TIFF's Retrospective of Canadian Cinema in 1984, and his dramatic feature, Small Pleasures (1993), also screened at TIFF, was the first dramatic feature film made by a Chinese Canadian. His half–hour film, A Brighter Moon, received a Gemini Award Nomination for Best Short Drama in 1987. Keith was the first recipient of the Chinese Canadian National Council’s Media Applause Award in 1998. His television documentary, The Road Chosen: The Lem Wong Story, received the NFB Innoversity Conference Award, 2002 and his short film, The Dreaming House (2005), was selected for the Hot Docs Library and received the Best GTA Filmmaker Award at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Keith’s short, Magical Coincidence, was the winner of the “So You Think You Can Pitch” competition at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, 2012.
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| | Residency Project2009Vera Frenkel CommissionProduced during CSV/IMAGES ResidencyVera Frenkel is one of Canada's most renowned multidisciplinary artists, respected both internationally and at home. Her installations, videotapes, performances and new media projects address the forces at work in human migration, the learning and unlearning of cultural memory, and the ever-increasing bureaucratization of experience.
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| | Residency Project2006Witnessed City-Audio CItyProduced by: Nobuo Kubota/Annette MangaardWitnessed City-Audio City is a ten minute video that chronicles the history of free form sound art in Toronto from the 1960s through to the present day.
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| | Residency Project2005Command ZNow that I'm here, can I go back?Bad decision, dumb idea, humiliating memory? Suffer no more from the merciless irreversibility of error! Images and Charles Street's annual commissioned video program hits Command Z: the keyboard shortcut to "undo".
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| | Residency Project2004Tauqsiijiitartists-in-residenceAn artists-in-residence program that used experimental video to explore the themes of place, collaborative process, and Inuit and Aboriginal representation.
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| | Residency Project2004The Olive ProjectTwo Minutes for Peace and JusticeSince the second Intifada in Palestine and Israel, the olive harvest in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories has been disrupted by violence.
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| | Residency Project2003Fear FactoryFEAR FACTORY was a two-part collaboration between Charles Street Video and the Images Festival in which artists are asked to consider what makes us afraid and in turn, what fear makes of us.
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| | Residency Project2003Aural CulturesAural Cultures was a multi-artist residency at CSV curated by Jim Drobnick to explores the cultural significance of sound. It was published by YYZ books in 2004.
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