Media Creation Grant 2021 Recipient Lu Asfaha

CSV 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.

 2021