The Parkdale Film & Video Showcase is run by a rotating collective of Parkdale-engaged artists, curators and arts administrators. We work in tandem with our community

partners to organize and promote the many film and video artists who live, work, and reflect the eclectic Village of

Parkdale through our annual summer festival. We also do special off-site partnerships, media arts workshops and

other programming throughout the year.

Showcasing a mix of Parkdale area artists and work that’s relevant to Parkdale, we’ve operated under three thematic

evenings and a series of installations: ReAct, ReClaim and ReVisit. This year, we’ve added the new category of

“ReOpen” for our opening evening and installation launch, and “ReImagine” for our youth video workshop.

We’re glad you can join us, media art with us, and celebrate this fine neighbourhood with us. And if you’re tweeting, don’t

forget to hashtag #pfvs #parkdale #film and #video.

The Parkdale Film & Video Showcase Staff

Carolyn Tripp, Executive DirectorRebecca Gruihn, Programming Director

Rachelle Walker, Programming and Marketing AssociateKarl Reinsalu, Technical CoordinatorAlysia Urrutia, Marketing Volunteer

Many thanks to our sponsors and supporters of our annual fundraiser "Pinko Bingo" held at Capital Espresso in Parkdale.

Our Fundraiser Prize Sponsors

Belljar CafeThe Gladstone Hotel

Capital Espresso Trinity Square Video

VtapeThe Images Festival

The Toronto Animated Image SocietyLiaison for Independent Filmmakers Toronto (LIFT)

Common SortPublic Butter

Food & LiquorGlory Hole Donuts

The Showcase is generously supported by

ReOpen Festival Launch PartyAugust 8 @ 8:00 PMRhino Bar & Grill (Second Floor, 1249 Queen St. W.)

A lively celebration of the first day of the 2015 Parkdale Film & Video Showcase. This signals the launch of our storefront installation program as we build up to our screening series taking place on August 14th and 15th. Featuring live performances by L CON and special guest Jason Doell.

We are also excited to announce that we will be launching L CON’s limited edition 7” vinyl experimental pop project The Distance of the Moon at this event.

Jason DoellJason Doell is a Canadian composer whose works often skirt the edges of chamber music and sound art. His music has been interpreted by many important North American artists including: Array Music, Matt Brubeck, The CCMW string orchestra conducted by Gary Kulesha, The Cecilia String Quartet, Contact Contemporary Music, The Pierrot Ensemble, and Christina Petrowska-Quilico amongst others. Throughout his academic and professional career, Jason's work has earned him many selections for prestigious workshops/presentations/commissions and has won him many awards, the latest being the 2014 Toronto Emerging Composer Award presented by the Canadian Music Centre and the Nonclassical Global composition competition.

L CONThe ever-evolving ongoing project of musician Lisa Conway (Del Bel), joined by best pals Andrew Collins (The Skeletones Four) and Mary Wood (The Warbler). L CON wields sounds, stories, and science to sing songs with sincerity. Sparse experimental disco space folk meets traditional moon music. Conway and Collins also have a sonic installation at Capital Espresso entitled Moon Phone.

L CON

JASON DOELL

ReActA Screening of Short Films and VideosAugust 14 @ 7:30 PMPARC (1499 Queen St. W.)

These experimental film and video works explore how changes in our environment can impact our daily lives and sense of self. Using a variety of formal techniques each of these artists have managed to eloquently examine the experience of living through natural and manmade disasters, gentrification, displacement and the immigration process. This program reminds the viewer that our external surroundings along with the systems that uphold them, have an incredible impact on our internal narratives and are far from void of ideological agenda.

Re Orientation in Sao Paulo soJin ChunSao Paulo, video, 4:30, 2010 A light-hearted look at the complexities of immigration and cultural integration. To be Re Oriented in Sao Paulo, for the Korean community portrayed in this video, signifies re-adaptation and cultural transformation. The narrative is told whimsically, through the perspective of a Korean-style Hot Dog walking through Bom Retiro, a Korean neighbourhood.

Little PortugalPedro FerreiraCanada, Super 8mm, 3:11, 2014By juxtaposing a hand processed film portrait of Toronto’s Little Portugal neighbourhood with an automated telephone message addressing the rules and regulations of the Canadian immigration process, Ferreira is able to highlight the clash between Toronto’s romantic view of its multicultural status and the bureaucratic reality faced by hopeful immigrants.

Quiero… (I Want…)soJin ChunCanada, video, 00:50, 2013A poetic depiction of an installation from the Electric Eclectic Festival (EEF) in Meaford, Ontario. The artwork is reminiscent of the Trash Art style synonymous with The Heidelberg Project in Detroit, Michigan (a permanent art installation in an abandoned neighbourhood in Detroit). Chun’s video asks the viewer to meditate on what’s left behind as capitalism strides ever forward leaving remains of fallen communities in its wake.

Tracing a SurfaceAsh MonizCanada, video, 9:00, 2014This film is shot in the region of Nanjing in China during its gentrification in preparation for the 2014 Youth Olympics. A pre-recorded government warning is emitting from a loudspeaker, encouraging locals to comply with the relocation process at hand. The artist places plaster bandages onto piles of rubble as a metaphor for the displacement these residents face for an athletics event that could be described as an international PR campaign.

Kolam (Pool)Cris Chan Fui ChongCanada/Malaysia, 16mm, 12:50, 2007The temporary swimming pool featured in this poetic film was created to help the children of Aceh, Indonesia, face their fear of water following the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. This is a portrait of a community rebuilding and attempting to heal itself. It speaks to the resilience of children and strength that can be generated through shared projects and play. Chong is subtle in his approach, allowing the children’s story to unfold in a non-sentimental-yet-intimate way.

A place is a place is a placeMary PorterCanada, video, 10:00, 2014A three-part cutout stop-motion animation series that explores how our perception of landscape is shaped by built environments, lived experience and our personal/familial/cultural history. Part one looks at the North End of Halifax. It features Porter’s grandmother explaining her experience of the Halifax Explosion in 1917. This work examines how our understanding of place, particularly that which may appear mundane, can be shaped by personal memory, history, and trauma. The second animation examines Jameson Avenue in Toronto’s Parkdale. Jameson Avenue consists of two densely populated blocks of modernist apartments that were a product of the urban renewal schemes of the sixties. That renewal never materialised as planned, and in its place there has grown a lively neighbourhood where residents have adapted the structures to their needs. This section investigates how Parkdale residents might perceive their home. The third animation focuses on a new development in Vancouver that began as the 2010 Olympic Village and has since evolved into The Village at False Creek. It captures the liminal time between construction and a lived-in neighbourhood where the idea of the place and a sense of place awkwardly collide.

Once Near Water: Notes from the Scaffolding ArchiveVera FrenkelCanada, video, 15:25, 2008A short video about a city cut off from its lake and in trouble, where scaffolding serves as metaphor for both aspiration and loss. Following a chance encounter, Vera Frenkel has drawn together documentary and fictional elements to create a work about a stranger she barely knew but still finds compelling. A collector of scaffolding images that fuse together praise and lament into a video ballad for a changing city. The narrative unfolds in an interplay of two voices: A letter from one woman, being read by the other.

ParadeOliver HusainCanada, video, 11:00, 2013CGI promotional videos designed to seduce potential condo buyers are superimposed onto fluttering fabric to suggest pristine lives lived in elegant and austere boxes in the sky. We enter a world that is populated by computer enhanced urbanites experiencing fleeting moments of what might be a human interaction. Yet each exchange falls flat as bodies move through imagined spaces, seemingly devoid of purpose. Their beauty takes the place of emotion as they shop, work, drink and stare longingly from floor to ceiling windows. This pristine and ethereal environment is both alluring and evocative of a dystopian future lacking in authentic experience. It is a suggestion void of the complexity. They are so sure that you want this, and perhaps you do. As the video progresses, you become part of a first person rollerblading simulation that places you in an exhilarating, fast-paced parade through a computer generated circular city. A casual text exchange narrates your experience and you can not be sure if you should fully give yourself over. No matter, once you enter the glass box everything becomes an exquisite simulation. Only those left on the outside are wondering how they might cross the road.

Downtown EastsidePaul Wong Canada, video, 2010, 8:00The Downtown Eastside is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, BC and is known as ‘Canada’s poorest postal code’. The area is noted not only for its poverty but its open drug use, sex trade, crime, homelessness, high occurrences of HIV and mental health issues, along with the community activism that comes with trying to fix these numerous problems. The artist records everyday activities in the streets and alleys around the Main and Hasting intersection.

ReClaimScreening Under The StarsAugust 15 @ 9:00 PMDunn Avenue Parkette (South of Queen St. W. on the east side of Dunn Ave.)

An eclectic, family-friendly outdoor showcase of short films and videos by Parkdale community members. While these works are unique in form and genre, this program examines how community, cultural, familial and collaborative bonds can help to create joy, heal trauma and understand the world we live in.

In addition to the titles listed below, this screening will include video and animation work created through our free youth workshop program.

The Intergalactic Space Adventures of Cleo and Anouk Celeste KoonCanada, video, 14:00, 2012A children’s film that combines live action and stop motion animation to tell the magical story of nine year old Cleo, an eccentric self proclaimed space adventurer, who takes it upon herself to outdo modern medicine after an accident lands her best friend Anouk in hospital, broken and shocked. The world can be a tough place, and sometimes you need to escape it entirely.

Morning in ParkdalePARC Members and Making Room Community ArtsCanada, video, 8:12, 2015A video rendering of a projection/performance that was created for the One Small Gesture Celebration in December 2014. The work explores the eclectic neighbourhood of Parkdale and the tremendous impact Parkdale Arts and Recreation Centre (PARC) has had on its residents. The unique soundscape was created by a local choir and lends visceral sense of a community united through collaborative arts.

To Live in the Age of Melting: Northwest Passageevalyn parry and Elysha PoirierCanada, video, 22:19, 2014Traversing the territory between theatrical performance and film, this collaboration between theatre artist/musician evalyn parry and visual/projections artist Elysha Poirier considers what happens when the Canadian North begins to melt and the artist becomes the explorer. Deconstructing the iconic Canadian folk song Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers, a live musical and visual performance, set inside a liminal, arctic-inspired space constructed out of white paper, gives way to hand drawn and collaged animations. This piece takes the viewer deep into a sonic and visual meditation on the Franklin Expedition, climate change, as well as colonial and cultural legacy.

Ice Bike!Nick KovatsCanada, Bolex UltraPan8, 11:30, 2015First he walked, then ran and finally put on his skates to chase cyclists on ice with his camera. The Ice Bike or Icycle winter races have been a treasured February staple in the Toronto cycling community for over 14 years. Kovats has captured the excitement in this lively and beautifully crafted small gage film project that was five years in the making.

Holy Mother My MotherVivek ShrayaCanada, video, 7:15, 2014An intimate portrait of motherhood filmed during the Navratri celebrations (The Goddess Festival) in India. Vivid colours, beautiful compositions and delicate hand-held camera work are accompanied by a rich soundtrack that truly captures this impressive event. Through an interview with Shraya’s mother, the audience is invited to ruminate on this deeply female role and how it is celebrated within Hindu culture.

Outside the RingJoanne Green & Steve LindsayCanada, video, 28:00, 2014Through the lens of a unique violence recovery program in Toronto, this documentary provides a glimpse into the lives of women and transgendered survivors of violence and the impact boxing has had in their healing. The Toronto Newsgirls Boxing Club is the first all-women's boxing club in North America.The film follows the ways in which participants challenge social constructs that dictate that women must not experience their own feelings of aggression.

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s t i l l , 2 0 1 2 , b o t t o m : I c e B i k e ! , f i l m s t i l l , N i c k K o v a t s , 2 0 1 5

ReVisitAugust 8-16A collection of storefront media installations at various locations in Parkdale.

EmbraceJulieta MaríaThe Rhino, 1249 Queen St. W.This video explores the artist's relationship with a living animal that would ordinarily be eaten and finds common ground in the cycle of life and death. Maria embraces guilt and embraces what is other while also suffocating it: A sacrificial rite that intends to take the fish out of his place as an object of consumption and imagines a continuum or connection based in our mortality. from landSandra GregsonThe Workroom, 1340 Queen St. W. A stop-motion animation in which the artist uses oil paint on mylar to create each frame. The video presents an aerial view of a section of land that slowly shifts from wilderness, to hunter/gatherer landscape, to agricultural, to rural, to urban and finally to a mapped surface. The slow pace of the video makes the changes almost indiscernible, a simile for the way we fail to perceive the ongoing development of our natural world.

This Town of Toronto…Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof Front Desk, Parkdale Library, 1303 Queen St. W.A rather unconventional approach to the city symphony genre, which often depicts the rhythms of the city from morning to night and relies on the symphonic composition of shots that, much like in musical symphony, build through various movements until their final conclusion. This Town of Toronto… extends its temporal dimension past the span of one

day to 108 years by including some of the earliest motion picture documentations of the city. The inclusion of archival footage, which was captured by several different filmmakers, helps introduce more than one perspective of the experience and the feel of this city, thereby conveying the spirit of city life as plural and ever- changing. What this work contributes and advances, in the tradition of city symphony films, is the emphasis on rhythm and tone. It adopts the musical technique of polyphony through its visual composition. This Town of Toronto… juxtaposes the past energies of the city with those of the present and the tension created through this collision engenders deep resonance with its viewers.

P-A-R-C Critical Infrastructure (PFG/Sagacity)1499 Queen St. W.In collaboration with the Parkdale Arts and Recreation Centre and its members, P-A-R-C is a video installation that actively recreates the inside of a community centre for its diverse surrounding public(s). Critical Infrastructure is an art collective founded in Toronto in 2015 to help renew our collective social and symbolic lifeworlds. PFG (Peter Francis Glen) is a writer, educator, and filmmaker, whose student film Crad Kilodney (1992) screened at the Festival of Festivals and on the BRAVO! network when he was 21. Five hospitalizations later, he now lives pharmaceutical-free. Sagacity (Chris Wiseman) is a cinematographer, editor, and agitator who has collaborated with award-winning Canadian directors, visual artists and dancers. He is currently working on a film about being human with philosopher Nikolas Kompridis.

Moon PhoneLisa Conway and Andrew CollinsCapital Espresso1349 Queen St. W.A sonic installation using a modified rotary

phone. Have you ever wanted to talk to the moon? Phone her up, and listen to the songs she’s singing. This installation is part of the release of a limited edition space-themed 7” vinyl, The Distance of the Moon, by L CON, Lisa’s experimental pop project. I. Am. The. Moon. Call. Me. Please.

PostcardBrian Kent GotroCommon Sort1414 Queen St. W.

Hi,Please forgive me for not writing sooner...Much has happened since you left.And I have been, as one might say, preoccupied...A confession to the viewer. Derived from a found postcard and transcribed in video across the landscape of a slow-moving walk toward a lifeguard-less beach on a beautiful summer day... This three-channel video installation nudges the viewer gently from screen to screen as the story of a desperate writer unfolds. We are given a rare-glimpse into the private-life of a total stranger where vices are seemingly winning the battle over creativity.

ReImagineA Free Youth Video WorkshopAugust 8 @ 1PMParkdale Library (1303 Queen St. W.)

Working as a group, participants will bring the sights and sounds of Parkdale to the big screen. All participants will have the opportunity to operate a video camera and sound recording devices to create a collaborative portrait of our neighbourhood. The final film will screen at the Parkdale Showcase’s ReClaim - Screening Under the Stars event on August 15th.

Our workshop instructors this year are filmmakers Eva Kolcze and Terra Jean Long.

f r o m l a n d , S a n d r a G r e g s o n , v i d e o s t i l l , f e a t u r e d a t T h e Wo r k r o o m , 1 3 4 0 Q u e e n S t . W.

Parkdale Fi lm & Video Showcase@PFVShowcase