Events
Films, performances and pop-up events.
FLASHBACK / FLASHFORWARD is an evening of film will explore the personal visions and experiences of the filmmakers.
In Julian Grey Forgetfulness, Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate and one of America's best-selling poets, reads his poem Forgetfulness with Grrey providing the animation. Noted for their intelligent humor, accessibility and observations on daily life, Collins' popular poems come alive in this film..
Petra's Poem by Shira Avni shows artist Petra Tolley, who has Down syndrome, performing a soliloquy that encapsulates her distinctive take on the social self. Drawing from her emotional experiences, she illustrates what it feels like to be in the middle. Employing rotoscopy, hand-drawn animation techniques and subtle stereoscopic 3D, the film captures Petra as she engages the camera with unflinching directness and dignity.
Margaret Williams' Outside In is a film for six dancers, drawn from the CandoCo Dance Company. It is the first collaboration between American choreographer Victoria Marks and director Margaret Williams. Outside In is a witty and affectionate mix of trails, tracks, blue skies and hidden surprises. The film leaves a lasting impression of continual movement - a seamless stream of images, imprints and revelations.
In an era of technological improvements for deaf people, such as the cochlear implant, the destiny of the deaf is examined through one man's experience in David Kurs' film, Deaf Man.
In the Rauch Brothers' Q&A, 12–year–old Joshua Littman, who has Asperger's syndrome, interviewed his mother, Sarah. Their one–of-a–kind conversation covered everything from cockroaches to Sarah's feelings about Joshua as a son.
The video Lone Poetry by Jolanta Lapiak presents another form and concept of writing and poetry. This work flips the sides between image and word, and between visuality and textuality. This pioneering work is a form of concrete poetry in Ameslan (ASL) and English. There is no image of pictures, only images of English and Ameslan (ASL). The video is an experimental work on the concept of "concrete poetry in ASL" in the written form.
Gus Cummins' Another Version 2013 draws on much of his work of the preceding two years. The sonic element is generated by his own intracranial EEG, combined with a voice reading haiku, to represent the sensation of dysphasia.
In Resistance, Liz Crow exploresthe Nazis first official programme of murder, targeted at disabled people. Set in Germany in 1939, it follows Elise, a patient who sweeps an institution for disabled people. She doesn't speak and the staff assume she doesn't understand, but she watches everything, including the buses of patients that leave full and return empty.
Ju Gosling's Opening Doors takes a playful look at building design and the importance of cooperation through the creation of a unique waltz.
Earlier in the week we will be screening When I Walk by Jason DaSilva, a hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival and the winner of Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at the Hot Docs Festival. When I Walk follows DaSilva over several years as he documents his life after having been diagnosed with severe MS in 2005. The long narrative arc makes it a challenging film in some ways, as the viewer must come to terms with the irrevocability of the disorder, in the same way that DaSilva himself does. But the film is not a "one-note samba" of woe and hardship: it incorporates a variety of moods and techniques to become something which is enthralling to watch. DaSilva is a professional filmmaker, who had created award-winning work before 2005. Once the shock of diagnosis wore off, it only made sense to him to pick up his camera again to record his experience of MS. A no-nonsense mother who advised him that we are here for a short time and must make the best of things, also helped him to channel his energy into creativity and activism. And meeting his future wife Alice Cook at an MS support group, which she was attending because of her care of a parent with MS, also contributed to his ability to make sense of living with this difficult disorder.
Performances
Kazumi Tsuruoka will perform his inimmitable style of singing, drawing on the American Songbook and folk/blues. Kazumi has been one of the artists-in-resdence throughtout September and has created new tunes in collaboration with local musicians: Steve Morel, Jim Grant and Dan McGee. His interpretations bring a personal and poetic angle to the political disability movement that he has fought for over several decades. He will be accompanied on-stage by the band She Likes Fiction.
On the same bill will be Ju Gosling's performance: What's Normal Anyway? This 15-minute spoken word piece, new for 2013, brings together stories of 'normal' life for disabled people and their allies. Ju highlights the fact that, while being disabled is normal, the way in which disabled people are treated within our communities is often anything but, and underlines the importance of coming together to achieve change.
Pop-Up Events
The Red Wagon Collective (Nancy Halifax and Kim Jackson) will bring varied material arts practices from the Monday Art Group, a weekly group run with women at a Toronto shelter using collaborative arts practices. Here they will reproduce the distinct socio-geographic space of this group working within this new location. Focusing on concerns of homelessness, disability, and poverty we can come together, teach, learn and adventure into art practices that are defined by a local social aesthetic. In Durham, the Red Wagon Collective will offer individual and group art making, poetry readings, discussion, a soundscape, tea, cheesies and other goodies.
Art Hive is another pop-up event featuring arts-based social inclusion involving community, organized by Janis Timm-Bottos from Montreal. It will be presented in front of Chicory Common Café in Durham.
Film Schedule
Sunday, Sept. 22, 4:00
Durham Art Gallery, $5
When I Walk
Jason DaSilva, 2912, 85:00
Friday, Sept. 27, 8:00
Durham Town Hall
Flashback / Flashforward
Forgetfulness
Julian Grey 2007 1:52
Petra's Poem
Shira Avni 2012 4:11
Outside In
Margaret Williams 1994 14:00
Le P'tit Bal
Philippe Decoufle 1994 3:49
Deaf Man
David Kurs 2007 10:00
Q&A
StoryCorps / Animation: The Rauch Brothers 2010 4:00
Spring Dawn
Jolanta Lapiak 0:36
Lone Poetry
Jolanta Lapiak 2006-07 1:25
Another Version
Gus Cummins 2013 4:33
Resistance
Liz Crow 2008 12:35
Opening Doors
Ju Gosling 2004 4:00
Performances
Saturday, Sept. 28, 8:00
Durham Town Hall
Ju Gosling
What's Normal Anyway?
Kazumi Tsuruoka
An Evening of Song
Pop-Up Events
The Red Wagon Collective
Saturday, Sept. 28, 2:30-5:00
Heritage Bridge Park, Durham
Art Hive
Saturday, Sept. 28, 2:30-5:00
Chicory Common Café
