Year
2023
country of production
Canada
credits
Alexandra Gelis
Madi Piller
kind of work
Curatorial
PLACEMENTS + RUPTURES
External link
Curated by: Alexandra Gelis and Madi Piller
> Program 1: Housing Inactions, Free streaming > March 15 – 29, 2023
> Program 2: Healing Quest, Free streaming > March 30 – April 13, 2023
“Placements + Ruptures” is a two-part programming series curated by Alexandra Gelis and Madi Piller and presented by VUCAVU in partnership with PIX Film Collective. The works they have selected seek to address issues related to the precarity of our times by exploring concepts of home, displacement, and grief. People’s living conditions are increasingly affected by the effects of post-pandemic realities and the displacement caused by climate warming and wars. In Gelis and Piller’s view, as people increasingly experience housing precarity and increasing inequities, they also endure and carry a great deal of pain and loss. The 10 artworks selected for these programs explore these themes from their own unique perspectives.
The first program in the PLACEMENTS + RUPTURES series titled “Housing Inactions” intends to revive an “old-new” discourse to punctuate the everlasting social housing problem, reaching over 50 years from the early 1970s to the present. It brings into a new context the fragility of a system that demands the elaboration of complex policy-making to address the truthfulness of the precarity in all its seriousness.
Mixing long-form documentaries with short experimental films offer a bouquet of voices and practices of unexpected personal visions with unique closeness and intimacies. This program illustrates how Canadian filmmakers have invented ways to resist while confronting these issues over time.
Virtual Artist Talk: Jaime Black and Collectif HAT (Hyacinthe Raimbault, Angie Richard, et Tracey Richard)
Wednesday, March 22 2023
LIVESTREAM @ 6:30-7:30 PM EST (3:30PM PT / 5:30PM CT / 7:30PM AT)
Moderated by: Alexandra Gelis and Madi Piller
ASK QUESTIONS during the livestream via this chat link: https://vimeo.com/event/3144340/chat/interaction/
PLACEMENTS + RUPTURES: HOUSING INACTIONS
Essay by Alexandra Gelis and Madi Piller
The precarity of living conditions has become a close possibility for most of us in this time of economic, political and social turmoil, the uncertainty created by the effects of post-pandemic life and displacement caused by climate warming and wars.
This film program intends to revive an “old-new” discourse to punctuate the everlasting social housing problem, reaching over 50 years from the early 1970s to the present. It brings into a new context the fragility of a system which triggers heated arguments, elaborates what appears to be complex research and policy-making and still needs to address the truthfulness of the precarity in all its seriousness.
Too often, housing needs strategies are inadequate whether in the Canadian or global context. Arising into the equations are public vs private ownership questions, comprehensive policy programs research, preliminary plans, and private and public lands.
… address the truthfulness of the precarity in all its seriousness.
Still image from “When Land And Body Merge“, Jaime Black and Lindsay Delaronde, 2020, 00h 08m 34s, Video Pool Media Arts Centre
The definition of housing affordability vs social housing has an elaborate economic distinction with programs proposed by officials, developers and consultants in the public and private systems. For adopted policies and programs to proceed to their desired objectives, it is necessary to hold policymakers to their word and to work assiduously with the people in need and with activists towards common housing goals.
Moreover, the urban environment “problem” worldwide is not just about housing. It is about the spaces we share and the richness of our understanding of each other as a social species, as humans with equal access to dignified living conditions, socially and ecologically.
The films presented in this program are a combination of five experimental fiilms short and feature, which relate to and complement each other at the crossroads of social housing for low-income people.
… as humans with equal access to dignified living conditions, both socially and ecologically.
Still image from “Castles On The Ground”, Ananya Ohri, 2015, 00h 01m 00s, CFMDC
The conversation is extended and must continue. We want to share with the audience access to these critical issues of societal living reflected in these films. In our research as curators, we encountered many films that we could not invite to the program due to time constraints. The mixing of long-form documentaries with short experimental films, these films offer a bouquet of voices and practices that present unexpected personal visions with unique closeness and intimacies.
This additional short list of works illustrates how Canadian filmmakers have invented ways to resist while confronting these issues over time:
> Mattress City(1997) by Kika Thorn
> Shelter (2001) by Roberto Ariganello
> Safe Park (2001) by Rebecca Garret 46m 30s
> Slums: Cities of Tomorrow (2013) by Jean-Nicolas Orhon. 01h 22m
> Erasure of communities (2016) by Monica Sehovic Forrester. 07m 27s
> My Gentrification (2020) by Marcos Arriaga. 29m 21s
> Facticity (2021) by Jorge Lozano. 03m 52s
> Me and my room (2021) by Nicole Tanguy 11m 15s
> Trajectoires by Jenny Cartwright. 20m 31s (loop)
– Essay co-written by Alexandra Gelis and Madi Piller
PLACEMENTS + RUPTURES: Healing Quest
FRAGMENTS: LA CÔTE
Thursday, April 8, 2023 at 8 PM (ET) (7 PM CT/ 9 PM AT / 5 PM PT)
@ PIX FILM COLLECTIVE
1411 Dufferin Street Unit C, Toronto, Ontario.
Join us April 8th 2023, either in person or online, for a hybrid for a cinematic performance by COLLECTIF HAT who will present a new filmic work at PIX Film in Toronto.
MORE INFO TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON