Short personal narratives probe consciousness and memory. Drawing fragments together, seeking comprehension, they expose the vulnerable and the powerful emerges.
the lines i draw upon my body
Dena Ashbaugh | 5:00
A woman gazes at infinite reflections of herself while bathing in shadows. Large blow ups from a professional modelling career, medical slides projected onto her body, verbal recollections of “feeling OK or not OK” reveal complexities of a 20-year battle with anorexia and bulimia. Abstract images and intense memories in spoken word create a disturbing portrait of a body at war with itself.
Dena Ashbaugh began a professional modelling career at age 11. Twenty years later, she examined the role media plays in disordered eating beginning with this short experimental narrative and, later, a feature documentary No Numbers: identity beyond measure.
I See Stars
Caid Dow | 10:30
A fluke injury at age 14 causes a concussion and struggle to heal, seven years and counting. Animation and an array of images against a backdrop of rapidly delivered open-verse poetic narration take us on a dizzying tour of the medical system and an assortment of pharmaceuticals. Illuminating the little-understood reality of post concussion syndrome, vulnerability morphs into a powerful determination to heal.
H. Norman Lidster Prize in Documentary
Vancouver artist and filmmaker Caid Dow made this film “on the budget of an eggplant.” Overcoming resistance to share such personal experiences, she forged ahead to confront the stigma of vulnerability in a world obsessed with power.
Suckerfish
Lisa Jackson | 8:00
When she was 10, Lisa Jackson fled Toronto, to live with relatives in Vancouver. She had to escape her mother’s depression, alcoholism and prescription drug abuse, legacies of the residential school experience. Years later, sifting through memories and letters, she constructs a portrait of a mother whose drive to love her daughter triumphed over demons of addiction. Animation, childhood photos and stylized recreations examine a mother-daughter relationship and the artist’s own search for her Indigenous identity
Anishinaabe filmmaker Lisa Jackson works across genres of documentary, experimental, fiction, performance and, most recently, virtual reality and media art installation. Her immersive multimedia installation Transmissions is anchored in the power of Indigenous languages as a key to ways of being. Lisa divides her time between Vancouver and Toronto.
Bihttoš (Rebel)
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers | 14:00
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers explores the complex relationship between a daughter and her father. At the heart of it is the dissolution of the epic love story and relationship between her Blackfoot mother and Sámi father. Family photos, animation and re-enactments combine in a deeply personal narrative to reveal how past injustices have coloured her perception of love.
Top 10 Canadian Shorts, Toronto International Film Festival 2014, Best Documentary, Seattle Film Festival 2015
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is Blackfoot from the Kainai First Nation (Blood Reserve) and Sámi from northern Norway. She is a writer, director and actor with award-winning works rooted in social justice that explore innovative and experimental forms of cinema. She works across genres and has just co-directed her first feature, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open. She divides her time between Vancouver and New York.
