REFRAME 2023 EVENTS & TALKS
In addition to the Virtual Film Festival, ReFrame 2023 has several in-person events that we don’t want you to miss!
We’re excited to welcome audiences back to Showplace Performance Centre for our first in-person screening in three years. There is also an in-person art exhibition at Artspace that will come to life with a series of talks and events.
IN-PERSON EVENTS
OPENING NIGHT | Thurs Jan 26 @ 7PM
All the Beauty And the Bloodshed, screening at Showplace Performance Centre
WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE | Wed Jan 25 – Sat Feb 25
Exhibition at Artspace w/ The Circle Project
INTRAVENE | Sat Jan 27 – Sun Jan 29, 12-5PM (drop-in)
Immersive Audio Experience at Artspace by DARKFIELD, Crackdown & Brenda Longfellow
WHAT ROLE CAN ART PLAY IN THE OVERDOSE CRISIS? | Sat Jan 28 @ 2PM
Panel discussion at Artspace w/ Alex Bierk, Zoë Dodd, Mkwa Ghiizis/Crystal Hebert, Jeff Bierk & Brenda Longfellow
LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN | Fri Feb 3, 6-9PM
Valentine-making at Artspace with Love Positive Women, an event that engages in public and private acts of love and caring for women living with HIV
LIVESTREAM Q&A
FREEDOM HILL + THE SCATTERING OF MAN LIVESTREAM Q&A | Sun Jan 29 @ 2PM EST
w/ Resita Cox, Luke Gleeson, Czarina Garcia & Patricia Wilson
PRE-RECORDED TALKS
BEYOND EXTINCTION | Q&A w/ Marilyn James & Ali Kazimi
CHOICES | Q&A w/ Bob Romerein, Colin MacAdam, Rob Steinman & Jim Angel
FAULT LINES | Q&A w/ Natasha Luckhardt & subjects from the film
FRAMING AGNES | Q&A w/ Chase Joynt
LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL | Q&A w/ Colin Askey
REBELLION | Q&A w/ Maia Kenworthy
THE BUTCH AND THE BABY DADDY | Q&A w/ Karleen Pendleton Jiménez & Barb Taylor
UNLOVED: THE FORGOTTEN CHILDREN OF HURONIA | Q&A w/ Barri Cohen & subjects from the film
OPENING NIGHT EVENT
Thursday January 26, 2023 | 7:00PM | Showplace Performance Centre | GET TICKETS
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED directed by Laura Poitras
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is an epic, emotional and interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.
Directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, the film interweaves Goldin’s past and present, the deeply personal and urgently political, from P.A.I.N.’s actions at renowned art institutions to Goldin’s photography of her friends and peers through her epic “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” and her legendary 1989, NEA-censored AIDS exhibition, “Witness: Against Our Vanishing.”
The story begins with P.A.I.N., a group Goldin founded to shame museums into rejecting Sackler money, destigmatize addiction and promote harm reduction. Inspired by Act Up, they orchestrated protests to expose the Sacklers and the crimes of their Purdue Pharma, makers of OxyContin.
At the core of the film are Goldin’s art works “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency;” “The Other Side;” “Sisters, Saints and Sibyls;” and “Memory Lost.” In these works, Goldin captures her friendships with beauty and raw tenderness. These friendships, and the legacy of her sister Barbara, anchor all of Goldin’s art.
Content advisory: This film addresses suicide, sexual abuse, drug addiction, graphic sexual imagery, accident trauma, scenes of surgery, drug use, mature themes, sexual content, violence against women, nudity, coarse language
Please note: Opening Night tickets are sold separately, and are not included in the purchase of a Virtual Festival Pass. Masks will be required at this event. This film is not available as part of the virtual festival.
WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE
Wednesday, January 25 – Saturday, February 25
EXHIBITION at Artspace w/ The Circle Project
What Fools These Mortals Be is a three-channel video installation that reimagines Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a series of tableaux vivants (living pictures) performed by 14 formerly incarcerated women. Produced by The Circle Project in collaboration with Vancouver artist Adad Hannah, What Fools embodies the joy of imagination and transformation as it asks us to reconsider the logic and inevitability of prisons.
The Dreaming is a companion piece to What Fools These Mortals Be. An interactive audio documentary, The Dreaming provides an intimate encounter with formerly incarcerated women as they recount their dreams.
The Circle Project was created in 2019 by filmmaker Brenda Longfellow and restorative justice advocate Brenda Morrison as an evolving collaboration of artists and formerly incarcerated women dedicated to producing provocative art together. The Circle Project’s art projects use imagination, storytelling, performance and play to generate rich and intimate encounters with the complex and layered experience of women who are reclaiming their lives on the outside. .
This project is curated by Amy Siegel, Creative Director of the ReFrame Film Festival.
INTRAVENE
Friday January 27 – Sunday January 29, 2023 | 12-5 PM (drop-in)
Artspace, 378 Aylmer Street North
IMMERSIVE AUDIO EXPERIENCE by DARKFIELD, Crackdown and Brenda Longfellow
Intravene is a 20-minute binaural audio experience that immerses listeners in the intense audio environment of an OPS (Overdose Prevention Site) in Vancouver where a user has inadvertently injected a hit contaminated with benzodope. Opioid overdoses were bad enough. But now Vancouver’s drug supply – already contaminated with fentanyl – is laced with benzodiazepines. Peer workers like Trey Helten, a former drug user and manager of an OPS, loves his chosen community and has saved hundreds of lives with naloxone. But now, benzos are throwing up new kinds of challenges.
Intravene was produced through a groundbreaking international partnership between UK theatre company, Darkfield Radio; Crackdown, a podcast produced by drug user activists in Vancouver; and artist Brenda Longfellow. Intravene is supported by the UK/Canada Immersive Exchange.
The voices within Intravene are taken from interviews by Crackdown, amplifying the testimonies of drug users, telling the story of the Vancouver drug crisis from the perspective of those most severely impacted by it.
Intravene premiered at Tribeca in New York and then travelled to BFI in London. We are excited to be bringing this fascinating and impactful sound piece to ReFrame audiences.
Content Advisory: difficult content including drug use and overdose.
BRENDA LONGFELLOW is a Professor in the Department of Cinema & Media Arts, York University. She is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and artist. Recent interactive work includes the online documentary Offshore and What Fools These Mortals Be, a three-screen immersive rendition of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as performed by 14 formerly incarcerated women. She has published essays on Canadian, documentary and feminist cinema in Camera Obscura, Screen, The Canadian Journal of Film Studies.
WHAT ROLE CAN ART PLAY IN THE OVERDOSE CRISIS?
Saturday January 28, 2023 | 2:00 PM
IN-PERSON PANEL DISCUSSION at Artspace, 378 Aylmer St. North
w/ Alex Bierk, Zoë Dodd, Mkwa Ghiizis/Crystal Hebert, Jeff Bierk & Brenda Longfellow
This year’s program features several films and projects that confront the overdose crisis: activists taking a stand, looking at harm reduction, and showing some of the intersections between the overdose crisis, the carceral system, the environment, and HIV/AIDS. Join artists and activists for a thoughtful discussion about the role of art during this critical time, both globally and in our own community.
This event is FREE and open to the public.
Following the panel discussion, there will be opportunities for 1:1 naloxone training provided by Peterborough Public Health.
Masking is strongly recommended at this event. Gallery entrance and washrooms are wheelchair accessible.
Sponsored By
LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN
Friday February 3, 2023 | 6 – 9 PM
VALENTINE-MAKING POP-UP w/ WHAI
Artspace x First Friday, 378 Aylmer St. North
Join us for a valentine-making extravaganza to celebrate Love Positive Women: Romance Starts at Home! Love Positive Women is a platform for individuals and communities to engage in public and private acts of love and caring for women living with HIV. The valentines made at this event will be distributed to women living with HIV in the community through WHAI.
WHAI (Women’s HIV/AIDS Initiative) is a community-based response to HIV and AIDS among Cis and Trans women in Ontario. Through education and community collaboration, our goals are to reduce HIV transmission among women in Ontario, enhance local community capacity to address HIV/AIDS, and build safe environments to support women and their HIV/AIDS related needs. Guided by a provincial team, WHAI has chapters across Ontario with local coordinators who lead programming and initiatives within their communities. The WHAI Coordinator in Peterborough, Brooke Dewhurst, works out of PARN (Peterborough AIDS Resource Network) and is committed to serving women in our community living with HIV as well as women at high risk through education and consultation, harm reduction outreach, creating HIV+ inclusive spaces as well as partnering with local organizations on community events.
CO-PRESENTED BY
LIVESTREAM Q&A
FREEDOM HILL + THE SCATTERING OF MAN LIVESTREAM Q&A
Sunday January 29, 2023 | 2:00PM EST | Reserve Tickets
LIVESTREAM PANEL w/ Resita Cox, Luke Gleeson, Czarina Garcia and Patricia Wilson
Join filmmakers Resita Cox (Freedom Hill) and Luke Gleeson (The Scattering of Man) for a panel discussion around the theme of environmental racism. The filmmakers will be joined by Czarina Garcia from Community Race Relations Committee and Patricia Wilson from Diverse Nature Collective.
Sponsored By
PRE-RECORDED TALKS
BEYOND EXTINCTION
PRE-RECORDED Q&A w/ Marilyn James & Ali Kazimi | On-Demand | Link to Film
In 2019, Ali Kazimi was honoured with the Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in Visual and Media Arts for over three decades of ground-breaking work as a documentary and media artist whose work deals with race, social justice, migration, history, and memory. Kazimi is a full Professor in the Department of Cinema & Media Arts, where he has also served as the Chair of the Department. Kazimi’s films have received over two dozen national and international honours and awards, been screened in prestigious festivals and broadcast nationally and internationally. His films include: Narmada; A Valley Rises (1994), Shooting Indians: A Journey with Jeffrey Thomas (1997), Continuous Journey (2004) and Random Acts of Legacy (2016).
CHOICES
PRE-RECORDED Q&A w/ Bob Romerein, Colin MacAdam & Jim Angel | On-Demand | Link to Film
Jim Angel has acted and danced in the Peterborough theatre and dance scene for over 20 years. As a member of Old Men Dancing he has performed in many Public Energy emergency festivals as well as Old Men Dancing shows in Toronto and Kitchener. More recent activities have included “petites danses” (2016) Chartier Danse, “0%” small dance for small space festival (2018), and “The Retrial of Jesus of Nazareth” (2019). Jim is a retired College senior administrator and has a Doctorate in Education from the University of Toronto.
Colin MacAdam has been singing with choirs in Toronto and Peterborough for over 30 years including the Toronto Jewish Community Centre choir, the East York Community choir, and currently with the Peterborough Singers. He also sings bass with the McDonnel Street Gospel Quartet. 15 years ago, he joined Old Men Dancing and has danced in many of its Public Energy performances in Peterborough. Colin is a retired adjudicator.
Bob Romerein has been an electronic engineer for over 45 years. He joined Old Men Dancing in 2006 when Bill James began working on Weathering with the group. Bob has performed with OMD in many Public Energy Emergency festivals, and choreographed Holding On – Letting Go with Rob Steinman in 2011. Although still working part time as an engineer, Bob’s passion is all aspects of documentary film-making from concept and directing to editing.
FAULT LINES
PRE-RECORDED Q&A w/ Natasha Luckhardt and subjects from the film | On-Demand | Link to Film
FRAMING AGNES
PRE-RECORDED Q&A w/ Chase Joynt | On-Demand | Link to Film
CHASE JOYNT (he/him) is a director and writer whose films have won jury and audience awards internationally. His debut documentary feature, Framing Agnes, will premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. With Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase co-directed No Ordinary Man, a featurelength documentary about jazz musician Billy Tipton, which was presented at Cannes Docs 2020 as part of the Canadian Showcase of Docs-in-Progress. Since premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020, No Ordinary Man has been hailed by The New Yorker as “a genre unto itself” and Indiewire as “the future of trans cinema.” The film has won 9 awards on the international festival circuit, including being named to TIFF Canada’s Top Ten. Joynt’s first book You Only Live Twice (co-authored with Mike Hoolboom) was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail and CBC. Chase also directed episodes of Two Sentence Horror Stories for the CW, which are now streaming on Netflix. With Samantha Curley, Chase runs Level Ground Productions, a collaboratively run production company in Los Angeles.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL
PRE-RECORDED Q&A w/ Colin Askey | On-Demand | Link to Film
Colin Askey is a filmmaker who has spent the last decade documenting the transformative impact of humane policy on the lives of people who use drugs. Recent work includes HAVEN (2019), an award-winning short documentary about North America’s first prescription heroin therapy program in Vancouver.
REBELLION
PRE-RECORDED Q&A w/ Maia Kenworthy | On-Demand | Link to Film
Maia Kenworthy is an independent documentary filmmaker from London. She has directed and produced films for charities and arts organizations, and taught creative workshops in schools and universities across the UK. In 2018 she met the co-founders of Extinction Rebellion and has spent the last four years immersed in the world of activism.
THE BUTCH AND THE BABY DADDY
PRE-RECORDED Q&A w/ Karleen Pendleton-Jiménez & Barb Taylor | On-Demand | Link to Film
KARLEEN PENDLETON JIMÉNEZ is Co-director and Screenwriter of The Butch and the Baby Daddy. She is the author of Tomboys and Other Gender Heroes and The Street Belongs to Us, as well as Lambda Literary Award finalists Are You a Boy or a Girl? and How to Get a Girl Pregnant (the original content on which this short is based). Her work has been recognized by the American Library Association and the Vice Versa Awards for Excellence in the Gay and Lesbian Press. Her films include Butch Coyolxauhqui, Dancing on a Rainbow, and the award-winning animated film Tomboy. She has written about filmmaking in essays such as, “The Making of a Queer Latina Cartoon: Pedagogies of Border, Body, and Home,” and “The Weight of Queerness: Reflections on a Digital Storytelling Project”. She is professor of education, gender, and social justice at Trent University.
Barb Taylor creates animated films and digital stories. Barb is currently working on her first animated feature, Queen Maeve based on a legendary queer Irish leader. As Co-director of the animated short The Butch and the Baby Daddy, she led visual development and animation. Previous to that she created a hand painted animated short Bobbi and Sheelagh about a lesbian who meets a mythological creature. This film screened at Tricky Women Animation in Vienna and Fairytales in Calgary among others. Barb’s film Tomboy exploring gender expression was the recipient of the CBC Canadian Reflection Award and Inside Out Up and Coming Artist Award among others. A digital storyteller, she received the Corus Innovation Award for a tween online radio station and is a Webby Honoree for the CBC Massey Lectures’ website Blood the Stuff of Life.