Location: Ada Slaight Hall | 585 Dundas St. E., Toronto, ON
Four new urgent videos by Toronto-ish artists exploring stories of living with HIV today. In Amil Shivji’s Call Me Uncle, queer Tanzanian musician Tofa Jaxx shares songs and conversation with trans HIV+ activist Aunty Ali. Darien Taylor’s Virus Queen is an experimental video about wrestling with desire and disease, by the HIV+ co-founder of Voices of Positive Women. Esery Mondesir’s video-poem Of What Death We Die explores his Haitian dad’s 1980 death in context of early 80s AIDS stigmatization. In Atefeh Khademolreza’s animated Meteor, her grief at the loss of her queer HIV+ bestie in Tehran is intercut with global Women-Life-Freedom protests. Screening & discussion with artists, moderated by filmmaker Alison Duke.
Tanzanian queer singer Tofa Jaxx in conversation with HIV/Trans activist Aunty Ali, exploring issues of sex work, gender and being out.
Amil Shivji is based in Tanzania, his homeland, as a filmmaker and believes in using images to challenge the powers that be, in particular deconstructing urban facades of development and emphasizing the strength and struggles of marginalized communities.
The Virus Queen prepares herself to meet a long lost love– who may be Death itself.
Darien Taylor has been living with HIV since 1987. She was involved with the treatment activist group AIDS ACTION NOW! for many years, and a founder of Voices of Positive Women, an organization run by and for women with HIV. She is co-editor of the international anthology Positive Women, and the director of a documentary film based on this work. Darien was among the first women in Canada to be “out” about her HIV status.
“Meteor” is a visually stunning piece that employs animated surrealist imagery to delve into the narrator’s profound grief over losing her best friend within the repressive Islamic Republic of Iran. “Meteor” juxtaposes the international “women, life, freedom” protest movement with the challenges faced by the LGBTQ community in Iran, making for a poignant and emotional ode to friendship and a tribute to those who continue to suffer in Iran.
Atefeh Khademolreza is an award-winning writer and filmmaker born in Iran and living in Toronto. She holds an MFA in Film Production from York University. Her films have been exhibited in international and Canadian festivals, including the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Pitch Program. Khademolreza is an alumna of the Berlinale Talent Campus, Asian Film Academy, Serbia Interaction, and Reelworld E20 film programs. She was the TIFF Micki Moore Resident for 2021-22 and is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada.
October 1980, Haiti. A 26-year-old man becomes gravely ill and dies of an unknown disease. Meanwhile, in Ronald Reagan’s United States, health authorities have decided that Haitians, homosexuals, hemophiliacs and heroin users are to be lumped together in a “4H club” whose members are dying of this deadly new epidemic.
Esery Mondesir is a Haitian-born video artist and filmmaker. He was a high school teacher and a labour organizer before receiving an MFA in film and video production from York University (Toronto) in 2017. Mondesir draws from personal and collective memory, official archives, vernacular records, and the Everyday to generate a reading of our society from its margins. Made in collaboration with fellow members of the Haitian diaspora in Havana, Cuba and Tijuana, Mexico, his latest films have been exhibited in art galleries and film festivals worldwide, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, the Open City Festival in London, UK, the Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Mondesir is Assistant Professor at OCAD University in Toronto.
Alison Duke is an award-winning filmmaker. She earned two Canadian Screen Awards for the documentary, ‘Mr. Jane and Finch’ (2019). She is the first woman to direct a Canadian Heritage Minute with ‘Chloe Cooley’ and is also the co-creator and co-director behind Oya Media Group’s 5-part hit docu-series ‘Black Community Mixtapes’ for City TV.
Amil Shivji is based in Tanzania, his homeland, as a filmmaker and believes in using images to challenge the powers that be, in particular deconstructing urban facades of development and emphasizing the strength and struggles of marginalized communities.
Darien Taylor has been living with HIV since 1987. She was involved with the treatment activist group AIDS ACTION NOW! for many years, and a founder of Voices of Positive Women, an organization run by and for women with HIV. She is co-editor of the international anthology Positive Women, and the director of a documentary film based on this work. Darien was among the first women in Canada to be “out” about her HIV status.
Atefeh Khademolreza is an award-winning writer and filmmaker born in Iran and living in Toronto. She holds an MFA in Film Production from York University. Her films have been exhibited in international and Canadian festivals, including the Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Pitch Program. Khademolreza is an alumna of the Berlinale Talent Campus, Asian Film Academy, Serbia Interaction, and Reelworld E20 film programs. She was the TIFF Micki Moore Resident for 2021-22 and is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada.
Esery Mondesir is a Haitian-born video artist and filmmaker. He was a high school teacher and a labour organizer before receiving an MFA in film and video production from York University (Toronto) in 2017. Mondesir draws from personal and collective memory, official archives, vernacular records, and the Everyday to generate a reading of our society from its margins. Made in collaboration with fellow members of the Haitian diaspora in Havana, Cuba and Tijuana, Mexico, his latest films have been exhibited in art galleries and film festivals worldwide, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, the Open City Festival in London, UK, the Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Mondesir is Assistant Professor at OCAD University in Toronto.
