Film & Video

The Smoke N’ Mirrors Show

is a critical analysis of the mainstream media and a platform for alternative perspectives on world events.  A mix of theatre, comedy, video and live projections inside the mesmerizing XPression Gallery, “Smoke N’ Mirrors” is a very surreal “alice in wonderland” like experience.  Hosted by Jay Lemieux, featuring Ty Cardaci, Tatiana Koroleva, “The Truther Girls”  and music by Talk/Sing Skeleton.

Facebook event

Saturday, June 25th
XPression Gallery (5334 De Gaspe, #308)
9pm, Pay-what-you-can

Bios:

Ty Cardaci

Excerpts from 3 shows;

Poet Lariat and actorvist Taillefer Cardaci is digging and offering up excerpts from his last 3 political comedy one-man shows, including
“How the west was spun!” an exhilarating  spin  thru the life’s work of America’s greatest political satirist and cowboy Cherokee trickster extraordinaire Will Rogers’
artfully interweaving monologues packed full of 100% Will Rogers’ classic good humor,
“I got an idea how to stop war. Pass a law in congress that no Country can start a war until they pay for the last one!”
(Cardaci is the recipient of the Will Rogers
Memorial Award for,   “BEST COMEDY
ROPER OF THE YEAR”    )

“Whirled Noose” featuring his unique brand of physical, political, and prop comedy- variety…that takes Will Rogers trickster spirit into the future!

and

THE  BUCK WILD WILD WEST SHOW
a one man slap stick political satire variety wild west  buffoon burlesque!

He is currently working on a new show with material he has been developing in Montreal over the last three years studying at L’ Ecole du Mime Omnibus and L’ Ecole du Clown et Comedy Francine Cote here in Montreal.

Jay Lemieux

is a video activist, producer and media literacy teacher.  He helped create the “Smoke N’ Mirrors” show with Math Boylan and Sandrine Charbonneau.  He’s made numerous short documentaries on the subject of advertising, culture jamming and the commodification of the arts and culture.  He is also a founding member of the Infringement Festival and has been involved ever since.

Tatiana Korelava

is a performance artist born in Western Siberia. Her works explore various ways of resistance against dominating standards for individual body in post-capitalist culture. Tatiana has graduated from the Visual Arts Department of the State University of New York in Buffalo, USA as the Fulbright Program scholarship holder. Currently she is working on her PhD research at the Department of Humanities at Concordia University (Canada), integrating Theater Studies, Studio Art and Communication. She has taken part in numerous international exhibitions and festivals.

In my artistic work, video and performances, I investigate the possibilities of resistance to the dominant corporeal standard.  Physical body which absorbed the very materiality of state intervention into biological domain exists in the state of continuous repression, but at the same time it accumulates the potential for the unlimited deconstruction of the established order. The very physicality of the body serves as a perfect background for the subversion of social expectations on corporeal practices. I understand self-adoration, fetishism, self-abuse and other forms of marginalized sensuality as ways to resist socially controlled discourses of pleasure. A game with strictly imposed rules, pleasure, is turned in my pieces into the form of corporeal creativity open to all variations and forms. In general my pieces are meant to reveal the possibility of alternative modes of physical and psychic being in contemporary culture resulted from the state of repression and discontent.

Talk/Sing Skeleton

From the coldest depths of a Montreal winter was forged a band composed of a most varied musical background: Talk/Sing Skeleton! An infant of not even a year old, yet growing in style and assurance, the seven member ensemble brings to the listener a fine blend of folk and gypsy grooves, with lyrics in French and English that are sure to make one ponder the outer reaches of the human psyche, melodies of both a sorrowful and colourful nature, and rhythms to sway slowly or dance without worry to. Simple but complex, organized yet chaotic and at times wonderfully unexpected, Talk/Sing Skeleton looks forward to seeing you on the dance floor at this year’s infringement festival and beyond!

Sandrine Charbonneau

Professionnally trained as a classical dancer and also … as a stand up comic, Sandrine Charbonneau truly enjoys to mix all styles of performance.
For this special edition of Smoke and Mirrors, she’s preparing to blow people’s mind with a politickle-burlesque number where she will perform the role of a female soldier getting back in touch with her feminine roots.

Feature Film: Into the Fire

Into the Fire

World leaders and activists from around the world gathered for the G20 Summit. With over 19,000 police officers and security personnel on hand, the results lead to over 1100 arrests, martial law in downtown Toronto, and the most massive violation of civil liberties in Canadian history.

Into The Fire
The whole world is watching.


http://pressfortruth.ca/

Monday, June 21st
XPression Gallery
5334 De Gaspe, #308
7:30 pm, Pay-What-You-Can

Short Docs: A Night of Cultural Resistance

Short Docs: A Night of Cultural Resistance!

Taking place in the beautiful XPression Gallery, this night of short documentaries features work about the corporate takeover of land and culture and the people who are resisting them!  Documentaries include:

“Mines Bases”

Refusons toute complicité avec les abus de droits humains perpétrés aux 4 coins du monde par les minières canadiennes. Refusons le désastre écologique des néoconservateurs nord-américains. Le plan nord de Jean Charest, les sables bitumineux de Stephen Harper et les gaz de schistes de Nathalie Normandeau et Lucien Bouchard sont autant d’objectifs complices d’une dilapidation des dernières richesses naturelles de la planète.

Refusons l’économie de la guerre qui n’a plus aucun sens avec les besoins de nos communautés locales.

“Wal-Mart Culture Jam” (10 mins, 2008)

Theatre activists from Scotland and the UK come to Montreal and transport a live sweatshop into a wal-mart store and set up shot.  This guerilla Video will make you scream with laughter as security scramble to control the situation and shoppers look scared and confused.

“Invisible Global Theatre” (12 mins, 2011)

Featuring the infamous “Coppertone Jam” this documentary breaks down Optative Theatrical Laboratorie’s activist tactic of “Global Invisible Theatre”.  This 12 minute documentary breaks down all the steps involved in order to complete this action by showing examples of culture jams that OTL has done in the last 10 years.  With moments of insight and hilarity, this short will hopefully inspire others to follow in OTL’s footsteps.

“Remembering Bagua” (22min, 2011) is a short documentary film that examines an under-reported violent conflict that arose in Bagua, Peru in June 2009.

Indigenous Awajun and Wampis activists from the Peruvian Amazon protested against new laws created by the Peruvian government that allow international companies to extract oil, gas and minerals from the Amazon without adequately consulting the indigenous people. Violence ensued which left 34 people dead, and over 200 wounded.

This footage was mostly filmed at the Bagua Massacre Memorial, which took place in June 2010 in northern Peru. The filmmakers recorded testimonials related to the causes and aftermath of the tragic Bagua conflict, and focused on bringing forward the voices of local people, who are concerned about environmental devastation and the impact of oil and mining on water quality and local health.

For more information, visit their blog: rememberingbagua.blogspot.com
Watch the Trailer

Anna Luisa Daigneault is an anthropologist, musician and activist from Montreal, currently residing in Berkeley, California. She works with indigenous people in the south-central Peruvian Amazon, focusing on endangered language and music documentation.

Bronwen Moen is visual artist from British Columbia who combines painting, sculpture, video and movement, and she is currently residing in Montreal, Canada. Her work focuses on relationships between the natural and manufactured world, and the permeability of bodies.

June 20th
Xpression Gallery
5334 Rue de Gaspé (Suite 308)
7:30 pm
Pay-What-You-Can