Short Docs: A Night of Cultural Resistance
Jay LemieuxShort 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