Montreal is known for its back-to-back festivals. In the fall and winter, these take the shape of many, many film, video and visual media fests. This is why you’re considered a little insane to try launching a new film/video festival around, well, right now. So call us insane. Cinema Politica and the Concordia Documentary Center have launched the small but voracious “SEX LABOUR SMUT Film and Video Festival,” running from October 16th to the 19th at the de Seve Cinema, Concordia University. All but one of the events are by donation, and all the works are destined to engage, enrage, enlighten and entertain audiences on the subjects of sexwork and pornography.
With classic hits like HOOKERS ON DAVIE, underground favourites like MADAME LAURAINE’S TRANSSEXUAL TOUCH, punchy shorts like CRUCIAL EJACULATION, or the moving and intimate DEATH OF A WHORE, there’s a lot to check out.
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Photo credit: Serge Clément
Today is the 3rd anniversery of the Concorde collapse in Laval, Quebec, which killed five and injured six. Probably most people in the area have a memory of the bizarre images we saw on TV: an entire chunk of overpass fallen on to the road below. I was living in Edmonton at the time, planning my move to Montreal, and wondering what kind of mess I might be getting myself into.
Over two years after my move, I’ve found that much of this city’s infrastructure is indeed a bit of mess. But through my involvement in Porte Parole’s Sexy béton project, I’ve discovered something even more egregious. You might think justice was served for the victims of the overpass collapse – but nothing could be further from the truth.
Sexy béton is a documentary theatre production (in both French and English) based on first-hand interviews with the survivors of the collapse, as well as with those who had public responsibility to remedy – or be seen to remedy – the underlying causes of the tragedy. These people include Pierre Marc Johnson – who headed up the commission that investigated the collapse, as well as Michel Gagnon, president of Quebec’s engineers’ association. It is a surprisingly moving play (I say this as someone who had no hand in its creation) and the ensemble cast does a remarkable job of humanizing and dramatizing the story of the last three years.
If you live in the Montreal/Laval area, there are two chances left to see Sexy béton this week: tonight and tomorrow at the Segal Centre (5170 chemin de la Côte Ste Catherine). Call 514-739-7944. More show info here.
- Laurence Miall
There is a plinth at Trafalgar Square in London, England that will host 100 days and nights of human performance/intervention/being in what may be the longest art performance ever mounted. Certainly one of the oddest. But also perhaps most apropo for a time whose shiniest cultural trait seems to be a willingness to participate in making culture (blog/podcast/flickr/youtube/twitter/etc.) rather than (only) consuming it. One and Other will mount 2,400 people in one hour live performances on the “fourth plinth” at Trafalgar Square – and of course, online.
The artist behind One & Other is Antony Gormley. His artist statement suggests that the project “is an extension of [his] exploration of the connection between individuals. The volunteers on the plinth become both representations of themselves and of the human population of the world, viewed by fellow members of the wider society which they inhabit.” Not so helpful, really. But we can see in this work echoes of a tradition sometimes referred to as “living art”, creative expression that uses living matter as its medium of expression.
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From the audio labs of Ultra-Red comes the fourth and final volume in their Sounds of the War on the Poor series. Beginning in 2008, activists and artists were invited to create one-minute sound responses to the question: What is the sound of the war on the poor? The contributions include micro-documentaries, soundscapes, music interventions, interviews … all available for free download.
Ultra-red is an interesting crew. Positioning themselves as an artist collective who engage in the “fragile dynamic between audio art and political mobilizing”, ultra-red is pushing the boundaries between the aesthetic and the political in the realm of sound art.
Not content with making and distributing recordings with political implications, ultra-red also engages in political intervention in the course of their collaborative work. Some of their previous work includes: Soundtrax, their first public intervention created in collaboration with the Los Angeles clean needle exchange, Clean Needles Now; Secondnature: an investigation into queer public sex in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park; Survey the Future: reflections on the struggle of migrants in the context of, respectively, global capital and labor – to name just a few.
Sounds of the War on the Poor are part of their public record archives, which also includes series on AIDS, questions of global migration, and public housing. All recordings are available for free download.
Theatre Activist and Revolutionary Augusto Boal
May 2nd, 2009, saw the passing of a visionary theatre artist, activist and educator. Augusto Boal, Brazilian theatre director and founder of the “Theatre of the Oppressed” (TO), has left a rich legacy of theatrical innovation and social activism in the inspired hearts and minds of theatre practitioners across the world.
Boal created the Theatre of the Oppressed techniques in the early 1960s as a way to establish a dialogue between audience, director and actors that encouraged political activism aimed at transforming oppressive realities. Seen as a threat to the dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985, Boal was arrested and tortured before being exiled to Argentina. He then went on to further develop his practice in Argentina, Peru, and Europe, before returning to Brazil after the fall of the military regime.
Augusto Boal’s impact on the field of community-based art is incalculable. TO methodology is taught around the world, in universities as in community-based settings, including Theatre of the Oppressed Institutes on every continent. Boal’s ideas on theatre and empowerment changed the tools available to an entire generation of theatre artists, rejuvenating discourse around the impact of theatre in a given community. He himself worked tirelessly and to the end in teaching and enabling artists and communities worldwide, and his legacy will be felt in the thousands that now carry on his work. His passing marks the next phase of the Theatre of the Oppressed, in the physical absence of the Joker himself.
As this past March 27 saw Augusto Boal as the author of the 2009 World Theatre Day message, I share his words here with you again and reflect upon his legacy:
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The basement of the Elks Lodge was steamy hot. Two hundred or so jammed into the dark, low-ceilinged room (complete with elk heads on the wall) to celebrate opening night of the Megapolis Audio Festival in Boston. It was an all-star line-up: The Lothars, Radio Wonderland, Die Schrauber, Boston Typewriter Orchestra and Peace. Loving. I stumbled in just in time to catch the last bits of Radio Wonderland’s outrageous and wildly eclectic improvised soundscapes made with homemade instruments and remixed live samples from local FM radio. The room was captivated and electrified as Joshua Fried staggered around the impromptu stage with boom box, bicycle tires, shoes and assorted electronic instruments. Although no one was dancing, it was an existential sweaty frenzy in the crowded room.
While the Typewriter Orchestra was setting up their complicated set (six typewriters all specifically miced, punch clocks, hole-punches, staples, telephones …) I grabbed a whiskey at the bar from the two burly but friendly bartenders. The vibe was good, and the crowd was delightful intergenerational, from a toddler yawning and rubbing his eyes on his father’s shoulder to the septuagenarians roaming around (were they audio pioneers?) including the oldster running sound for the performers. The whiskeys came in doubles, which I should have paid more attention to, but the atmosphere was celebratory, stimulating, electric.
The Typewriter Orchestra filed out onto the stage, all wearing white shirts and ties.
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The cast of "The Dictatorship of Debt" rejoice for global capitalism
Last night I was invited to one of three performances of the Social Justice Committee’s (SJC) political play, “The Dictatorship of Debt” at Sala Rossa here in Montreal. The evening began with a performance by Montreal spoken word artist and musician Kyra Shaungnessy who spoke and sang some beautiful but fairly predictable (politically) lefty poems and songs. With lyrics like “Oh Canada, we are dedicated to not caring,” it made me think, boy is this the wrong crowd to be telling that to! Shaungnessy is clearly a talented writer and performer, and her piece about the terrible experience of unexpectedly finding herself on a bus tour of people surviving in a Nicaraguan dump was poignant and touching. But songs about apathy might be better served to a crowd that wasn’t so clearly overwhelmingly part of activist culture already. Still, it was a heartfelt and lovely prelude to the evening.
After the opening performance the play began with a speech from Christopher Columbus, and judging from the costumes and sparse set I had a moment of regret for not doing more research before dragging myself out for the evening. Those cowardly feelings soon subsided however, when I realized I was in for a lively, smart and very funny hour of satirical theatre. The performers, all of whom are volunteer and have other full-time lives, did a remarkable job with lines bordering on economic textbook obscurity. There was indeed so much financial and political mumble-jumble, hats truly must go off to the actors for keeping the ship sailing straight throughout. Click to continue »
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