#astrojam

As we have no single favourite program to recommend, we have prepared this astrological guide to help you better understand the twelve shorts programs according to Sun Signs.

On top of the features, exhibitions, and live performances and parties, our shorts programs span the globe bringing together moving image works in unique and innovative ways. Click through to each program for all additionalinformation from guest curators to individual film descriptions.

Disclaimer: Don’t feel limited to only viewing the program that matches your Sun Sign. Your Rising Sign, current transit, and compatibility are important factors, too. Enjoy!

Aquarius - January 21 - February 19

Answering the Call

This program consists of films that portray two distinct groups of women who have chosen uncommon ways to develop a more profound understanding of themselves as individuals, as members of their respective communities and their place in the world. These fascinating portraits introduce us to members of a mature colony of nuns from Québec, and a team of female tackle football players in North Carolina. Despite the apparent contrast in their lives, the passion, generosity and persistence of both groups make these films complimentary depictions of women who know where they have come from and where they want to go.

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Pisces - February 20- March 20

All That Is Left Unsaid

This program looks at the power of the unspoken, the gaps and spaces between words and the limits of language.

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Aries - March 21 - April 20

Razzle Dazzle

“On a maple dresser, certainly not of European make, lay a rusty pair of forceps, a broken scalpel, half a dozen odd instruments that she could not place, a catheter, some twenty perfume bottles, almost empty, pomades, creams, rouges, powder boxes and puffs. From the half-open drawers of this chiffonier hung laces, ribands, stockings, ladies’ underclothing, and an abdominal brace, which gave the impression that the feminine finery had suffered venery.” —Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, 1936

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Taurus - April 21 - May 21

All Around Us

This program explores the multifarious ways in which the space around us is defined and mediated by physical and metaphysical entities, from geographic formations, vegetation and landscape to built environments, structures, light, language, memory and sound.

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Gemini - May 22 - June 21

Only Believe Things That are Easy to Understand

Between states of bewilderment and structure, the works in this program speak to variations in knowing. From geological time to human time, the scope of understanding ranges from the universal structures of music, colour and mathematics to the intangible connections of interpersonal relationships.

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Cancer - June 22 - July 22

The Influence of Anxiety “As we move about within our mental and historical framework, we take along all the positions we’ve already occupied, and all those we will occupy. We are everywhere at one and the same time; we are a crowd surging forward abreast, and constantly recapitulating the whole series of previous stages. For we live in several worlds, each truer than the one it encloses, and itself false in relation to the one which encompasses it. The truth lies in a progressive dilating of meaning, in reverse order up to the point at which it explodes.” —Claude Levi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques

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Leo - July 23 -August 21

The Kalampag Tracking Agency

Overcoming institutional and personal lapses to give attention to little-seen works—some quite recent, some surviving loss and decomposition—this program collects loose parts in motion, a series of bangs, or kalampag in Tagalog, assembled by their individual strengths and how they might resonate off each other and a contemporary audience. Featuring some of the most striking films and videos from the Philippines and its diaspora, this initiative continues to navigate the uncharted topographies of Filipino alternative and experimental moving image practice from the past 30 years.

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Virgo - August 22 - September 23

Seeing the Past In Front of Us

“In Aymara language the past lies not behind us but in front, because it is seen. It is a simple verbal difference but it expresses an important thought: One cannot move forward without being aware of the past. Maybe more than that, one cannot see anything without looking at the past.” —Miguel Hilari This program consists of two films that look to the past and an agrarian existence that is disappearing around the globe. On separate continents, both Philip Hoffman and Miguel Hilari reflect on the social, historical and geographical contexts from which they originated.

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Libra - September 24 - October 23

Without Warning

An expansive collection of international films from emerging student filmmakers. Working between reality and absurdity, the familiar and the unsettling, these works capture the essence of life’s unpredictability. From in-camera animation to experimentation in editing, these films give us passage into their own unique realities.

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Scorpio - October 24 - November 22

Peeling Back The Layers

The multifaceted films and videos in this program explore how the means used to document or preserve a subject might also have a trans­formative effect. The process of documentation adds a layer that can sometimes conceal as much as it reveals. From drawings to diaries to taxidermy, these artists invite us to look between the layers.

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Sagittarius - November 23 - December 22

Field Notes

This program of films and videos explores the culture, legends, ideas and leisure of several communities around the world and over time.

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Capricorn - December 23 - January 20

Canadian Artist Spotlight: Iris Ng

Shooting across genres using a variety of film and video formats, Iris Ng has made her mark on more than 50 productions over the last decade. Working with visual artists and filmmakers alike, her subtle visual intelligence and generous intuition can be seen in the films and videos in this program, as well as our On Screen Influence of Anxiety program and Off Screen in our Phantom Limbs installation at Scrap Metal Gallery.