Archive/Counter-Archive and the Regent Park Film Festival are proud to present Disrupting the Archive, a panel discussion organized as part of the Regent Park Film Festival. This panel will be available to stream for free between November 25th at 6pm and December 2nd on the website of the Regent Park Film Festival.
This program will give you access to artists Nadine Valcin and Jennifer Dysart’s most recent film works. There is also a panel moderated by Debbie Ebanks Schlums in which the artists discuss their individual artist residencies and projects developed at Library and Archives Canada, where they were supported by fellow panelist, Caroline Forcier-Holloway.
Speakers
Debbie Ebanks Schlums (moderator)
Debbie Ebanks Schlums is an artist-researcher and Vanier Scholar pursuing a doctorate in Cinema and Media Studies at York University. Her research explores methodologies of Caribbean diasporic archiving with a focus on the Jamaican Diaspora through storytelling and media art installation.
Nadine Valcin
Nadine Valcin is an award-winning bilingual filmmaker and media artist. She holds a professional degree in architecture from McGill University and recently completed an MFA in Digital Futures at OCAD University and an artist’s residency at Library and Archives Canada through Archive/Counter Archive.
Jennifer Dysart
Jennifer Dysart is an experimental and found footage film enthusiast. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Library and Archives Canada via the Archive / Counter-Archive project. She created Caribou in the Archive (2018/2019) that won the Public Prize at the International Film Festival of Ottawa (2021) and Best Canadian Short Film at the Planet in Focus Film Festival (2020). Jennifer has lived in too many places to count and has Cree roots on her Dad’s side from South Indian Lake, Manitoba.
Caroline Forcier-Holloway
Caroline Forcier Holloway is an audio-visual archivist who retired from Library and Archives Canada in 2020. In particular, Caroline possesses specialized knowledge of early northern expedition films. She currently works as a relief archivist in a part-time capacity with the Nunavut Archives Program, Government of Nunavut.
Films
The following films are available as part of this program
The Film and The Research: Keewatin Missions. Directed by Jennifer Dysart
2021, Documentary, English, 4 min
Films from the colonial era often end up in archives without information about the Indigenous people and communities shown. Jennifer Dysart’s goal is to identify the families shown in the Keewatin Missions film, housed at Library and Archives Canada, that shows the Catholic archdiocese covering much of central and northern Canada in the 1950s. Jennifer’s work is a hybrid of community research and archival filmmaking made possible through the Archive/Counter-Archive’s network of festivals, archives and its commitment to change. For Regent Park Film Festival the film has been separated into two parts, allowing the audience to view the Indigenous content of the film, without encountering the weighty religious elements.
Content Warning: Part 2 shows religious content and children in attendance at residential schools
Origines. Directed by Nadine Valcin
2020, Installation, French with subtitles, 5 min, Watch Trailer
Origines, is a two-channel media installation that uses footage from Claude Jutra’s 1963 film À Tout Prendre (Take it All) to explore his then lover and film co-star Johanne Harrelle’s complicated quest for identity as a Black Francophone woman in Canada. It was produced as part of a residency at Library and Archives Canada through the research project Archive/Counter Archive.
About the Regent Park Film Festival
The Regent Park Film Festival (RPFF) is a non-profit cultural and educational media arts organization. It is Toronto’s longest-running, free community film festival, and is the sole community film festival in Canada’s largest and oldest public housing neighbourhood. In addition to its annual festival in November, it offers year-round screenings, a School Program, workshops, and community events at no cost. RPFF is dedicated to showcasing local and international independent works relevant to people from all walks of life. The key communities it serves are Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities, people with low-income, people who live in public housing, and Regent Park residents.
This project was developed with the support of Archive/Counter-Archive, Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant, and Library and Archives Canada.