Fillip

E.S.P. — Anthrozoology
September 5th, 2021

Moberly Park
7646 Prince Albert St.
Vancouver, Canada

Register Here

Fillip is pleased to announce an upcoming screening as part of E.S.P., an ongoing series looking at the relationship between film and speculative modes of visuality.

Join us Sunday, September 5 at 7pm at Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre Field House, Vancouver, for a free outdoor screening of work by Jade Baxter, Shigeko Kubota, Alexandra Lazarowich, Brian Lye, Gail Noonan, and Weihan Zhou. Copresented in partnership with Echo Park Film Centre North. Guest curated by April Thompson.

E.S.P. — Anthrozoology continues our investigation into documentary, narrative, and formalist film, presenting a program of shorts that include animation, celluloid, and single-channel versions of video installation. This program explores what it means to witness the natural world, and, in particular, the behaviour of animals: from amphibians to pollinators, fish to foxes. Each visual exploration is overshadowed by human interaction; from our observation to our pursuit, our reverence to our dependence. The films by Baxter, Kubota, Lazarowich, Lye, Noonan, and Zhou offer experimental forms that trace these interactions, ranging from cinéma vérité to visual haiku, stop-motion to spoken-word poetry and fiction, with elements of humour, existential dread, and love.

Doors at 7pm. Entrance to this screening is free but an RSVP is requested. Light vegetarian snacks will be served before the screening at dusk.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we request that attendees maintain a respectiful distance from other audience members throughout the event. Please use the sanitizer provided before helping yourself to snacks. All audience members are asked to self-assess before attending. If you are not feeling well, have recently travelled outside of Canada, or have had close contact with someone who has a confirmed case of COVID-19, please do not attend.

Film Program:

Weihan Zhou
Frog, 2020, 3.5min

Jade Baxter
For Wildlife, 2014, 8min

Gail Noonan
Honey, 2002, 7min

Brian Lye
Love Birds, 2011, 7min

Brian Lye
Untitled (Hello Fox), 2013, 1.5min

Shigeko Kubota
Rock Video: Cherry Blossoms, 1986, 12.5min

Alexandra Lazarowich
Lake, 2019, 5min

Weihan Zhou
Astronaut, 2020, 3.5min

About the Artists:

Jade Baxter is an artist from the Nlaka’pamux Nation. She is a member of Skuppah Indian Band. Her current artistic objectives are finding utility in art during crisis and continuing to tell the stories that come from the timux and her nkAshykn. She predominantly works in media arts and craft, and recently has been moonlighting as a community relief volunteer after the devastating Lytton Creek Fire that consumed her home and hometown.

Shigeko Kubota (久保田 成子) (1937–2015) was a Japanese video artist, sculptor, and avant-garde performance artist who primarily lived in New York City. She was a key member and influence on Fluxus—the international group of avant-garde artists centered on George Maciunas—having been involved with the group since witnessing John Cage perform in Tokyo in 1962 and subsequently moving to New York in 1964. She was one of the first artists to adopt the portable video camera Sony Portapak in 1970. Kubota is known for constructing sculptural installations with a strong DIY aesthetic, which include sculptures with embedded monitors playing her original videos.

Alexandra Lazarowich is an award-winning Cree filmmaker from northern Alberta. Her short film Fast Horse was honoured with The Special Jury Prize for Directing at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Her body of work as director and producer include Lake, Indian Rights for Indian Women, Cree Code Talker, Empty Metal, and INAATE/SE/. She is the series producer for the CBC’s multi-award-winning comedy documentary series Still Standing.

Brian Lye is a filmmaker, artist and educator living as an uninvited guest on the Traditional Territory of the Sinixt people. His lens-based works are preoccupied with magic, humour, and the everyday. His films and animations have won awards and screened internationally at venues such as Sundance Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, The Contemporary Culture Centre of Barcelona, and LIVE! Vancouver’s performance art biennale. He has been an artist in residence with the Klondike Institute for Art and Culture, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, and Oxygen Art Centre.

Gail Noonan is a visual artist and animator based on Mayne Island, British Columbia. Recently she recorded a CD of original songs, two of which were also made into animated shorts. In a complete shift in direction, she currently owns and operates Books On Mayne, a bookstore on the Gulf Island she has called home for the past 30 years.

Weihan Zhou is a visual artist and a filmmaker who works and lives in New York City. His works include experimental films, video installations, photography, and text, focusing on the choice and cognition of individuals trapped in unusual times and space. He received his BFA in Animation from the China Academy of Art and completed his MFA in Photo, Video, and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in 2020.

About the Curator:

April Thompson is a curator and writer currently based on the unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Səl̓ílwətaʔ / Selilwitulh, and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm Nations, in Vancouver. Her practice is guided by critical investigations of photography and the moving image, spatial politics and new media.