Ripples and Threads: Poetic Shorts from Canada (July 2023)

I curated this program of poetic non-fiction shorts from Canada for one of my favourite film festivals in the world – Dokufest in Kosovo. Ripples and Threads was comprised of five creative short documentaries by inspired filmmakers repudiating formulaic non-fiction trends in order to craft beautiful, sometimes experimental shapes from actuality while provoking ripples of political thought through a subtle underpinning of critique, conservation, debate, relationality and reflection.

Cinema Politica – Various programs (2003 – present)

For the past 15 years I’ve served as the Director of Programming for Cinema Politica, the world’s largest community and campus-based documentary screening network. Curating for CP has mostly been a collaborative, consensus-based process with a dedicated team of volunteers and senior programmers Svetla Turnin, Viviane Saglier and Muhammad El Khairy. Aside from the annual selection of around 50 films, I’ve also co-curated several sidebar programs and curatorial projects, some of which I’ve listed below.

First Peoples, First Screens (2019)

Co-curated with Jess Murwin (Mi’Kmaq), Conor McNally (Métis), the second instalment of a special Cinema Politica program that showcases Indigenous socially-engaged filmmaking from across Turtle Island. As a follow up to the 2016 program, this dynamic offering of animation, experimental, fiction and documentary works is divided into four thematic clusters.

Nations & Migrations: Stories of Borders, Bodies and Resistance (2016-2017)

Co-curated with Svetla Turnin, Nations & Migrations was a curatorial project shaped by the curatorial guideposts of mobility, origins, community and belonging. Films highlighted issues of nationhood and migration from both a historical and contemporary perspective. The program probed troubling topics like Islamophobia, xenophobia, racism, chauvinist nationalism, while foregrounding collective struggles around social justice, migrant rights and anti-racism work across Canada and beyond.

Creativity, Colonization, Contestation: Indigenous Cultures and Peoples of the Americas on Screen and Stage (2014)

A film series that was part of Encuentro in June 2014, this unique program consisted of fiction, documentary and experimental works from across the Americas, with a special focus on Indigenous artists working north of the 49th. Co-curated by Svetla Turnin and Ezra Winton, the program was made up of “exceptional works that engage with the histories, cultures, politics and manifestations of communities of artists, activists, and people living and working in the Americas.”

Divine Interventions: Documentary, Spirituality and Social Justice (2013-2015)

A program co-curated by Svetla Turnin and Ezra Winton that explored the intersection of social justice and spirituality in documentary cinema. Divine Interventions: Documentary, Spirituality and Social Justice delved into the roles spirituality, religion and secularism play in fostering or inhibiting a plurality of perspectives and understanding across cultural, religious, and ethnic borders, as well as participation in social causes, campaigns and movements.

The Sex, Labour, Smut Film and Video Festival (Oct 16-19, 2010)

The Sex, Labour, Smut Film and Video Festival was a one-off festival dedicated to the topic of sex, sexuality and sexwork, held in Montreal. Nine programs of experimental/non-fiction works were co-curated by Shannon Harris, Svetla Turnin, Thomas Waugh and Ezra Winton. Post-projection discussions were led by artists, activists and sexworkers. The festival focused on “two of today’s most politicized, yet under-screened topics: sexwork and pornography. Connecting and contextualizing bodies, genders, identities, desires and difference, this anti-sexist, anti-phobic festival confronts morality and obscenity with performance, pleasure, and politics.”