The Wild Woman in the Woods

Shani Mootoo, Canada, 1993, 14 mins

A South Asian woman adopts butch signifiers from white lesbian culture as an antidote to her invisibility but, as a femme at heart, she doesn’t really know how to do the things butches are apparently supposed to do. Her search for courage takes her into the mountains where she encounters her idol, a feisty goddess who has no time for timidity, roles, or rules.

Bolo! Bolo!

Ian Rashid and Kaspar Saxena, Canada, 1991, 30 mins

An exploration of the response of diasporic South Asian communities to the AIDS crisis told through interviews, an examination of facts, and a weaving of images. At the core of the film are the testimonials of artists and activists – gay, lesbian, and straight – to the barriers and successes of organizing around the AIDS crisis.

Coconut/Cane & Cutlass

Michelle Mohabeer, Canada, 1994, 30 mins

A poetic rumination on exile, displacement, and nationhood from the perspective of an Indo-Caribbean lesbian who migrated to Canada 20 years ago, Coconut/ Cane & Cutlass layers front-screen projection, re-created archival images, oral narratives/histories, and dramatic scenes. -KO

Longing and Belonging: 1990s South Asian Film and Video
The 1990s were a time of significant cultural production within Canada’s South Asian arts communities. Influenced by the 1980s Black Arts Movement in Britain, and in opposition to state-sponsored multiculturalism paradigms in Canada, South Asian became a generous identifier for a variety of communities united by more than geography. Longing and Belonging is loosely structured around themes of diaspora, desire, and identity.

Longing and Belonging is curated by Zool Suleman. Read his essay HERE.