A cultural micro-city unto itself, the TIFF Bell Lightbox is often the setting for some of Toronto’s most daring and evocative expressions of cosmopolitan urbanism and creativity.
The Lightbox has become not only a staple of the city’s film scene, but is also a forum for a solid mix of multimedia art installations, creative projects and discussions.
Next week the Lightbox hosts the thrilling Reel Artists Film Festival (RAFF), North America’s only film festival dedicated to documentaries on visual art, photographers and artists.
Presented by the Canadian Art Foundation, RAFF’s fantastic line-up includes 20 films that profile Canadian and international artists and photographers. The festival theme is artistic forms of resistance, a very timely addition to the recent popular and media discourse on citizen activism and revolt.
The festival will kick off with the much-anticipated Canadian premiere screening of Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, director Matthew Akers’ feature-length documentary of Marina Abramović, one of the most provocative radical performance artists of the past few decades.
Some other exciting picks include:
- Oliviero Toscani: The Rage of Images, which explores the “anti-advertising” pioneer best known worldwide for designing controversial ad campaigns for Italian fashion label Benetton;
- Portrait of Resistance: The Art and Activism of Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge, which features the powerful staged photography and social justice-inspired practice of the Toronto-based artist-activists; and
- HOW ARE YOU — A look into the work of Scandinavian installation-art duo Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, perhaps best known for their highly controversial monument to homosexual victims of World War II in Berlin’s Tiergarten.
Also featured are documentaries exploring the brilliant and complicated inner workings of a number of internationally-renowned photographers, such as Thomas Ruff, Massimo Vitali and Hiroshi Sugimoto. The RAFF finishes up Feb. 26 with its first line-up of curated back-to-back short films.
If you’re unable to catch next week’s line-up, pop in for a free screening of artist and filmmaker Jem Cohen’s Occupy Wall St. Newsreels, which will be showing daily at the Lightbox from Feb. 22 to March 23.
The complete festival schedule can be found here.
What: Reel Artists Film Festival
When: Thursday, Feb. 23, to Sunday, Feb. 26
Where: TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street West
Tickets & Availability: Single tickets are $12 general admission; $8 for students/seniors with valid ID. Festival passes are $85 and are good for all screenings except for opening night. Order online, by phone or in person at Lightbox.
Maria Gergin is a Toronto-based articling student.
Photo: Jean Coleman