Absence|Presence is a series of panel conversations, screenings, and workshops reintroducing Desh Pardesh to Reel Asian’s audiences and community. Desh Pardesh was a multidisciplinary arts and culture festival that engaged with the political issues of South Asia and its diasporas through a multi-day festival and conference, taking place in Toronto every year from the late 1980s until 2001. The festival programmed works and conversations about feminism, class, sexuality, access, disability, race, caste, imperialism, and capitalism, centring the voices and experiences of underrepresented and marginalized voices within the South Asian diaspora. Absence|Presence seeks to honour and remember the histories of radical arts and culture spaces like Desh that paved the way for numerous queer diasporic art collectives and programs in the city, including the South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC). From 2013 to 2017, SAVAC worked on an oral-history project aimed at collecting the stories of the organizers, artists, participants, and community activists behind the festival.
Absence|Presence Arts Workshop - Meme-making as political action
Artist: Saba Akhtar
The tools used to create independent and shareable content have drastically changed over the last two decades, influencing the immediacy and frequency of the reaction to our political climate. Participants will be encouraged to find their comedic voice in political commentary by using found resources such as magazines, newspapers, and photographs to create their own memes based on original or viral concepts.
10 Nov, 2021
to 19 Nov, 2021
GA
Mi-yeon seems to be living the perfect life as a choirmaster and the wife of a successful man. In comparison, her sisters Hee-sook and Mi-ok seem to be miserable, making Mi-yeon frustrated. But in the shadow behind her perfect smile, Mi-yeon’s also suffering from the three sisters’ shared childhood trauma that they’ve yet to come to terms with.
Hsiao-chi has never been an ordinary girl. She is always a step faster than everyone else, perhaps too fast for her to connect with anyone romantically. With Valentine’s Day approaching, Hsiao-chi’s anxious about finding someone. When she finds herself the dream date, she goes to bed looking forward to Valentine’s Day. But to her surprise and disappointment, she wakes up on February 15. Maybe A-tai, the bus driver who is a step slower than everyone else, has the answer to her missing Valentine’s Day.
Desh Pardesh ended in 2001, in large part due to a massive cut in public arts funding. Two decades later, organizers and artists from the festival discuss the impact of the festival and the ways in which we can learn from the success and challenges of running an unapologetic and political arts festival in the city of Toronto.
Founded in Toronto in 1997, Reel Asian is Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival and a year-round cultural organization dedicated to championing Asian and Asian diasporic artists and storytellers. What began as a grassroots film festival has grown into a national platform supporting filmmakers and audiences through screenings, education, industry initiatives, artist development, and community programming presented across Toronto, the GTA, and online across Canada.
401 Richmond Street West, The Commons (Suite 448)
Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8 Canada
(416) 703 – 9333
info@reelasian.com
Charitable number: 870021383RR0001
