Friday, April 12, 2024 / 2:30PM EDT / Innis Town Hall / 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto, ON M5S 1J5
n this time of heightened war and unfolding genocide, the role of the witness remains at the forefront of our collective attention. Daily incursions on Palestinian civilians are live streamed direct to screens, held in our hands. As Ariella Azoulay writes in the Civil Contract of Photography, viewing images of such catastrophic circumstances becomes a civil act. The role of the witness affirms the citizenship of those who have been denied their place; to witness serves as an affirmation of life and inherent human value.
While the act of witnessing remains necessary, the role of beauty holds a tender, easily overlooked yet crucial position. We must find refuge to support the flickering fires of hope, not only for those in most dire need but also for weary witnesses, relentless activists, and allies in joint struggles across the globe.
In the late Palestinian author Mahmoud Darwish’ poem “On This Land,” he writes of the valiant and steadfast love of land, cultural endurance, and the “tyrant’s fear of songs.” The Tyrant's Fear of Songs short film program presents works by international filmmakers who experiment with dreams, poetry, and beauty to address our social and civil contracts to one another as we battle systems of tyranny.
These short films reflect fractured and layered settler/colonial histories carried on land and bodies. They traverse time, genre, and narrative style. Reflecting on past and present histories of slavery, occupation, and indentured labour, as well as musings on our real and virtual dystopian worlds, these works are united through their lessons for resistance. The spectral horrors of domination are transformed into songs of fortitude and communion, offering rejuvenating sustenance for the long struggle ahead.
We pay tribute to and honour the life of much loved Black Canadian filmmaker Charles Officer, who radiated with his creative integrity and compassion. This was evident in his early experimental, elegiac short film Vocal Demonstration which is included here in the program.