Video Installation – Screening now, in the foyer at the Coach House: 𝘒𝘢𝘢𝘭𝘪 (2022), by Leena Manimekalai.
𝘒𝘢𝘢𝘭𝘪 (9:00, 2022) is a performance documentary film in which the female queer BIPOC filmmaker embodies Kaali, the termagant deity from Tamil and Telugu Folklore in Southern India, walks around the streets of Kensington Market and encounters the candid reactions of people across ethnicities, colour and cultures. It is a quintessential trip of being, becoming and belonging in the settler colonial land of Tkaronto.
𝗟𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗸𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗶 is a published poet and an award-winning filmmaker from the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu whose works promote human rights, particularly those of marginalized people, such as the Dalit, Refugee, LGBTQI+ community. Her fifteen plus films across genres and lengths have covered subjects such as caste, gender, globalization, art therapy, student politics, Tamil’s right to self-determination, eco feminism, Indigenous and queer rights. Her films have been internationally acclaimed, and have also generated reprisal, censorship attempts, and death threats. She was selected as a 2022 BAFTA India Breakthrough talent, has recently completed an MFA in Film at York University and the 2023 Artist-in-Residence at the Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities – UTM, Jackman Humanities Institute – UoFT and South Asian Visual Arts Centre(SAVAC). She is currently developing a participatory climate film with the Afro Amazonian Quilombola community in Brasil.
Part of series of video works by contemporary artists installed in the CCT Coach House foyer, 𝘒𝘢𝘢𝘭𝘪 will be on view until January 31.
