The film “Oceanic: Queering the Ocean," a collaboration between PPD professors micha cárdenas, Gerald Casel, Cynthia Ling Lee, as well as, Susana Ruiz, Huy Truong and Anna Friz, is screening as part of the event Infinite Points on a Circle at the Toronto International Film Festival Lightbox. Curated by Syrus Marcus Ware.
About the event:
Infinite Points On A Circle considers this expansive thinking and showcases incredible work by trans, nonbinary, and two-spirit artists. Working across languages and cultures, these artists consider gender in complex and beautiful ways. Moving beyond simplistic and colonial considerations of gender identity, the selection of films presented here integrates environmental justice, Black liberation, prisoners justice, Indigenous resurgence, parenting, and more. This program features short films exploring speculative fiction, fiction, music videos, narrative documentary, and experimental components.
About the film:
Oceanic shifts attention from the damage climate change is causing to the life-worlds on land to the unfolding harm of the oceans. Oceanic is a multidisciplinary art project that includes Augmented Reality (AR) to visualize landscapes and aquatic species threatened by climate change, stitching the line from colonization to neoliberalism to racial capitalism through holographic dance performances captured with volumetric video.
Oceanic will present audiences with an experience of the coast of the Pacific Ocean at Natural Bridges State Beach, with an original soundtrack and a series of performances that tell the story of how climate change is a racial justice issue. The creation of this art game will include volumetric video of dance performances by Cynthia Ling Lee, Gerald Casel and micha cárdenas, in collaboration with Susana Ruiz, Huy Truong and Anna Friz.
Oceanic will present volumetric, or 3-D, video of movement performances, alongside 3-D LIDAR scans of ecotonal coastal environments. These scans include other species who live on the coast, including starfish and sea urchins. Oceanic will also present words from chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa, who wrote about this beach to think through solidarity across identities in women of color feminism, such as the former exclusion of trans women, which she tried to undo.