Direct Action and the Archive: Screening Sid Chow Tan’s video journalism

Direct Action and the Archive: Screening Sid Chow Tan’s video journalism

Contributor

Join 221A for a screening of selections from Sid Chow Tan’s archive of self-produced video journalism.

For decades, Chow Tan has been active as a documentarian and organizer across social movements in the Lower Mainland. Chow Tan’s vast archive of video works records decades of organizing and direct action in environmental activism, anti-Olympics mobilizations, and the ongoing struggle for housing. In conversation with Librarian Vincent Tao, Chow Tan will speak to how his self-taught video practice has complemented his movement work and the importance of insurgent archives today.

The screening will include Chow Tan’s video documenting the 2002 Woodward’s Squat. To supplement the work, Pollyanna 圖書館 Library will host an open archive of print materials from the squat, collected by past 221A Fellow Josh Gabert-Doyon.

This program is co-produced by Recollective: Vancouver Independent Archives Week 2018 and The 15th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.

 

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Recollective: Vancouver Independent Archives Week 2018 is a series of free public events, panels, conversations, and screenings that highlight artist-run centre archives, artists working with archives, and the intersections between contemporary art practices and social movements in Vancouver.

Recollective features perspectives and approaches to archival practice through grassroots strategies, collective organizing, hybrid models, DIY spaces, open source solutions, and counter-archives that facilitate ownership of community memory by and for community. This series of events will emphasize the reciprocal influence between contemporary culture and social movements by drawing attention to shared experiences and struggles across diverse communities.

For a full listing of Recollective programs, visit archivesweek.ca.

 

The 15th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival celebrates the creative and committed artists and activists who thrive in the heart of Vancouver. The themes of the 2018 Festival is “Seeds of Justice, Seeds of Hope.” The Downtown Eastside community has an inspiring history of advocacy for human rights and social justice. DTES-involved artists, residents and citizens of Greater Vancouver have much to learn from our community’s history and accomplishments as we create artistic activity that speaks to today’s vital concerns and burning issues.

For a full listing of the 2018 Heart of the City Festival events, visit http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com/.

Project Support

Canada Council for the Arts