In the Saddle: Feminist Super 8 Erotic Films

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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In the Saddle – Feminist Super 8 Erotic Films

Curated by Milada Kovacova

This programme is sponsored by the Art Gallery at York University agYU and the Images Festival.

All works screening on super 8 or 16mm.

"Originally, Feminist Super 8 Erotic Films germinating point was to recreate a screening showcasing the commissions from five women artists visioning a Womens Erotic Film Language; this workshop was curated by Margaret Moores and Almerinda Travassos and sponsored by A Space Gallery in 1984. Kim Tomczak sowed the seed for this program to be remounted at the8fest; further research led me to Lynne Fernie, one of the commissioned filmmakers who had the only accessible piece of original literature from the Womens Erotic Film Language program. Over thirty years have passed and one of the filmmakers, activist Chris Bearchell 1952-2007 had passed away and three of the films from this workshop were inaccessible. A new curatorial strategy led to In the Saddle: Feminist Super 8 Erotic Films that culled together a mini-survey spanning four decades of feminist small-gauge movies directed by Lisa Steele, Gay Bell, Louise Noguchi, Shawna Dempsey Lorri Millan, Allyson Mitchell, and Nadia Sistonen. Humour runs this show."

— Curator Milada Kovacova

Allyson Mitchell Lex Vaughn – Central Core Imagery Jump Rope 1998, super 8 transferred to 16mm, silent, 3 min.

Featuring performers extraordinaire Shawna Dempsey and Stormy Knight, this movie documents a spontaneous performance at the Michgan Womyns Music Festival in 1998.

Gay Bell – An Apple a Day 1984, super 8, sound, 9 min.

Highlight: Because they devoured Gods apple, Eva and Lucifera were banished from the Garden of Eden. They are left to fend for themselves in the real world where they eventually find work in one of Gods own missile factories. They comfort and excite one another and, organizing with countless other women, they occupy Gods garden and closet him. This film was sponsored by A Space Gallery as part of the Womens Erotic Film Language Workshop.

Louise Noguchi – Mango Tango II 1980, super 8, silent, 3 min.

Louises first super 8 films were shot during her second year at OCA from 1979-1980. Mango Tango II depicts the use of lipstick as a fetishized object. This film was shown at the Funnel in a program curated by her then instructor Ross McLaren in 1980.

Nadia Sistonen – The Crux of the Gist of the Biscuit 1992, super 8, sound, 6 min.

After the title, scrawled on a rainy warehouse window, a brief still from The Cat in the Hat appears, a bright blue fish blowing ink into the cats eye, a small reminder of childhoods casual cruelties. Over a rumbling and industrial discord a plaintive sax wails while a male voice intones On the grey shores of time, signaling this as a return, a revisitation of personal histories.

Lisa Steele – This is Not a Home Movie 1984, super 8, sound, 13 min.

This title guides the audience to expect the unexpected. This is not a Home Movie plays with the tropes of amateur movie making, which features locales of the domicile. But This is not a Home Movie is a film of the domestic in all of its true colours. This film was sponsored by A Space Gallery as part of the Womens Erotic Film Language Workshop.

E. Hearte – WHAT I WANT / WHAT I HAVE 2013, super 8, silent, 2.5 min.

Incongruities between body and gender become an obstacle for lovers as they navigate the painfully awkward rift between dysphoria and desire.

Allyson Mitchell – Cup Cake 1998, super 8 transferred to 16mm, sound, 3 min.

Cupcake is Girl as chubby eye candy. She takes us on a quest for the perfect dessert. She is proof that eating is sexy. Cupcake talks without shame, about desserts that she loves.

Shawna Dempsey Lorri Millan – A Day in the Life of a Bull Dyke 1995, super 8 transferred to 16mm, sound, 10 min.

From dawn to dusk we follow a bulldagger into skirmishes, drag and the arms of a beautiful recruit. However, because we see the world through the eyes of the subject Sal, this fictionalized lesbian history is filled with all the joy, pain, and ambivalence each of us experiences. A companion to Dempsey and Millans In the Life magazine.

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