This is part two of my previous post reviewing the Bite Me! Toronto International Film and Arts Festival.

A Question of Beauty is a Canadian documentary directed and narrated by Moncton-based Colleen Furlotte that seeks to answer the question: what is beauty? The film features approximately 20 women of varying ages, and uses art and other creative pursuits in an effort to broaden the audience’s definition of beauty. The film is a feel-good celebration of beauty that asks the women involved to speak against the beauty ideal and celebrate their own beauty through art, dance, and discussion.

As a critical look at conventional definitions of beauty, however, this film falls extremely short. While watching it, I wondered: while it does contain a few positive elements, can anything be gained from such a problematic film?

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From our comrades at Girls Action Foundation:

GENERAL CASTING CALL for National Ad Campaign

Girls Action Foundation is looking for REAL girls and young women between 9 and 25 years old, of all ethnicities, backgrounds, body types and personal styles to shoot a series of artistic promotional videos this fall. Come as you are! We want to see your genuine self.

Time: Friday, August 20th from 10am to 3pm

Place: 24 Mount-Royal O., suite 601 (between Clark & St-Laurent) (in Montreal, QC)

If you plan on attending, please send en email to andrea [at] girlsactionfoundation [dot] ca

Click here to see some of our professional photographer’s work.

Girls Action Foundation is a national charitable organization. We lead and seed girls’ programs across Canada. We build girls’ and young women’s skills and confidence to change the world. Through our innovative programs, publications, and network of over 200 partnering organizations and projects, Girls Action reaches over 60,000 girls and young women.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending the Bite Me! Toronto International Body Image Film and Arts Festival, at which I saw six of the nine films being shown.
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Every other Thursday I profile a new incredible woman, each from a different walk of life. Different professions, causes, backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and anything/everything else!

So without further delay, let me introduce two Shameless Women, the amazing Madeleine Shaw and Suzanne Siemens…

Showing that “it is possible to build a successful business with feminist and social values while bringing prosperity to the local and global community,” partners Madeleine Shaw and Suzanne Siemens have combined their passions, creativity and business skills to defy cultural taboos and successfully bring Lunapads to the masses while helping to reduce the estimated 14 billion pads, tampons and applicators that are deposited into North American landfills every year.
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She’s Shameless has been picked to be part of the Toronto Public Library’s Word Out! 2010 reading program for teens. August 9-15 the book will be featured and discussed online as part of the initiative.

With wit and honesty, the writers share stories of their teen experiences (both positive and negative) on everything from pop culture to high school principals. The book is founded on Shameless magazine’s tradition of smart, sassy, honest and inclusive writing, and reaches out to young female readers who are often ignored by mainstream: freethinkers, queer youth, young women of colour, punk rockers, feminists, intellectuals, artists, and activists.

Check out all of the library’s 2010 picks here.

Are you ready for tantalizing teases, beautiful bodies and, yes, bawdy burlesque?!

It’s time for Toronto Burlesque Festival 2010 “MeTOPolis: The Future of Burlesque!”

Starting July 21st and continuing to the 25th, this year’s ferocious festival packs each night full of “bump ‘n grind” performances including appearances by Roxi Dlite, the first Canadian to win the Burlesque Hall of Fame title.

You’ll also be able to see Satan’s Angel in the flesh, “a veritable legend” who last appeared in Toronto at The Victory Theatre in 1969!

“Now in our 3rd year, the Festival offers a unique opportunity to experience the best of burlesque and variety entertainment. Each of our performances features outstanding acts from Toronto locals, burlesque and variety artists from across Canada, and many international headlining acts that have earned top accolades in the Burlesque world!

In 2010, we build connections with the history of our art form with the current Revival, and turn our eyes to the future for “MeTOPolis: The Future of Burlesque!””

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The BITE ME! Toronto International Body Image Film & Arts Festival will take place this weekend, Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18 (details on Shameless here and on the festival’s website here).

Shameless had the opportunity to speak with Jill Andrew, the festival’s director, who explains what this festival is all about.

The festival’s conception:

At the time I was completing my Master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto New College, and I had been consumed with readings about body image, media representation, eating “disorders” (which I, inspired by feminist theorist Becky Thomson, refer to as “eating problems”), and the importance of interrogating issues of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, dis/ability, and class when discussing eating problems and body dissatisfaction. I began to read qualitative data surrounding women’s experiences in and outside of their bodies. Women reported feeling “homeless” within their bodies and not being able to talk about body image because they didn’t feel like they had an image at all.

I’d also read about women who were redefining themselves and challenging labels: fat activism, challenging feminist consumerism, and creating zines in order to “talk back,” or, as I call it, “bite back” against those who try to keep us in stifling boxes.

I wondered if there were folks out there talking about their bodies and other people’s bodies, grappling with the way bodies are constructed. Were people taking this up through creative mediums? I came across many fat activism groups that used theatre: for instance, Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed challenges heteronormative assumptions about femininity and masculinity and, thus, the female body.

The festival’s aims:

I decided to attempt to share the telling of folks’ stories through film. I wanted to redefine what body “image” meant to my audience. I wanted women and men in attendance to walk away realizing that body politics include discussions around race, class, and sexual orientation. I want them to know that body “image” is also a public health issue. If we do not interrogate the images we see all too often on TV, we are continuing to validate a climate that validates and glorifies violence against women (check out Jean Kilbourne – she is my shero on this issue!). I want people to leave the festival with a newer understanding of how we move through our bodies when they are ill, how we must re-negotiate our identities and our limitations, how others view us, etc. I want this festival to encourage us to challenge how we define “beauty,” “femininity,” and “body image.” I want it to expand our minds into spaces of identity.

Collaborating with filmmakers:

I had followed Jean Kilbourne’s work and knew instantly that once Killing Us Softly 4 came out, it would be hot off the press in my festival!

Colleen Furlotte’s Question of Beauty has a great intergenerational approach to the issue.

Elizabeth St. Philip’s film Colour of Beauty discusses issues of colourism/racism in the fashion industry, which speaks to my goal of expanding our discussion on “body image.” All too often, we discuss the fashion indudstry from the perspective of the size of models, but very rarely have we had critical discussions about colour. Is colour only good when exoticized? For the most part, it’s still an industry with a very Eurocentric standard of beauty.

The majority of the films were programmed by Aisha Fairclough, my partner in both love and war! She was simply amazing. Members of our festival advisory board have also played key roles in pulling this together. Members include Tina Reid, Ai Rei Dooh-Tousignant, and Ashley Demartini, all of whom work or have worked with the National Film Board, where all our films are screening on July 17-18. So while the festival was my vision, and truly sprang from work I’ve been doing for years, you can see that it’s nothing short of a group effort!

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Shameless readers, take note: there is a YouthZone component of the festival that will take plcae on Saturday, July 17, from 10am-4:30pm. Young women aged 12-18 will have the opportunity to see films, participate in workshops, get free feminist, and have a free lunch! For registration, please contact info@bitemefilmfest.com with the subject line: BITE ME! YouthZone.

QSAzine Issue #3, My Islam, is launching tomorrow at the Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas St. W., Toronto), from 6-8 p.m.

The free event will showcase videos, visual art, dance and readings by young Muslim and trans people, including: Azza Abbaro, Golie Moulaie, Samira Mohyeddin, Nooreen Rahemtullah, Wilo Mohammed, Farrah Khan, and Areen Khaled. Secret Trial Five will perform, and the event will be hosted by Idil Hyder and May El-Abdallah.

From the press release: “AQSAZINE is a grassroots zine for 16-35 year old women and trans people who identify as Muslim. It is a creative avenue to express ourselves, share our experiences, and connect with others.” The My Islam After Party (with yummy food and music!) is happening at Beaver Hall Artists’ Co-operative, 29 McCaul St., from 8 p.m.

Shameless is profiling AQSAzine in our new fall issue, which should be out in August.

CENTRE FOR FEMINIST RESEARCH
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Upcoming Events and Opportunities

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