SPECIAL EXHIBITION: LOST SECRETS OF THE ROYAL

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival and Liaison of Independent Filmmakers Toronto (LIFT) will present LOST SECRETS OF THE ROYAL, a series of four new works presented at the Blackwood Gallery and A Space Gallery. Co-curated by Ben Donoghue and Heather Keung, they began discussions in 2008 about possible collaborations using LIFT's archive of 35mm Hong Kong films from the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, recovered by Colin Geddes from the basement of what is now Toronto's Royal Theatre. The collection includes period dramas, comedies, martial arts, and pink films. All the prints in the collection are incomplete and in various stages of decay and discolouration.

Artists were invited to produce new works that could challenge the source material and break with overtly didactic collage-based composition. Emerging from this are four projects by contemporary Asian-Canadian artists, Daïchi Saïto, Cindy Mochizuki, Louise Noguchi and soJin Chun that challenge cinematic narrative, locational identity, movement, and technologies. With the generous support of a commissioning grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, the following projects that began as concepts borne from the shelves of decaying film have finally emerged, fresh and vital, in their exhibition spaces.

Blackwood Gallery presents
NEVER A FOOT TOO FAR, EVEN by Daïchi Saïto and YOKAI & OTHER SPIRITS by Cindy Mochizuki
Opening Reception
Wed Nov 9, 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Kaneff Centre, University of Toronto Mississauga – 3359 Mississauga Rd N
(FREE Bus departs OCAD at 6:30 PM on Nov 9; Bus departs Blackwood at 8:30 PM)

A Space Gallery Artist Talk
Sat Nov 12, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
With Daïchi Saïto, Cindy Mochizuki, Louise Noguchi, soJin Chun
401 Richmond St W, Suite 110

A Space Gallery presents
SNAKE’S SHADOW by Louise Noguchi and OFFICER TUBA MEETS THE HAPPY GHOST by soJin Chun
Opening Reception
Sat Nov 12, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
401 Richmond St W, Suite 110

With Support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Japan Foundation, Blackwood Gallery, A Space Gallery, LIFT

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is Canada’s largest showcase of works by East and Southeast Asian artists.  This year’s 15th edition takes place November 8-13 in Toronto and November 18-19 in Richmond Hill.

LOST SECRETS OF THE ROYAL will run from November 9 – December 11 at the A Space Gallery in Toronto and the Blackwood Gallery at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

More info at www.reelasian.com. Become a fan www.facebook.com/reelasian or follow @reelasian.