Fairies from the Prairies
Curated by Matt Salton
Festival Director of Fairy Tales Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Calgary, Alberta

This collection of shorts spans seven years and encompasses some of our country’s subversive and talented filmmakers who all hail from the Canadian prairies. The films themselves range from the experimental, documentary, to short dramatic narratives and delve into such subjects as growing up queer in the conservative heartland, archaic stereotyping, gender and cultural identity politics

Cowboi/Keith Murray/2min/Canada/2003
Welcome to the Calgary Stampede, a perpetuation of outdated stereotypes in Western culture.

Archaeology And You/Shawna Dempsey, Lorri Millan/7min/Canada/2004
Originally a multi-channel video installation at the ROM, the film contemplates fallen empires, language and the motivating power of fear.

Family Outing/Mark Bradley/5min/Canada/2001
This experimental documentary forms a haunting commentary on childhood, alienation, love and ultimately renewal.

Do Wok A Do/Michelle Wong/14 min/Canada/2000
A tender drama set in the 70’s about a young Chinese-Canadian girl growing up in a small town on the prairies.

Queer Grit/Roewan Crowe/5min/Canada/2004
How to be queer on the prairie when your Dad is John Wayne?  Jane West sure is gonna try!

Rock Pockets/Trevor Anderson/5min/Canada/2006
A short personal documentary disguised as meta-music video. A sugar rush of sex, politics and rock 'n' roll as seen through the eyes of a ten year-old boy at the fair.

DIY: Do It Yourself/Keith Murray/3min/Canada/2006
Can a balance between masculine and feminine be found internally so that an external individual might not be necessary to define one’s self?

Helpless Maiden Makes an “I” Statement/Thirza Cuthand/6min/Canada/2000
By using clips of evil queens/witches this video plays off the sadomasochistic lesbo erotic subtexts commonly found in children’s entertainment.

Rugburn/Trevor Anderson/13min/Canada/2005
A young painter works up the courage to contact the collections agency that has been hounding him and gets embroiled in a more personal confrontation than he bargained for.

Erin & Eva/Adam Garnet Jones/10min/Canada/2003
Inspired by a video case study assignment from her Politics of Identity class, a social work student pays a visit to a long-forgotten aboriginal cousin.

The Artistic Taxidermist/Sandi Somers/4min/Canada/2006
When a taxidermist and his wife first discover Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, they set off to explore the artistic potential and creative expression of taxidermy.