Dennis Day

Circumcision and artistic freedom concern three homosexuals, denied communication during a surreal jail stay.

A video designed to challenge existing models of AIDS treatment in our society. Using a collage of elements as well as techniques from video and performance, the themes of mourning, urgency and healing are explored in a poetic and highly charged video. Got Away in the Dying Moments suggests natural alternatives to the current treatments and attitudes that constrain our hearts and minds with respect to the AIDS crisis.

In Caribou in the Archive, rustic VHS home video of a Cree woman hunting caribou in the 1990s is combined with NFB archival film footage of northern Manitoba from the 1950s. In this experimental film, the difference between homemade video and official historical record is considered. Northern Indigenous women hunting is at the heart of this personal found footage film in which the filmmaker describes the enigmatic events that led to saving an important piece of family history from being lost forever.

In the heat and desolation of Santa Fe, California, three people are connected and disconnected by proximity, nature and circumstances. Dwight is a New Age DJ. Ramon is an experimental composer and filmmaker. Ash displays numerous tattoos. Each elaborates on central and sometimes disturbing chapters of their lives. The tape culminates with Ramon's harrowing account of a friend's downward spiral.

An unhappy, silent man journeys through a constantly shifting mediascape in search of something we never discover. Transylvanian moonscapes, Baroque parties and fraternity joyrides constitute just a fragment of his dizzying journey. Is this unnamed character searching for a way in, or a way out of the shifting and overwhelming history which whirls about him?

Inspired by a collection of personal notebooks, this feature-length director’s cut of the short film by the same name is an experimental documentary on art, AIDS and activism. Following James Wentzy from South Dakota to New York City, the film traces his days from struggling and surviving as an artist to later becoming an AIDS video activist. In showcasing a unique individual through his involvement with the fight against AIDS and his tireless frontline reportage of the crisis, The Books of James is an intimate portrait of a neglected everyman/hero and unearths a time now forgotten.

Dirty Laundry speculates upon the buried narratives of gender and sexuality in Chinese-Canadian history of the 19th century, when Chinese communities were almost exclusively male. A story about a chance late-night encounter between a steward and a passenger on a train interweaves with documentary interviews with historians and writers and historical documents brought to life. The tape poses nagging questions about the personal and political stakes in the writing of history and in our interpretations of the past.

A fishing wharf serves as the runway for a sexy, male fashion show, and childhood fantasies are brought to life in this nostalgic and surreal video about growing up gay in a small Newfoundland town. Auto Biography is a world where lesbian mothers dote over their gay sons and old men reminisce about long-ago boyfriends. In Day's humourous inversion of societal values (shot clandestinely in his parent's house), memory is colourfully reconstructed, and dinner dates and pyjama parties take on a whole new meaning.

Two young men engage in sexual acts in an enchanted forest lit by disco lights, while nuns and teddy bears voyeuristically look on with delight.

Ostensibly embarking upon a portrait of a "modern-day Abraham Lincoln", Escaping History traces the development of a relationship between the videomaker and his subject. As the story unfolds, it veers from the objective to the highly personal. The tape relates the story of Mel Glasser, a recovering schizophrenic who, having adopted the persona of Abraham Lincoln, has made considerable progress in the last twenty years. The tape refuses to romanticize Mel's condition; he speaks frankly with intelligence and humour, and takes Applegath on a special journey.

In Keep Moving, three men work to make ends meet and to understand how they have arrived where they are. Two are single fathers coping with parental responsibilities. Frank is a founding member of Act Up, who dedicated himself to the organization over the years, and who has paid a price in the course of his commitment. Bob juggles businesses, trying to make a new start, while Mike wrestles with a past that encompasses family tragedy, alcoholism and drug addiction. Keep Moving considers how these men understand their histories while pressing forward, and how they received and pass on fundamental values.

A rather liberal and pictorial interpretation of a number of Western musical forms with a considerable homosexual bias. Playing largely off the mood of different musical genres, it is a humorous commentary on musical association, and a celebration and critique of "gay identity."

Reflecting on the premature death of a young dancer and artist, Heaven or Montréal points to unfinished ideas, creating "outlines" of lost energy and imagination. As a finale, it summons all its desperation and asks for silence to speak and stillness to dance. Ian Middleton, its co-author, died in 1993 of AIDS related causes.