Michelle Mohabeer

Last updated
Michelle Mohabeer
Born1961
Guyana, South America
Occupation(s)filmmaker, writer

Michelle Mohabeer is a Canadian filmmaker and writer. [1] Her films have received many rewards including the Isabella Liddell Art Award [2] and the 5 Feminist Minutes Award. [3] Her first work, Exposure (1990) was produced through the National Film Board's Studio D. [1] [4] During and after creating several films, she has also served as an adjunct lecturer at the following post-secondary institutions: University of Toronto, Trent University, University of Western Ontario, Ryerson University and Sheridan College. [5]

Contents

Mohabeer's film work has been displayed at over 150 festivals, conferences and galleries located across 18 countries from multiple continents. Her films have been collected by over sixty university libraries across North America, the Caribbean and Australia. [4] [5]

Early life and education

Mohabeer was born in Guyana, South America in 1961. [1] She moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1974 at the age of 13. [6] In 1986, she successfully received her BA in film studies from Carleton University. Mohabeer earned her second degree in 1998; it was a Master's of Fine Arts in film production from York University. [1] [6] In 2005, she received a PhD in culture and communication from the University of Toronto with a focus on film studies. [4]

Career

Mohabeer started her film-making career working for the National Film Board in Studio D. [4] She created her first short film Exposure (1990) for the series Five Feminist Minutes. This film was a huge success, not only for its content, but for the fact that this was "the first up-front lesbian film from the NFB" and the fact that the film was made by, in the words of Film Critic Thomas Waugh, a "lesbian artist of colour in the Canadian canon." [1] Following the release of her film she had a brief employment with CKLN radio. [4] Four years later, she released her second film Coconut/Cane & Cutlass (1994); due to the great success of her first film, the budget for her second feature was almost nine times larger allowing her to shoot in Canada and Guyana. In 1996, she created two more films Two/Doh and Child-play (1997); Two/Doh was noted for being produced at very low cost, while Child-play was Mohabeer's first attempt at a drama film. [6] During the nineteen-nineties she was active on several arts community boards in Toronto, frequently serving as administrator. [4]

In the new millennium, Michelle Mohabeer directed several more films. In 2001, she created the film Tracing Soul. In 2003, she wrote and directed the film Echoes. Finally, in 2008, she made the film Blu In You. [5] [7]

Throughout her career as a filmmaker Professor Mohabeer has also taught the next generation of filmmakers. She has appeared as a guest lecturer or hosted workshops at several post-secondary institutions. She has also taught classes, namely Film Studies at Innis College, Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto, and York University and Film Production at Ryerson University. [4] Currently, Professor Mohabeer teaches in the Communication Studies and Humanities departments at York University. [5] [8]

Cinematic style and influence

Many critics have noted that Mohabeer's films frequently explore the themes of "the diversity of cultural identity and the politics of gender, sexuality and colonialism." [6] Film Scholar Tara Atluri, has argued that Mohabeer's films also feature several links to the Indo-Caribbean film tradition. [9]

Filmography

YearTitleCredit ListingDescription
1990ExposureFilmmaker, [7] researcher, scriptwriter, director [10] Experimental documentary on the issues of race and racism, sexuality and homophobia, cultural and ethnic identity. [6] [11]
1994Coconut/Cane & CutlassScriptwriter, director, producer [10] Poetic thoughts on exile, displacement and nationhood from an Indo-Caribbean lesbian immigrant; "raising many questions about the confluence of culture and sexuality." [6] [9] This film contains elements of an autobiography, a historical documentary and an experimental film; represented with the use of landscape, histories, archived images, voices, theatrical dances and movement scenes, all of which are poetically fragmented. [1] [12] Film critic Thomas Waugh has described this film as a "lush and complex first-person essay on lesbian desire and genealogy in the context of postcolonial exile." [1]
1996Two/DohPoetic pastiche about the intersection of cultural and erotic connections between women of different cultural origins. [1] [13]
1997Child-playDirector, producer, scriptwriter, production designer, [7] researcher [10] Allegorical dream tale about past youth superimposing on the present. [14]
2001Tracing SoulArtistic poetry about the female form using lines, shadows, music, text, fragments and gestures. [15]
2003EchoesDirector, scriptwriter [7] Main character's reflection on her past. [16]
2008Blu In YouScriptwriter, producer, director, designer, cinematographer [10] The film covers the old and modern representations of the black queer female body, sexuality and subjectivity. [17] To cover both, the film jumps between distant points of history in the story. [9]

Awards and nominations

Several of Mohabeer's film have earned international awards and honorable mentions at film festivals across the globe; these films include Child-play, Coconut/Cane & Cutlass and Exposure. Exposure in particular has received much recognition, including the NFB's Five Feminist Minutes Award. [4] [5] [18] [19]

YearOrganizationAwardsFilm
1989 National Film Board of Canada -Studio D5 Feminist Minutes Award [4] [5] [18] [19] Exposure
1990Black Film/Video NetworkAward of Recognition [19] Exposure
199141st Berlin International Film Festival Official Selection Certificate [19] Exposure
199432nd Ann Arbor Film Festival Isabella Liddell Art Award of Excellence [2] [19] Coconut/Cane & Cutlass
1994Curve magazine, San Francisco Top Ten Independent Short Film [19] Coconut/Cane & Cutlass
199510th Turin International Film Festival Special Mention in Documentary Category [19] Coconut/Cane & Cutlass
199811th Annual Images Film & Video FestivalHonourable Mention Certificate for Best Direction [19] [20] Child-Play

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alanis Obomsawin</span> American-Canadian Abenaki artist and filmmaker

Alanis Obomsawin, is an Abenaki American-Canadian filmmaker, singer, artist, and activist primarily known for her documentary films. Born in New Hampshire, United States and raised primarily in Quebec, Canada, she has written and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations issues. Obomsawin is a member of Film Fatales independent women filmmakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Latimer</span> Canadian actor and filmmaker

Michelle Latimer is a Canadian actress, director, writer, and filmmaker. She initially rose to prominence for her role as Trish Simkin on the television series Paradise Falls, shown nationally in Canada on Showcase Television (2001–2004). Since the early 2010s, she has directed several documentaries, including her feature film directorial debut, Alias (2013), and the Viceland series, Rise, which focuses on the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests; the latter won a Canadian Screen Award at the 6th annual ceremony in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Steele</span> Canadian artist (born 1947)

Lisa Steele is a Canadian artist, a pioneer in video art, educator, curator and co-founder of Vtape in Toronto. Born in the United States, Steele moved to Canada in 1968 and is now a Canadian citizen. She has collaborated exclusively with her partner Kim Tomczak since the early 1980s.

Ann Marie Fleming is an independent Canadian filmmaker, writer, and visual artist. She was born in Okinawa, USCAR, in 1962 and is of Chinese, Ryukyuan and Australian descent. Her film Window Horses was released in 2016.

Casey Mecija is a multi-disciplinary artist, academic and musician. She is active in Toronto's music and cultural scene.

Bonnie Sherr Klein is a feminist filmmaker, author and disability rights activist.

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest Indigenous film and media arts festival, held annually in Toronto in the month of October. The festival focuses on the film, video, radio, and new media work of Indigenous, Aboriginal and First Peoples from around the world. The festival includes screenings, parties, panel discussions, and cultural events.

Jane Marsh Beveridge was a Canadian director, producer, editor, composer, screenwriter, teacher and sculptor. She was best known as one of the pioneering filmmakers at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Aerlyn Weissman is a two-time Genie Award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker and political activist on behalf of the lesbian community.

Marusya Bociurkiw is a Canadian born, Ukrainian film-maker, writer, scholar, and activist. She has published six books, including a novel, poetry collection, short story collection, and a memoir. Her narrative and critical writing have been published in a variety of journals and collections. Bociurkiw has also directed and co-directed ten films and videos which have been screened at film festivals on several continents. Her work appears in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the National Archives of Canada, and many university libraries. She founded or co-founded the media organizations Emma Productions, Winds of Change Productions, and The Studio for Media Activism & Critical Thought. She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada where she is an associate professor in the RTA School of Media Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University. She teaches courses on social justice media, activist media production, and gender/race/queer theories of time-based and digital media. She is also Director of The Studio for Media Activism & Critical Thought at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Five Feminist Minutes is a Canadian short film anthology released in 1990 by the National Film Board of Canada. The films were produced independently for the 15th anniversary of Studio D of the National Film Board of Canada in collaboration with Regards de Femmes and other NFB production studios in Canada.

Christina Battle is a video and installation artist who was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute and a certificate in Film Studies from Ryerson University. She also holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Alberta.

Deirdre Logue is a Canadian video artist and arts administrator, based in Toronto, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kent Tate</span> Canadian artist

Kent Tate is a Canadian artist and filmmaker living in British Columbia. Tate is known for his single-channel video installation works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Clichettes</span>

The Clichettes were an all-women feminist performance art group formed in Toronto, Canada in 1977. Their practice is notable for injecting humour and theatricality into the sphere of performance art. The three performers initially worked using lip sync and choreography as their tools to parody pop culture depictions of femininity and later expanded their practice by including elements from science fiction and theatre in their performances. The Clichettes are notable for their impact on Canadian performance art as well as Feminist and performing arts in general.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Studio D</span> Canadian womens film unit

Studio D was the women's unit of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and the world's first publicly funded feminist filmmaking studio. In its 22-year history, it produced 134 films and won 3 Academy Awards. Cinema Canada once called it the "Jewel in the Crown Corporation."

Kay Armatage is a Canadian filmmaker, former programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival and Professor emerita at the University of Toronto's Cinema Studies Institute and Women & Gender Studies Institute. Though she attained a B.A. in English Literature from Queen's University, her name is generally linked with the University of Toronto.

Kika Thorne is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, curator, and activist. She was born in Toronto in 1964, where she is currently based.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Liliefeldt</span> South African-Canadian artist

Louise Liliefeldt is a Canadian artist primarily working in performance and painting. She was born in South Africa and currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Liliefeldt’s artistic practice draws directly from her lived experience and is apparent in the use of symbol, colour and material in her work. Other influences include Italian, Latin and Eastern European horror films, surrealism and African cinema. Taken as a whole, Liliefeldt’s work is an embodied investigation of the culture and politics of identity, as influenced by collective issues such as gender, race and class. Her performance work has developed through many prolific and specific periods.

Primiti Too Taa is a Canadian experimental animated short film, directed by Ed Ackerman and Colin Morton and released in 1987. Set to Morton reciting an excerpt from Kurt Schwitters's sound poem Ursonate, the film illustrates the soundtrack entirely through the movement of words typed on old Remington typewriter.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Waugh, Thomas (2006). The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities. Montreal, QU: McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 127, 155, 172, 472. ISBN   9780773530690 – via Print.
  2. 1 2 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-07-01. Retrieved 2016-10-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ Baker, Marie Annharte; Blain, Kim; Boschman, Lorna; Browne, Christene; Burns, Alison; Cole, Janis; Dempsey, Shawna; Fleming, Ann Marie; Gagnon, Angèle (2000-01-01), Five Feminist Minutes , retrieved 2016-10-26
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Michelle Mohabeer". CFMDC - Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Michelle Mohabeer". Vtape. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Redding, Judith M.; Brownworth, Victoria A. (1997). Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors . Seattle, WA: Seal Press. pp.  104–108. ISBN   1-878067-97-4 – via Print.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Michelle Mohabeer". BFI. Retrieved 2016-10-10.[ dead link ]
  8. ↑ "Michelle Mohabeer | York University - Academia.edu". yorku.academia.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  9. 1 2 3 Atluri, Tara (2009). "Putting the 'Cool' in Coolie: Disidentification, Desire and Dissent in the Work of Filmmaker Michelle Mohabeer" (PDF). Caribbean Review of Gender Studies (3): 1–25. Retrieved 2016-10-10.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Michelle Angela Mohabeer (PhD)" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  11. ↑ "Exposure". CFMDC - Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  12. ↑ "Coconut/Cane & Cutlass". CFMDC - Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  13. ↑ "Two/Doh". CFMDC - Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  14. ↑ "Child-Play". CFMDC - Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  15. ↑ "Tracing Soul". CFMDC - Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  16. ↑ "Echoes". CFMDC - Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  17. ↑ "Blu In You". Vtape. Retrieved 2016-10-14.
  18. 1 2 Armstrong, Mary; Hubert, Nicole; National Film Board of Canada; NFB:Studio D; NFB:Regards de femmes (1990-01-01), Five feminist minutes, National Film Board of Canada ; Moving Images [distributor], OCLC   606938904 , retrieved 2016-10-14
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Michelle Mohabeer Vita". people.wcsu.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  20. ↑ "Images '98 Festival of Independent Film and Video" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-10-26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.