Mandate

Canadian Images in Conversation is an ad-hoc artist collective that showcases artistic excellence in Canadian moving image culture through screenings, exhibitions, performances and artist talks. While emphasizing Canadian works and focusing on the Canadian perspective, our goal is to expand and disseminate critical discourse specific to Canadian culture. Thus, conversation and artist talks are at the heart of our events. We change in response to the needs of artists and work to engage and inform the public about their work.

Formally, our mandate aims to foster a stronger appreciation for Canadian moving image culture. In our ongoing efforts to increase public awareness, we also aim to build on our reputation as one of our region’s most vital arts collectives and to promote the growth of filmmaking culture outside of major Canadian cities.

Our programming, though national in scope, is regional in spirit. In connecting artists to the community and fostering public engagement, we continue to attract respected talent from across the country. We are proud to compensate with fees in accordance to CARFAC rates.

History

Canadian Images in Conversation is a new, Peterborough Ontario-based screening collective born from an old legacy of the first entirely Canadian-focus film festival, Canadian Images Film Festival (1978-1984). The original festival was a student and faculty run initiative at Trent University launched after a visit from Gerald Pratley came to a Communications and Culture class to discuss the contemporary Canadian film industry. Canadian Images, in its inaugural year, programmed over 150 hours of Canadian feature, experimental and documentary cinema and operated on a shoestring budget of $12,000. By the end of the festival in 1984, Canadian Images would draw as many as 20,000 attendees per year to its films and panels.

In the summer of 2019, Amy Siegel (filmmaker and curator), Jonathan Lockyer (curator and critic), Kelly Egan (filmmaker and educator), Eryn Lidster (media artist), Eric Lehman (scholar and critic), and Madison More (filmmaker and archivist) decided to begin a new collective, to fill the void of experimental, independent, artistic, and archival film exhibition in Peterborough, Ontario. With support of the Reframe Film Festival, Artspace, and Cultural Studies/Trent University, our aim is to showcase Canadian moving images, new and old, of various genres and formats, with emphasis on underrepresented, marginalized, racialized, indigenous, gendered and queer artists and filmmakers. Through this exploration, and through the ongoing dialogue with filmmakers and our community, we strive to present an expansive and alternative narratives to the history and future of Canadian cinema.