Art for Consenting Adults

Curated by Jennifer Cane. Presented by Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society and The Cinematheque.

Filmmakers and Curator in Attendance ► “Art for Consenting Adults” re-ignites a key moment in the history of film censorship in Canada more than 30 years ago: in 1981, Vancouver experimental filmmaker and Cineworks founding member Al Razutis and three organizers of the Canadian Images Film Festival in Peterborough, Ontario, were charged with violation of Ontario’s Theatres Act after the festival presented Razutis’s film A Message from Our Sponsor (1979). The film had been banned by the province’s censor board after previous screenings at arts spaces in Ottawa and Toronto; the Peterborough screening had been a deliberate act of civil disobedience in support of freedom of expression. In Vancouver, the Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society responded by developing “Art for Consenting Adults,” a national touring package including A Message from Our Sponsor and other works that pushed the issue of censorship in Canada to the fore. As well, Cineworks and other independent film and video organizations across the country adopted a categorical anti-censorship stance, and boycotted exhibition spaces that allowed artists’ works to be censored. In conjunction with the “Institutions by Artists” convention (Vancouver, October 12 -14, 2012), Cineworks and Pacific Cinémathèque look back to this landmark instance of charged confrontation between censors boards, institutions, and artists with a select program of West Coast independent short films from the original “Art for Consenting Adults” package.

A Message from Our Sponsor │Al Razutis, 1979. 9 mins.
Lumiere’s Train (Arriving at the Station) │Al Razutis, 1979. 8 mins.
Nine O’Clock Gun│ Chris Gallagher, 1980. 8 mins.
In Black and White│ Michael McGarry, 1979. 10 mins.
Labyrinth │ Shelley McIntosh, 1978. 3 mins.
Spare Parts│ Peter Lipskis, 1976. 10 mins.
Wave Prelude │ Gordon Kidd, 1975. 5 mins.
Diminished │ Richard Martin, 1979. 7 mins.
Al Neil/A Portrait │David Rimmer, 1979. 40 mins.

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RELATED EVENTS
“Art for Consenting Adults” is presented as part of “Institutions by Artists” (October 12-14, 2012), an international event in Vancouver that evaluates and activates the performance and promise of contemporary artist-run centres and initiatives. Curator Jennifer Cane and filmmaker Al Razutis will discuss censorship, funding, and the trajectory of institutional dynamics in Canada on the panel “Institutional Time: Facts and Fictions” on October 12, 2012. arcpost.ca/conference