COVID culture pt. VI: Local drag show, art & film festivals and workshops

COVID culture picks for pandemic week six.

The entire Situationist International archive? If now isn’t the time for a labyrinthine dive into the European leftist/revolutionary avant-garde movement of which Guy Debord (author of Society of the Spectacle) was an important founding member, then when is?

Watch!

Seeing as the Hot Docs Festival has been postponed, “a small selection of exclusive first-run feature documentaries that would have debuted at the festival will now premiere on CBC.” It’s a diverse selection, from Aisha Jamal’s 9/11 Kids, a where-are-they-now investigation of race in America that follows the class of children that George Bush was reading to on Sept. 11, to They Call Me Dr. Miami, a portrait of an eccentric Orthodox Jewish plastic surgeon.

Image culture!

The Scotiabank CONTACT Photography, typically taking place throughout the GTA each May, will be taking place online this year. This year’s line-up includes Montreal-based photographer Megan Moore’s Specimens, but there is an astonishing breadth of work to browse.

The fifth Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) will also be presented online from April 23 to June 21. Kahnawà:ke Elders will preside over the launch, and the diverse programming will include “curatorial talks about selected works, live performances, a live streaming dance party with live DJ, artist videos, workshops, talking circles” and more.

From there, head to the virtual exhibit Well Now, WTF from virtual gallery Silicon Valet, a delightful collection of darkly funny gifs and essays on net art.

Virtual drag!

Rainbow Drag will be presenting a virtual drag show on April 21 from 8–10 p.m. You can donate here to help out local Montreal drag artists.

Entrepreneurship!

For those of you using your quarantine hours to scheme ahead, YES Montreal is hosting a free online workshop, Launching Your Social Business, April 21 from 6:30–8:30 p.m., pre-registration required. 

Erotic cinema!

Enjoy Turkish Delight, in which an incredibly young and alluring Rutger Hauer stars in this Paul Verhoeven-directed 1970s romance. Ultra-sexy escapism in these trying and sometimes dull times. ■

See last week’s COVID culture recommendations here.

For more coverage of the Montreal art scene, see our Arts section.

To read the latest issue of Cult MTL, click here.

Vote for your favourite Montreal people and things in the Best of MTL readers poll here.