In a national culture seemingly obsessed with identity, the careening, intense, arresting works of Gariné Torossian are poetic cinematic searches for and expressions of those very elusive notions of belonging and identification that make her an idiosyncratic yet quintessentially Canadian artist.  Formally freewheeling and merging the visual languages of Super 8, 35mm, and video, her body of work is one of the most startling and original to have emerged in Canada over the last decade and a half.

Born in Beirut, raised in Toronto and now Paris-based, Armenian-Canadian filmmaker Gariné Torossian’s striking works explore the complex constructions of personal, cultural, and national identities. For two decades, these explorations have yielded some of the most daring moving images ever produced in Canadian independent filmmaking. The Canadian Film Institute is proud to present this special three-part retrospective of the work of Gariné Torossian.

Gariné Torossian will attend the opening of the retrospective, featuring the Ottawa premiere of her first feature-length film, STONE TIME TOUCH, on Saturday, 26 June.



This occasion will also be the launch of a new Canadian Film Institute publication on the work of this remarkable, original filmmaker, Elective Identities: The Moving Images of Gariné Torossian, edited by Tom McSorley.

TO PURCHASE ELECTIVE IDENTITIES DIRECTLY FROM THE CANADIAN FILM INSTITUTE, EMAIL: info@cfi-icf.ca