Passionate Involvement
Community, art and passion create inspiration in Passionate Involvement, an intimate half-hour documentary series. Each episode follows an artist or group of artists who break the stereotype of solitary creation, by sharing their skills with a community and inspiring others to create unique projects in a social, supportive environment. The projects involve different diverse communities and a variety of artistic disciplines from theatre to fine art. By candidly examining their work and motivations, the artists open a door into communities rarely seen on television. From exploring the complexity of black youth to rebuilding a mural destroyed by the military in Chiapas, Mexico, the people in these communities tell us about their lives through art.
Passionate Involvement, the series, expands on an one-hour documentary of the same name, directed by Maria Teresa Larrain and produced by Tina Hahn in association with A Space Gallery. This work followed six artists as they work with diverse grass-roots communities, and traversed rich landscapes discovering the struggles and the dreams of the artists and the people they work with.
The Projects
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Greeting to Taniperla
Inspired by a community mural in Chiapas, Mexico and its subsequent destruction by the military, Canadian artists work with youth on a mural in Scarborough..
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Castigo
Drawing on their experiences of growing up in Regent Park, two young Black women develop a play in conjunction with a group of young Black actors.
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Portuguese People with Disabilities (at) Play
Based on the actors' own experiences, playwright and director Aida Jordao and a group of Portuguese actors explore issues affecting disabled people.
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The Toronto Sound Mosaic
Rooted in the Toronto Islands, this poetic soundscape follows two artists as they reconstruct the history of Toronto through interviews with people whose memories reach back through the last century.
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Obstinate Memory
Chilean artist Amelia Jimenez and a group of Latin American women embark on an emotional journey of time and place. The result: twelve delicate boxes in which the participants have captured their memories of violence and abuse and reclaimed their past.
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Twisted Metal and Mermaid's Tears
Artistic Director, Ruth Howard, and a group of artists collaborate with over one hundred community participants from the South Riverdale area in the creation of an "epic" play. Twisted Metal finds its inspiration in the Leslie Spit and mixes personal stories of South Riverdale residents with a Chinese fairy tale.
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These and over fifty other projects were part of the first Community Arts Biennale (CAB2000) organized by A Space Gallery.
CAB2000 took place between May and July of this year. The six projects featured in Passionate Involvement illustrate the diversity, commitment and complexity of community art and the creative process.
The compelling personalities of the artists and the willingness of the community participants to tell their stories draw us in. The "passionate involvement" of people in front and behind the camera lend this documentary a human quality which we hope will touch all viewers.
For more information, please contact:
Tina Hahn, Symmetree Media
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