We are a Toronto - based, artist-run, non-for-profit organization dedicated to the development and presentation of contemporary film and video works by Canadian artists of Latin American origin or heritage; the presentation of International Latino film and video within Canada; and the presentation of Canadian film and video in Latin America and elsewhere.
Our commitment to the production, development and presentation of high quality contemporary art works extends throughout the year with our video production workshops and our arts presentations, and culminates with the organization of the annual competitive international film and video festival “aluCine” Toronto Latino Film and Video Festival and the multidisciplinary arts festival “alucinARTe” Multidisciplinary Arts FestivalSouthern Currents, as an artist run organization, is committed to expanding the definitions of independent media.
Our mandate is to promote and support excellence and innovation in independent film /video, new media and multidisciplinary arts made by emerging and established Latino-Canadian artists to expose their work to a broader Canadian public.
We implement our mandate within a national and international context as follows:
-Hosting aluCine Toronto Latino Film and Video Festival and alucinArte Multidisciplinary Arts Festival.
-Including a strong International component in order to put local works within an international framework.
-Ensuring the inclusion of all regions of Canada
- Ensuring the inclusion of all genres and approaches to film video making and new media, celebrating multiplicity of aesthetics, techniques, styles and cultural perceptions.
-In order to transcend cultural specific definitions and to cross borders we curate special programming of Canadian works made by Canadian artists other than by Latino film/video media artists.
-Raising the profile of independent media works to audiences that don’t usually attend independent festivals.
-Designing strategies committed to audience development and outreach.
-Enabling discussion on aesthetic and technical issues.
-Promoting critical discourse amongst educators, curators, media arts professionals and the public at large.
-Activating communication with other organization in order to create a strong network of all media arts organizations nationally and internationally.
-Disseminating Canadian film/video and new media works internationally.
-At the community level our mandate proposes:
-To organize conferences, festivals, and workshops that protect, nurture and develop the work of Latino artists in Canada and abroad in order to achieve a valid cultural exchange among artists of Mexico, Central/South America and the Caribbean living in Canada and other cultures.
-To protect, nurture and promote the artistic potential of our cultural heritage by developing, producing and exhibiting the work of emerging, intermediate level and established artists from these communities.
-To encourage in the media, the development of positive, realistic images from the communities represented in the organization;
-To increase the support for media artists from these communities within the broader arts communities;
-To promote the concerns of artists from these communities within the broader arts communities;
-To increase mutual support and dialogue among the artists from diverse countries represented in the corporation
-To lobby for an increased understanding, accessibility and material and financial support for artists represented in the organization.
We have a long-standing history of complex and challenging programming, and of screening the best short films/ videos produced in Latin America, USA and Canada. Our main objective has been the exhibition of film/video in programs that include fiction, drama, documentary, experimental, animation, and video art.
We program these works, placing them beyond the accepted definitions imposed by dominant media programming, at the same time, transcending the accepted aesthetic perceptions in the artistic community. With a plurality of visions and genres, our programs combine the creative strength and the diverse aesthetic, political and sexual preferences of First Nations, European, African, Arab, Asian, Jewish, and Mestizo heritages. We are a truly festival of the Americas
aluCine is a distinctive transcultural experience, which allows the Canadian public to be in contact with works of high artistic/production values and transgressive and challenging proposals that impel us to expand our understanding of representation and to redesign our view of reality.
We are active participants in the development of the media arts landscape in the country by engaging in constant communication through partnerships with other media and cultural organization (such as Loop Collective, Harbourfront Center, Ed Video, Peterborough Arts Umbrella ) as well as belonging to art services groups such as the Toronto Festival Network and the Independent Film and Video Alliance.(see Updates)
Because of the nature of our community we have been engaged in producing free workshops in video production to members of the Queer, Youth Latino-a community who do not have access to production centers because of language and financial barriers, proactively creating the conditions for new artists and new visions to emerge.