This Line Connects the Void

Synopsis

Filmed in the artist’s family apartment on the edge of Parkdale in the city of Toronto, this work explores the poetics of grief and precarity for the family around the time of death and dying surrounding the artist’s sister. With nonlinear storytelling and fragmented images, it moves between speculative fiction, documentary and experimental film. Referencing Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee (1982) and Anne Carson’s poem On Walking Backwards (1995), it considers the space and metaphor of a void and the desire that moves between the dead and living.

Biography and Films

Tram Nghiem (they/them/she/her) is a queer Southeast Asian cultural programmer and artist working with stills and moving images. Trained in digital video, their art practice uses process-based inquiries and digital/analogue methods and explores the relationship between people and their environments. They have produced work for the Syros International Film Festival and are currently working on an experimental video work funded by the Canada Council of the Arts.