Ever Deadly: Film Screening & Panel Discussion

The Equity, Diversity, Inclusion Office at the Faculty of Music is excited to invite you to a free film screening of Ever Deadly (2022) to commemorate International Women’s Day. We hope you will join us and/or share this opportunity to learn and connect with your U of T networks and beyond, as the screening of this incredible film and the panel discussion that will follow is open to all. The screening will occur in person and will also be livestreamed. Light refreshments will be served. Information about our esteemed panelists is available after the registration information below.

Description of the Film: “Ever Deadly is an immersive, visceral music and cinema experience featuring Tanya Tagaq, avant-garde Inuk throat singer, and created in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Chelsea McMullan. This documentary explores Tagaq’s transformation of sound with an eye to colonial fallout, natural freedom and Canadian history. We witness Tagaq’s intimate relationship with the Nuna—the Land—a living, breathing organism present in all forms of her improvised performances. Ever Deadly weaves concert footage with stunning sequences filmed on location in Nunavut, seamlessly bridging landscapes, stories and songs with pain, anger and triumph—all through the expressions of one of the most innovative musical performers of our time.”

• Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2024
• Time: 6 PM to 8:30 PM; refreshments served from 5:30 PM to 6 PM.
• Location: Faculty of Music, Walter Hall, 80 Queen’s Park, Toronto.
• Registration: Microsoft Form
• Content Note: This film discusses topics of trauma and abuse.

Any questions about the event may be sent to edi.music@utoronto.ca.

Panelists:

Jenny Blackbird (First Nations House)

Jenny Blackbird (Nehiyaw and Finnish-Canadian) is a hand drummer/singer, holds a Master of Education from York University, is a multi-disciplinary artist with a background in fashion design. She works at University of Toronto as Resource Centre and Programs Coordinator at First Nations House Indigenous Student Services. Jenny is producer and co-host of the “Indigenous Waves” Radio show and a volunteer at Aboriginal Legal Services. She has facilitated arts workshops in TDSB Schools, and has guest lectured at Toronto Metropolitan University school of social work, OISE, Centre for Indigenous Studies and Faculty of Music at U of T and worked at The Royal Ontario Museum as an Indigenous Knowledge Resource Teacher. Jenny is the recipient of the 2016 “Culture Keeper Award” Minaake Award from Native Women’s Resource Center and a 2019 recipient of an IDERD award for the International Day for the Elimination of Racism at University of Toronto.

Lori Dolloff (Faculty of Music)

Associate Professor in Music Education, Lori’s teaching focuses on music for children, choral conducting, narrative research methodology, and music in higher education. She has taught across Turtle Island, in the UK, and Sweden. An invitation to Iqaluit, Nunavut in 2009 proved a watershed moment. 17 more visits followed, singing with children and adults in schools and community, conducting and listening to the people and possibilities for change. This has resulted in following a path of listening to Indigenous voices and a commitment to honour the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation in her ongoing professional and personal practice. She has published on teacher identity in the British journal “Research in Music Education” and the Canadian Journal of Research in Music Education. She also published To Honor and Inform: Addressing Cultural Humility in Intercultural Music Teacher Education in Canada in 2020, addressing the need for reshaping the way we think about Indigenous inclusion in the intercultural curriculum.

Christine Duncan (Faculty of Music)

A musical chameleon, Christine Duncan uses her voice as an instrument, in a wide range of diverse musical styles She has been involved in everything from jazz, R&B, gospel, improvised music, sound poetry, to new music, opera, and musique actuelle. Some notable projects are Hugh Fraser’s VEJI (Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation) involved since the mid 1990’s, and her duo Barnyard Drama, with drummer/electronic artist Jean Martin, since 2002. She created and directs the Element Choir, an improvising choir in Toronto, active since 2007. Christine and the Element Choir have been performing with inuit throat singer/experimental vocalist Tanya Tagaq since 2014, and she performs with Tagaq on voice and theremin as well. For the last few years, as a community engagement outreach, Christine has been touring, putting together and training volunteer, improvising choirs to perform in concerts, with Tagaq, and with other musical ensembles, both in Canada, and abroad. Duncan and Tagaq have also been performing their piece Qiksaaktuq, (by Martin, Duncan and Tagaq) since 2017, with Symphony Orchestras in Canada and abroad. An active educator, Duncan has been teaching in the jazz programs at Humber College and the University of Toronto since 2003.