Intro

0:00

[Music]

0:09

hi

0:10

my name is my movie is called suburban

0:14

origami and it’s the one where

0:16

i’m making origami huge origami pieces

0:19

and putting them

0:20

outside of my suburban home in

0:22

scarborough

0:23

that was made a few years ago so i’m

0:25

just trying to remember

0:28

what i was thinking at the time but uh

0:30

actually at the time i was doing some

0:32

performance-based

0:33

kind of work making large-scale origami

0:36

pieces so that was

0:38

uh part of that pro that time and

0:41

uh yeah and and this is jorge lozano he

0:45

did

0:45

he didn’t introduce himself

Black

0:50

oh yeah the the video black was made in

0:53

cali colombia

0:54

and uh is the result of workshops that

0:58

we did in that

1:00

neighborhood that is called siloa in

1:01

cali it’s a very dangerous uh violent

1:04

uh almost against uh jews

1:07

a lot of youth died in that in that

1:10

they die very young in that neighborhood

1:12

because of uh

1:14

gang-related problems because uh

1:17

the drug drug lords take over the

1:20

territory or the guerrilla groups take

1:22

over the territory or the police takes

1:24

over the territory there’s always a

1:26

conflict

1:26

so we were doing workshops in there

1:30

and we were shooting a video by black

1:34

which is the guy that

1:35

you see at the end on the lying down

1:38

with the blood

1:39

so we are shooting his video and

1:42

engineering i was i was

1:46

there were some kids in there and she

1:48

was looking at this kid that

1:50

began crying and he started to cry

1:53

because he

1:53

saw black on the ground with blood and

1:55

his father had died just a few a week

1:57

ago two weeks before that

1:59

so she was impacted by that and then she

2:02

wrote a story

2:04

the walking is just walking getting out

2:06

of the neighborhood at some point and

2:08

uh uh uh guillermo

2:12

i asked you a minute to shoot the the

2:13

the stairs so i held her

2:15

and she just did all it’s just one take

2:18

then later when we came in here

2:20

i was actually doing a workshop with

2:22

peter mina taking

2:24

doing some like more advanced video so

2:26

we brought this material together and

2:28

we just put it together and we wrote a

2:31

bit detects

2:32

uh to go with the colors of the

2:35

the the houses in you know just just

2:37

like related detects a bit with

2:39

the walking and ended with the shooting

2:42

of

2:42

a bit of a black’s film but that’s

2:46

basically say how much

2:47

all this youth who who died there

2:50

basically in in in of the ones that

2:53

worked in the workshop they’re still

2:55

alive

2:55

because they change because of the

2:57

workshops they change their lifestyles

2:59

began doing something else and black

3:01

right now is is uh

3:03

he’s an editor and i’m going to be

3:05

working with him actually in a project

3:07

uh doing workshops uh uh

3:09

positively really soon and he’s going to

3:10

be facilitating instead of participant

3:14

uh why why do you guys do workshops

3:17

in dangerous neighborhoods in cali why

3:20

would you guys expose

3:21

yourselves to do that and um

3:25

yeah that’s my number one question i

3:27

have many more

Workshops

3:29

now the workshops is natural

3:33

thing that i’ve been doing since i came

3:36

here to canada because i learned video

3:38

and i had equipment and i was surrounded

3:40

by

3:41

friends who had lots of talents and

3:43

didn’t have the resources so i began

3:45

doing workshops in my

3:46

house eventually they expanded to

3:48

through

3:49

working in alucina they expanded to

3:51

working with latin youth in here in

3:53

toronto

3:53

in in the suburbs so in the ghettos as

3:56

they call it

3:58

a youth latin youth who very talented

4:00

who

4:01

most of the time they’ve been in jail

4:03

because um uh

4:05

when they come here to canada from

4:06

salvador colombia whatever

4:08

uh they hang around and they hang around

4:10

in groups because they have to protect

4:12

themselves from the other

4:14

groups from jamaica from

4:18

somalia from whatever right so so they

4:20

had to foreign groups and when they

4:23

as he works in here with the police is

4:24

that if you if the police goes into

4:26

those neighborhoods and they see a group

4:28

of

4:28

young people hanging around together

4:31

they are considered a gang

4:33

and they go and take them away they tend

4:35

into jail

4:36

because of being a gang and so they

4:39

spend a lot of

4:39

time just going to jail basically you

4:41

know all their lives and and the

4:42

workshops

4:43

have helped them to to to they’re very

4:46

talented and they already have a lot of

4:48

visual information so when we go

4:49

there into those neighborhoods it’s

4:50

really easy to do the workshops they do

4:52

really amazing work some of the works

4:54

that we done in the workshops they’ve

4:56

been shown in festivals in one prizes

4:58

and some of them have won

5:00

scholarships to continue studying films

5:01

so it’s been very successful

5:03

and then they saw in the columbia this

5:05

works and

5:06

we were invited to do it in in colombia

5:09

when we show them the works that we’ve

5:11

done with the

5:12

youth in here in toronto the colombian

5:14

youth who were looking at us very

5:16

suspicious because they

5:17

you know you go into this neighborhoods

5:19

and they immediately assume that you’re

5:20

just going to go in

5:21

and use them right because uh they’ve

5:24

been used before by people who goes into

5:25

the neighborhoods and they don’t leave

5:26

anything

5:27

so but when they see the work that we’ve

5:29

done in here with the youth

5:30

immediately at the end and we never talk

5:32

to them we just show them

5:34

we say okay we got 12 youth in there

5:36

says we’re going to do a workshop with

5:37

you guys but we want you to see this

5:39

works

5:39

so they look at the work that the youth

5:41

in here

5:42

uh have done and immediately at the end

5:45

they say i can do better than that

5:46

and they’re just hooked into the

5:47

workshops and they do actually produce

5:49

incredible works and

5:50

and and so the workshops the works that

5:53

we do in the workshops they serve

5:54

as a as a way to

5:58

teach the other ones in and other places

6:01

to get involved in in in in and to see

6:04

that it’s possible because they’re

6:06

they they they they’re very creative and

6:08

they don’t just

6:09

just need to be to see themselves doing

6:12

something after they see themselves

6:14

they they don’t believe that they’re

6:15

going to be doing the work

6:17

that they do until the end and when they

6:20

see it they just don’t want to get out

6:21

of the workshops and they just

6:23

most of them continue doing work and

6:25

also they get

6:26

um they they form groups and start

6:28

facilitating workshops themselves in

6:30

their neighborhoods

6:31

so so that’s basically yeah

6:34

i think any questions about uh

6:37

black and the whole extension of this

6:39

piece that was inspired

6:41

like or essay and any one of the youth

6:43

work

6:44

in colombia yes um i just wanted to say

Resistance

6:48

thank you for

6:49

thank you for your work and sharing um a

6:52

bit of the context in the background

6:54

um of it i just um what it sort of

6:58

the film kind of started getting me to

7:00

think about was

7:02

resistance and i think you already

7:04

started talking a bit about

7:06

that already but i was just wondering if

7:08

in the workshop that you were doing in

7:11

kali that if there were communities

7:15

youth if they were already organizing

7:17

and challenging

7:19

racism and justice and the violence that

7:21

was happening

7:23

in their communities and if and if that

7:26

was something that was encountered

7:28

in the workshops at all and whether the

7:30

youth are vocalizing that in the work

7:32

that they’re doing

Youth Resistance

7:33

yeah no i believe that youth in in in

7:35

here in toronto and in in the ghettos or

7:38

or or in colombia youth uh lead by

7:41

resistance i mean

7:42

they resist every day in in a in

7:45

um i mean they’re still alive i mean

7:48

they go to jail all the time and they

7:49

still and when you bring them into the

7:51

workshops

7:52

they immediately their resistance gets

7:55

directed towards creativity and they did

7:58

and they see the potential of that

7:59

resistance

8:00

through culture in in in fact what

8:02

happened is that uh

8:04

when their friends see that friends that

8:06

are very troubled you know friends who

8:08

like like for instance i i met one that

8:10

is a really young guy about 16 and

8:12

in his he was he’s he’s killed quite a

8:15

few people already

8:16

he has you know he carries again and he

8:18

talks about kaelin and all the stuff

8:19

he’s very

8:20

you know lots of uh uh adrenaline is

8:23

what he says you know

8:24

he gets the adrenaline heist he you know

8:27

he can kill

8:28

and but he wanted always to be part of

8:30

the workshops because he wanted to be a

8:31

narcissist he wanted to be

8:33

you know he wanted to express himself

8:34

culturally you know with again so

8:36

get them the the tools change they are

8:38

the guys for the for video

8:40

it may it may it may

8:43

change their lives right so so they are

8:45

into resistance i mean to be youth in

8:47

those neighborhoods you have to resist

8:49

i am from a poor neighborhood in

8:52

colombia

8:52

we have to resist you know yours is uh

8:54

the violence in the neighborhood you’re

8:56

always

8:57

uh finding strategies to to to

9:00

to get in trouble and we know or not to

9:02

get in trouble

9:03

but you don’t want to die right so so it

9:05

is resistance and

9:06

and uh the workshops are are basically

9:09

that the workshops are

9:11

a tool to resist differently

9:15

in a more coherent way probably in a

9:16

more creative way

9:18

and in a way that it will expand in the

9:22

neighborhood which

9:23

which he has done and and i just got an

9:25

email the other day from one of the

9:27

guys in here that was in the neighbor in

9:29

the in the in the workshops

9:31

and he was so grateful he has a career

9:34

now

9:34

and as an editor he’s making a lot of

9:36

money because he was christian

9:38

and i think that he’s editing a lot of

9:40

the christian videos he has his own

9:42

company right now and he probably has a

9:44

lot of money right now you know he was

9:45

really

9:46

thank you very much and all that stuff

9:47

but i mean you cannot change his

9:50

belief in whatever he believes but at

9:51

least he is doing something different

9:54

right

9:54

and in that that is

9:57

you know i i really like the

10:01

whole metaphor of shooting film instead

10:04

of shooting people

10:06

that’s quite it’s just an image that

10:07

came to my mind it’s beautiful

10:09

uh julian has another question yes like

Fear

10:13

i’m actually from cali and i was a

10:15

nominal neighbor

10:16

for me to go because it is like up in

10:19

the mountains so you know it’s very

10:20

dangerous people

10:21

always are saying like please make sure

10:23

you don’t go there because you’re gonna

10:25

be raped you’re gonna be healed

10:27

rob anything so fear like

10:31

i know you weren’t there with

10:32

guillermina and she’s from argentina

10:34

she has curly hair she’s quite white and

10:38

and green eyes and and you’re getting

10:42

there

10:42

and you know in colombia argentinians

10:45

are usually

10:47

in latin america in general they have a

10:49

very sti uh

10:50

like a very specific way to describe

10:54

argentinians they say they are obnoxious

10:56

and they are different and they don’t

10:57

believe they are part of latin america

10:59

that’s like the cliche right so when you

11:01

went there

11:02

how did you manage fear were you did you

11:05

have any fear

11:06

you and her like how did you manage fear

11:08

and how do you actually

11:10

make sure like fear helped you too

11:14

get somewhere yeah i i don’t know about

11:16

guillermina

11:17

but i mean one of the reasons i’m going

11:18

to answer about me

11:20

you know i mean it’s very little very

11:23

very strong personality and she swears a

11:26

lot

11:26

and they loved it you know and she would

11:29

fly with it she would get really you

11:30

know and

11:31

they were like and they were just all

11:34

that good

11:34

and they would love her right she really

11:36

connected with them in that way and and

11:38

also her accent you know we like our

11:40

argentina accent in colombia you know

11:42

that you know it’s to us it sounds

11:43

really beautiful

11:44

uh so so it was perfect in terms of the

11:47

fear

11:48

no i don’t have fear i never have here

11:49

in situations like that really i had

11:51

fear

11:52

before you know like uh let’s say i

11:55

can’t have a fear to go in a plane and

11:57

think uh

11:58

that i’m gonna die and but it’s before i

12:00

go into the plane but when i’m in the

12:01

plane i don’t care really

12:02

there’s nothing that you can do so when

12:04

you go in this neighborhood what i am

12:06

aware is to be very strategic

12:08

in in how you relate with the

12:09

neighborhood so uh for instance i don’t

12:12

stay too long

12:13

you know the workshops cannot last a

12:15

month because you never know you know i

12:18

mean you

12:18

the longer that you stay there the

12:20

longer that they know your routines and

12:21

the more attracted that

12:23

the equipment gets to them you know not

12:25

not to the ones that you’re working with

12:26

because they don’t take anything

12:28

but the other people around so it could

12:29

become dangerous

12:31

in fact i a lot of the equipment that

12:34

we use in the workshops i i will go

12:37

there

12:38

come back to canada and i will leave

12:39

cameras with them so they could use them

12:41

and i will go back next year and they

12:42

will give them back to me

12:44

right so so that’s not the problem the

12:46

flowers is being there for too long and

12:48

and and people figuring out your

12:50

routines and then

12:51

eventually i mean they they get killed

12:52

there themselves so why shouldn’t i you

12:54

know what i mean

12:55

this can happen to me so now fear is not

12:57

the case and there’s

12:58

if you have fear then you cannot do

13:00

anything and we were in a situation for

13:02

instance that

13:02

uh we were shooting a scene outside in

13:06

in the outside

13:07

thank you i just moved too much in my

13:10

mouth my head my

13:11

microphone moves

13:12

[Laughter]

13:17

we were in a scene shooting the scene

13:19

outside outdoors in

13:21

in i i realized later that we were in a

13:24

place that we shouldn’t be but they told

13:26

us to go there

13:27

and uh i am behind the

13:30

behind the camera with the person that

13:31

is doing camera one of the the

13:33

participants

13:34

and took scrum they just walked into and

13:37

pulled a gun and tried to kill one of

13:38

the actors

13:40

so my instinct was to turn the camera on

13:43

immediately but the camera was on and i

13:44

turn it off instead

13:46

you know so which it was actually very

13:48

good because uh

13:49

uh it would have been very bad to have

13:51

that material in there

13:52

you know they may if they know you have

13:55

it something can happen

13:56

anyway so but that happened and i did

13:58

not have here the guy

14:00

oh the gun didn’t gone so he just walked

14:04

away like that and

14:05

and not the light that was beside me

14:08

and and the guy who was gonna get killed

14:10

just when

14:11

walking to him right that’s the way that

14:14

they are right and then they just steal

14:15

it and they just left

14:17

and then uh suddenly the whole

14:19

neighborhood

14:20

mobilized in phone calls

14:24

they were gonna kill the guy they call

14:25

all the gangs you know and i had to have

14:27

a meeting with all of them and say look

14:28

if you kill that guy you’re going to

14:30

ruin the film

14:31

you know we cannot shoot it anymore

14:32

seriously let’s move out and continue in

14:34

another place and i and

14:36

and it’s nothing really seriously i told

14:37

him that and if you want to kill it it’s

14:39

very stupid if you do it right now

14:40

because they’re going to know that it’s

14:41

you so

14:42

don’t be just have some time to think

14:44

about it

14:45

you know i mean you have to talk to them

14:47

in in their language right i mean

14:48

it’s it is not it is not a a matter of

14:52

ethics to me it’s just the life i didn’t

14:54

invent a life and i cannot change them

14:56

right

14:57

so you got to go with with try to

14:59

respect in some ways their

15:00

their their their their rules you know

15:03

like the neighborhood has rules

15:05

you know uh we i shouldn’t be telling

15:08

you this because this is this is real

15:10

violence right and

15:11

and we were in uh we were in a meeting

15:14

there and uh

15:15

and uh they knew that some guy was

15:17

trying to rob

15:18

us in the neighborhood they knew there

15:21

was a guy

15:22

with a gun and they were gonna

15:24

eventually some point attacked us and

15:25

they told me

15:26

blah blah then two weeks later i i went

15:29

there and the neighborhood has

15:30

had eliminated the guy because the guy

15:32

has been stealing

15:34

not only us but and other people so

15:37

that’s the way that they deal

15:38

they try to keep a balance right and and

15:41

i don’t agree with it but that’s their

15:42

life and i cannot change it

15:44

so so the what happened to us is that

15:47

when they see us with cameras

15:49

they all want to be actors and in fact

15:51

they are all really good actors

15:53

you know because those kids are visually

15:55

they have visual information they

15:57

they they see they live of visuals

16:00

you know they they just they just need

16:03

to have the

16:04

the tools and they are amazing

16:07

uh actors and filmmakers you can get the

16:10

best actors in there and they’re all

16:11

beautiful looking the the guys and the

16:13

and the girls you know that

16:14

the woman and men they’re beautiful

16:15

looking you know

16:17

incredible mixture of people so

16:22

they know how to act their own lives and

16:25

their life is very rich and complex

16:27

so

16:30

any other questions on the floor

16:34

i have a question for sujin if you want

16:35

to talk a little bit about uh

16:38

the giant origami what were you

16:41

reflecting at that time

16:42

did you manage to remember that

16:45

remember what were you thinking about

16:48

the time that you made that film

16:50

yeah i do remember now

16:52

[Music]

16:54

so at the time i was uh i was living out

16:57

in scarborough and

16:58

uh there’s a lot of i mean even though

17:00

it’s nowhere near dangerous that’s some

17:02

of the

17:03

dangerous places in the world uh there

17:05

is a stigma in the city about what it

17:07

means

17:08

what scarborough represents and how

17:10

dangerous it is and people would be

17:12

turned off

17:12

a lot of times when i said that i lived

17:15

there so

17:16

so i did this original project about

17:18

scarborough where i put an

17:20

ad in the newspaper and random and

17:22

people call me

17:23

and then they would invite me to their

17:24

homes and i would program them so

17:26

it was kind of an extension of that

17:29

project or some of the ideas that i had

17:31

from that project

17:32

from 2008 probably and so

17:36

what i wanted to do is uh all everything

17:38

is so centralized in the downtown

17:40

core that i wanted to bring some of the

17:43

downtown into

17:45

into that area and to make it more

17:46

exciting or just to just to activate it

17:49

as a

17:49

as a place that can be activated with

17:51

art and so i lived on top of a bar

17:54

called

17:55

the dog house on kingston road and

17:58

uh and it was really it was safe because

18:01

uh there will be drunk people

18:03

at my doorstep every at all hours so it

18:06

was quite safe to go home

18:07

at any time but um so i uh yeah so i

18:10

just had this idea that i would

18:12

put these boxes and create sort of these

18:14

abstract uh

18:16

buildings that would represent buildings

18:18

some of the things that we see in

18:19

toronto and

18:21

in the downtown area and my friend

18:23

alexander was

18:24

in the audience helped me

18:29

yeah i recreated this little cube in my

18:31

living room

18:32

so i was you know inside the cube making

18:35

cubes and then

18:36

and then i was i was outside of the cube

18:38

putting the cubes

18:40

around the cube so yeah so that’s more

18:43

or less

18:43

what i was thinking at the time thank

18:46

you

18:47

yeah so there’s a installation that you

18:50

did at the same time

18:52

that i saw this the first time and it

18:54

you were using the cubes as screens

18:57

in the gallery oh yeah so that was uh

19:00

that it was the same piece that played

19:02

but they were projected onto the cubes

19:04

because i created a yeah there were i

19:06

think nine of them and

19:08

i just projected onto them so yeah i was

19:11

just

19:11

kind of referring back to the cube

19:15

the many layers of the cubes but uh

19:18

yeah oh you saw that i didn’t know you

19:21

saw that

19:22

awesome

19:24

[Music]

19:25

[Laughter]

19:37

is that is very ironic and interesting

19:39

in

19:40

in working in colombia working here is

19:42

that the youth in here the latin youth

19:44

in here

19:45

who don’t commit crimes they are in jail

19:48

all the time

19:49

and you think colombia do commit

19:52

you know violent acts they don’t go to

19:55

jail

19:56

because of the impunity so

20:08

[Music]

20:18

do

20:21

you

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