It Starts With a Whisper was produced in the Six Nations/Brantford area, with an all-Native cast, and features locations on the Grand River which runs through the Six Nations Reserve. The film blends traditional Iroquois imagery, music and themes with motifs from contemporary, secular life. An original score and innovative visuals make It Starts With a Whisper a delight to watch, as well as a timely challenge to movie stereotypes of First Nations people. Eighteen-year-old Shanna Sabbath, who has grown up on the Reserve, must now decide what path to follow in life. Her aunts’ warmth and humour, and a dream-like encounter with a well-known native leader, help Shanna realize she is loved and is entitled to live her life, remembering and respecting the people of the past and traditional ways.

After the revolution in 1979, Iran prohibited the depiction of men and women touching on the silver screen. Since then, directors have relied on every cinematic trick in the book to mirror the ecstatic release of tension through touch – but often it is the game of glances that is enough to set a scene ablaze. Nazarbazi collages these saturated cinematic moments into a poem about love and desire in Iranian film.

One hundred silk sheets are arranged in a grid of ten by ten, hung on a blank wall. Each individual silk sheet is painted with gouache and ink, with colours ranging from golden orange, to sky blue, to raw white. The forms on each sheet are similar; a fiery triangle with a horse running through, a rider, Siyavash, on the horse’s back. Each repetition bears its own unique details, indicating that each is individually painted directly onto the silk. Encountering these repeated paintings arranged in a grid evokes a sense of sequence and animation.