The Carleton University History Dept. is hosting it's annual Shannon Lecture Series. I thought, as the 'informal resident queer history blogger', I'd pass this along. Thanks to Dr. John Walsh for reminding me about it as I didn't realize this lecture had a queer history theme. By the looks of it the topic has inter-woven immigration/racism history in it as well.
From the Hist. Dept. Shannon Lecture Series website:
"October 29, 2010
JOHN GREYSON, “Rex vs. Singh: Story, Truth, and Film”
1:30-3:00, Carleton University, Paterson Hall, Rm.303
Abstract:
Professor and filmmaker John Greyson will be presenting and discussing Rex vs Singh (2008), an experimental 30-minute film he co-directed with Richard Fung and Ali Kazimi. The film tells “one” story in four different, overlapping ways. It is based on a historical event from 1915 when undercover police in Vancouver arrested two Sikh mill-workers, Dalip Singh and Naina Singh, and accused them of sodomy. Between 1909 and 1929, an inordinate number of men tried for sodomy in Vancouver were Sikhs and in 1914, only year before the arrest of these workers, the Komogata Maru, a ship carrying 376 potential immigrants from British India, most of whom Sikhs, was turned back after sitting in Vancouver harbour for two months without being allowed to land.
Following a screening of the film, there will be an on-stage interview with Professor Greyson and then a Question-and-Answer period with the audience to talk about the film, and about the relationships between film, storytelling, and histories of the present."
The CBC and Xtra! (one of Canada's leading LGBT community multi-city newspapers) have both written on the film. The film is the product of the Queer History Project and was shown at the 2008 Vancouver Queer Film Festival.
I'm hoping to go and I'd encourage anyone in the Ottawa area to go as well.
Best,
Jordan Kerr
http://randomunistudent.blogspot.com/
http://randomunistudent.blogspot.com/
