Reclamation
by Thirza Jean Cuthand

For the first video selection in the Climate Collective series, we have chosen Thirza Jean Cuthand’s Reclamation from 2018. This short video powerfully dramatises the methodology of Climate Emergency > Emergence with subtle wit and profound insight. It draws on existing Indigenous traditions, long suppressed under the weight of settler colonial violence, to imagine a socially just futurity built upon planetary care. Set in a time to come when white settlers have abandoned Earth to transform – and likely exploit – Mars through terraforming, the video interviews Indigenous people about what life is like in the wake of racial colonial capitalism, militarism, and queerphobia, as they set themselves the task of attempting to reclaim the possible.
— Climate Collective: T. J. Demos, Molemo Moiloa, Susan Schuppli and Paulo Tavares

Thirza Jean Cuthand makes short experimental videos and films about sexuality, madness, Queer identity, love and Indigeneity which have been screened at festivals and galleries internationally. She completed a BFA with a major in Film/Video at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2005 and an MA in Media Production at Ryerson University in 2015. She has performed at Live at The End of The Century in Vancouver, Performatorium in Regina, and 7a*11d in Toronto. She is a Whitney Biennial 2019 artist. She is Plains Cree/Scots, a member of Little Pine First Nation and resides in Toronto, Canada.
 

Climate Colective Video Series 

As part of the Climate Emergency > Emergence programme taking place from April until December 2021, the Climate Collective (T. J. Demos, Molemo Moiloa, Susan Schuppli and Paulo Tavares) has curated an online screening series featuring videos by a variety of international and local practitioners around themes addressed in the ongoing events. The first video is Reclamation by Thirza Jean Cuthand and is shown on maat ext. Cinema from 30/04/2021 to 27/05/2021.