The 21st Chromosome
Canada
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Runtime:
Category: Love
Screening Date: January 31, 2015
How do you tell the story of someone who's in your family but doesn't
have a voice to say whether or not they want that story told? If you're
filmmaker, Kirsten Johnson who has a younger sister with Down Syndrome,
Autism and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, you don't follow her around
with a camera, in fact, you don't film her at all. Instead, you
painstakingly hand-draw over a thousand drawings, you personally
recreate distressing incidents from the past, you bring characters to
life in imaginative scenarios that illuminate what's it's like to have
someone in your life whose personal reality you can only begin to
fathom.
A truly unique method of storytelling that explores a challenging subject matter with humour, empathy and depth.
Director: Kirsten Johnson
Kirsten Johnson comes to film
via a strong background as a painter and performer. Her art work appears
in private and public collections all over North America, Europe,
Australia and Japan, including Montréal's prestigious Colart Collection
which purchased 3 paintings from her Catfight series. Her work can be
found in the collections of novelist Ann Marie-MacDonald, director
Jeremy Podeswa, puppeteer Ronnie Burkett, comedy empresario Mark Breslin
and many other of Canada's cultural elite. As an actor she has worked
with such directors as Jeremy Podeswa, David Cronenberg and once was
Ophelia in an 8 hour production of Hamlet staged by the infamous, Hillar
Liitoja and his DNA Theatre. She is a founding member of the Harold
Awards which have been celebrating Toronto’s alternative theatre scene
for twenty years. She turned to filmmaking in a serious manner a couple
of years ago as a way to fuse these different practices.
Whether making films, acting or painting she puts an emphasis on
intellectual curiosity which she inherited from her philosophy professor
father and emotional empathy and interest in the human which she
inherited from her Psychiatric Nursing professor mom.
Director’s Statement
Originality is of huge importance
to me as a filmmaker. Not for its own sake but because for me the
process of film making is a process of discovery. It’s also heavily
influenced by my multi-art career status. As both a painter and a
theatre artist – I’ve acquired huge experience as a story teller. My
film making benefits from these skills while still remaining relatively
new and fresh. My films have a strong visual component and have an
inventive, imaginative approach that seek to communicate outside of any
existing template.
I seek to capture truth but believe the “Truth” can sometimes only be
truly captured through metaphor. I want the audience to be engaged and I
think the best way to accomplish this is to surprise and approach
subjects in unexpected and various ways.
Overall, I want people to go on a joyous yet challening ride. I want
people to be surprised that they’re having so much fun while thinking so
deeply.
Director: Kristina Mileska
