Languages of Sovereignty - Program 1 Short Films - VLAFF 2019

Curator bios:

Sonia Medel
Sonia Medel is a researcher-educator-artivist completing a PhD in Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as a Public Scholar. She began identifying herself as a cinephile and avid film festival supporter in her teens. For the past decade, Sonia's focus has been on promoting critical decolonial engagement with the arts. She is an Instructor at Langara College and UBC; and forms a long-time part of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival (an attendee since its beginning and 2013 Youth Jury member), currently serving as Coordinator of Community Partnerships, Curator and Lead Programmer of Indigenous Films from BC and Beyond. Sonia has also published on the pedagogical power of film and festival spaces and served as DOXA 2018 Short Documentary Award Jury Member. A proud Spanglish speaker, Quechua learner, daughter of Peruvian and Chilean parents, and Indigenous-Afro-European descendant, Sonia is grateful to the Coast Salish Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples and lands on which she was born and is able to carry out her work.

Sarah Shamash
Sarah Shamash lives on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam First Nations in what is known as Vancouver. She is an independent media artist and PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at UBC. She has presented her art and film work internationally at festivals and art galleries in New York, Vancouver, Sao Paulo, and Paris. Her academic research is on an archive of film and video in Brazil. She teaches film studies and programs films for the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. Her work as an artist, researcher, educator, and programmer can be understood as interconnected and whole; they all revolve around a passion for cinema in all its plurivocality.