This is a mini documentary on East Van Graphics, a Vancouver BC area printing company. Their story is one of history, heritage and the evolution of the print industry.
I birthed this project on a whim. A feeling more than an idea really.
Unplanned and unprepared, yet inspired and compelled. I wanted to acknowledge what I saw as a boy growing up in a home filled with love and two black women. The connection between blackness, afrocentric hairstyles and the contradiction of society bucking against these natural things.
This is what I felt compelled to unpack. The recollection of moments, my memories of smells and snippets of conversation. The perspective of a first generation Canadian boy born to Jamaican parents. Flash forward 30 years, I see similar moments being lived through nieces who are old enough to know danger yet young enough to revel naïveté.
They love their hair. What’s missing is despair. There is none. It’s been exercised out of this house.
Hair in our house is an all day affair. The washing, straightening, texturizing. The pulling, the tears, the sweat and the laughter. The pride. It’s all there now in spades.
Brilliant, beautiful and bold. Words that describe the incomparable Hedy Lamarr.
The same can be said for the wonderful women I had the pleasure of collaborating with on this project. It’s been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. While we didn’t set out to copy we did find inspiration in the sultry gaze, brilliant mind and smart fashion sense of #HedyLamarr.
@leunasherif @dianagodinez.mua thank you for bringing your talents and energy.
This video is an interview with the Founder of Black Boys Code (Bryan Johnson), along with volunteer and guest speaker Dr. Germain Tanoh, PhD in Applied Mathematics (BCIT) at the Learn To Code Workshop. The goal is to get young boys excited about coding, setting the foundation for a lifelong commitment to technology.
Emmalena Fredriksson is a dynamic, contemporary dance artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, as a guest on the ancestral unceded lands of the Coast Salish peoples. This collaboration was inspired by the confinement of our current circumstances. The concept of restricted space, and movement was intriguing and available. Very much looking forward to creating with Emmalena again.
