Vtape

Vtape Vtape is Canada’s leading artist-run, not-for-profit distributor of video art.

Featuring more than 1,600 artists and nearly 7000 titles, Vtape’s diverse collection includes works from the early 1970s to the present. Vtape is a vibrant distribution organization that represents an international collection of contemporary and historical video art and media works by artists. We make this collection accessible to curators and programmers, educators, scholars and public audiences

worldwide. In addition to providing a distribution framework for established and emerging artists, Vtape is committed to establishing video art preservation and exhibition standards, and strives to support hybrid practices in an increasingly complex technical milieu.

Happy International Workers Day from Vtape!To celebrate May Day, and to put the focus on the pressurized situation in th...
05/01/2026

Happy International Workers Day from Vtape!

To celebrate May Day, and to put the focus on the pressurized situation in the arts, Vtape is featuring Clive Robertson’s Artists’ Union Rally, March 16, 1985 as our May Video of the Month. This tape is a condensed document of the rally that took place in Toronto in 1985: the Independent Artists’ Union (IAU) responded to cultural funding cuts to the Canada Council and the CBC handed down by the Progressive Conservative Party, in particular Marcel Masse from the Department of Communications. The rally included a march through the streets by over 800 artists and cultural supporters and concluded with speeches and presentations at the St. Lawrence Centre. The IAU was active from 1984 to 1989 with 700 members at its peak, transforming artists’ living conditions through advocacy for a living wage.

With the arts currently under increasing pressure from funding cuts, censorship, right-wing cultural backlash, and techno-cultural fragmentation, we recognize that this is nothing new. We have faced these conditions before and by organizing and working together, have been able to carry on doing the critical and fundamental work of independent art-making.

If you are in Regina, you can still see works by Clive Robertson and other 2025 Governor Generals Award winners, on at the Mackenzie Art Gallery until May 3rd!

🎞️ Now streaming on Vtape.org
🌐 Link in bio

Image Credits: Artists Union Rally, March 16, 1985 (1985) by Clive Robertson

🎥 Celestial Q***r: The Life, Work, and Wonder of James MacSwain🗓️ Friday May 8, 2026⏱️ 7:00 pm, Doors at 6:30pm📍CineCycl...
04/30/2026

🎥 Celestial Q***r: The Life, Work, and Wonder of James MacSwain
🗓️ Friday May 8, 2026
⏱️ 7:00 pm, Doors at 6:30pm
📍CineCycle (129 Spadina Ave., rear)
🎟️ Tickets $12 in advance / $15 at door

Equal parts art project, history lesson, and whimsy, Celestial Q***r: The Life, Work, and Wonder of James MacSwain offers a portrait of an artist who defied convention for a life lived on his own terms. Directors Eryn Foster and Sue Johnson spent a decade checking in with the witty, erudite MacSwain as he moved about his life in north end Halifax, returned to his tiny rural hometown of Amherst, Nova Scotia—where he grew up, unable to pass for straight, in the 1950s—and discussed his lifelong, wildly inventive art practice. The playful, q***r work is cut out, glued together, and sung into intricate collages, analogue films combining handmade animation with documentary, and provocative exhibitions. Johnson and Foster, who knew MacSwain for decades until his death in 2025, combine myriad formats in the production (including 16mm, Super-8, and digital video) for an intimate patchwork celebration reflective of their subject’s own body of work. Celestial Q***r now stands as an elegy for a man who was defiantly original, internationally renowned, and an icon of artistic integrity. James MacSwain lived how he wanted—unabashed, uncompromising, and unforgettable.

Co-presented by , and

Canadian tour supported by the Canada Council for the Arts & Arts Nova Scotia

e-flux Film presents the April 2026 edition of the online series Staff Picks, organized in collaboration with and featu...
04/15/2026

e-flux Film presents the April 2026 edition of the online series Staff Picks, organized in collaboration with and featuring three works by Kyoko Michish*ta: Cherry Blossoms (1975), Being Women in Japan Series: Liberation Within My Family (1974), and Video Portraits – Men: Shuntarō Tanikawa (1982).
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“Everything I do is related,” Kyoko Michish*ta, Japanese feminist artist and translator, told curator Jesse Cu***ng in 2023. “I’m always in search of questions related to aesthetics, fairness, and democracy, whether I’m writing, filming, or videotaping. Fairness, democracy, peace, beauty, pleasure, sincerity, and honesty, they are all equally important to me.” Michish*ta was one of the first artists in Japan to adopt video technology. In the early 1970s, she joined the Video Hiroba collective that included Toshio Matsumoto and Hakudō Kobayashi, and pushed that group’s emphasis on video as a consciousness-raising tool to include feminist principles. Her moving-image work can be separated into major strands, though these commingle and inform one another: experimental works, sometimes shot on film, observing natural phenomena and everyday scenes in the northern region where she lived for much of her life, first-person documentaries about women’s issues in Japan, and interviews with prominent male figures in Japanese culture whom she believed proposed alternatives to its dominant patriarchal sentiments.
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Since 2022, Vtape has been working to restore, digitize, translate, and subtitle Michish*ta’s work, making her films and videos available again for public presentation for the first time in decades. Since the project began, Kyoko Michish*ta’s work has been the subject of exhibitions and screenings internationally and of renewed scholarly interest. Vtape currently distributes ten titles, with more to come, and in collaboration with them this edition brings together three works by Michish*ta.
⠀
Watch it at the link in bio.

Our congratulations to the Images Festival on an incredible run of in-person screenings and events this past weekend! So...
04/15/2026

Our congratulations to the Images Festival on an incredible run of in-person screenings and events this past weekend! Sophie Sabet’s exhibition continues till April 25 at the Bachir/Yerex Presentation Space, presented in partnership with Vtape.

CONTINUING:

Return of the Bright Night | Sophie Sabet

Exhibition run: April 9-25, 2026
Reception: April 11, 11am-12:30pm

📍Bachir/Yerex Presentation Space | 440-401 Richmond St West

𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘚𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘣𝘦𝘵’𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘩𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘴. 𝘙𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵.

We are thrilled to present this solo exhibition, and celebrate its recent US premiere at MoMA’s program Doc Fortnight Shorts 1: Intersecting Memories.

Presented in partnership with Vtape

Image: Return of the Bright Night | Sophie Sabet | Canada | 2025 | Digital | 10 min | Farsi with English subtitles

[ID: The image appears to be an abstract, monochromatic view of layered, flowing shapes with varying shades of grey and black.].

Hotseat is a screening series of experimental video work from the legendary Vtape catalogue. The program was prepared by...
04/15/2026

Hotseat is a screening series of experimental video work from the legendary Vtape catalogue. The program was prepared by curators from Queen's Screen Cultures & Curatorial Studies MA/PhD. Sessions will take place on April 18th and 19th at the Screening Room, 120 Princess Street, Downtown Kingston. Free!

🎥 Hotseat
🗓️ April 18–19, 2026
⏱️ 4:00 pm–6:20pm
📍The Screening Room, 120 Princess Street, Kingston ON

The screening series consists of four programs: April 18th opens with ‘ICU (Image Care Unit),’ curated by Habibi Wang, which remakes the cinema into a clinic. The evening continues with ‘Non-standard munitions package (improvised cyclic fire),’ curated by Andrei Pora, which examines the repurposing of military techniques by contemporary video artists.

April 19th begins with ‘On Rites of Resistance,’ curated by Geoffrey Webster and Vincent E., which brings together ways to make spaces of shared survival. The series concludes with ‘Maskwa,’ curated by Sasza Hinton, which illustrates the everyday experience of Indigenous grief, both personally and communally.

Come and experience diverse programming reflecting the overlapping urgencies of our times! All sessions will be followed by Q&A with the curators.

Hotseat is coordinated by Gabriel Menotti and Deirdre Logue, with the support of Queen's Film & Media, Vtape, Kingston Cinema Society, and the Besides the Screen network.

✨The has just launched Tramps, Troublemakers and Trailblazers: Trans Filmmakers!This new collection includes works by V...
04/05/2026

✨The has just launched Tramps, Troublemakers and Trailblazers: Trans Filmmakers!

This new collection includes works by Vtape artists Mirha-Soleil Ross and Xanthra Phillippa MacKay. Keep reading for the full scoop!✨

Boundary-breaking filmmakers reclaim their stories with these richly varied looks at the trans experience. Long misrepresented on-screen through disreputable and actively harmful images, trans characters have come into focus thanks to a pioneering generation of trans directors determined to capture their lives with nuance and hard-won insight. Curated by Caden Mark Gardner and Willow Catelyn Maclay, authors of the book “Corpses, Fools, and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema,” these revealing counterhistories of cultural trailblazers (RUPERT REMEMBERS, GENDER TROUBLEMAKERS, NO ORDINARY MAN), intersectional portraits of everyday survival (DRUNKTOWN’S FINEST, LINGUA FRANCA), and bold explorations of identity in the online age (WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR, CASTRATION MOVIE ANTHOLOGY I. TRAPS) show that there is no single, common trans film image but rather a kaleidoscope of voices, forms, and lived realities.

Repost
✨Announcing our APRIL 2026 Criterion Channel lineup! ✨ Next month, step into the high-powered boardrooms where dirty deals and vast conspiracies unfold in our Corporate Thrillers collection. New director retrospectives spotlight the radical documentaries of Emile de Antonio and three classic noirs by Jacques Tourneur, while Tramps, Troublemakers, and Trailblazers surveys an emerging generation of trans auteurs. We’re also raiding our archives for a new ongoing feature: out-of-print Criterion editions with their hard-to-find special features. There’s so much more to choose from this month, including a new installment of Adventures in Moviegoing with Mary Bronstein, the exclusive premiere of Bi Gan’s RESURRECTION, and short films from BLUE HERON director Sophy Romvari.



We’re here to please you, Baby | Deirdre Logue, E. Jane, Renèe Helèna Browne, Zhongyao WangCurated by Kiera Boult for C...
04/05/2026

We’re here to please you, Baby | Deirdre Logue, E. Jane, Renèe Helèna Browne, Zhongyao Wang

Curated by Kiera Boult for

Co-presented with Vtape, InterAccess, Inside Out, 7a*11d, and Ed Video Media Arts Centre

APRIL 11 | 3:00 pm
📍Innis Town Hall | 2 Sussex Avenue
Screening

𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘛𝘝, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘱𝘴𝘦, '𝘞𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺' 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘒𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘢'𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘴, 𝘒𝘪𝘬𝘪, 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮, 𝘸𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢: 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘒𝘪𝘬𝘪 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘒𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘢'𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦.

Please join us after the program for a conversation with Kiki and Riss Sean Cruz, and find tickets for the program on our website.

Image: Sacred Disease, Renèe Helèna Browne (2019). Video still.

Vtape is excited to unveil the total overhaul of our front foyer! Thanks to the tireless efforts of Submissions and Comm...
04/01/2026

Vtape is excited to unveil the total overhaul of our front foyer! Thanks to the tireless efforts of Submissions and Communications Coordinator Claudia Edwards, our entrance has been transformed from an unwelcoming de facto storage space into a mini-gallery of sorts for the exhibition of titles from our collection, alongside a poster wall showcasing the history of video art in Toronto. Come on by and check out our video of the month, screening 10am-5pm, Monday-Friday. This month’s title is Maha Maamoun’s Shooting Stars Remind Me of Eavesdroppers (2013), with a new video to rotate in each month. Thank you, Claudia, for decluttering and improving our space!

This April, we invited Fiona Enright, our YWC intern, to select our Video of the Month from the hundreds of videos she h...
04/01/2026

This April, we invited Fiona Enright, our YWC intern, to select our Video of the Month from the hundreds of videos she has watched and catalogued. Here's what she had to say!

“Poetic and sensorially rich, Maha Maamoun’s Shooting Stars Remind Me of Eavesdroppers transports viewers to a resplendent day in Cairo’s al-Azhar Park. Amidst the ambient hum of urban life, the rustle of wind through greenery, and the careful movements of egrets, a couple navigates intimacy and truth through a conversation on eavesdropping. The video opens with a cosmic allegory of ever-watchful stars, evoking the transgressive and voyeuristic dimensions of listening in on others. It implicates the viewer in the very transgression it contemplates, raising the question of whether we might be punished by the cosmos for our own eavesdropping.”

🎞️ Now streaming on Vtape.org
🌐 Link in bio

Image credits: Shooting Stars Remind Me of Eavesdroppers, Maha Maamoun (2013)

📣📣CALL FOR PROPOSALS The Curatorial Incubator, v.20: Lost Histories, Found Futures🔮SUBMISSION DEADLINE: TUESDAY, APRIL 2...
03/26/2026

📣📣CALL FOR PROPOSALS The Curatorial Incubator, v.20: Lost Histories, Found Futures
🔮SUBMISSION DEADLINE: TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2026

If the brief but crowded history of video technology teaches us anything, it’s that for every future that’s realized, a dozen more never come to pass. The history of video art is similarly full of roads not taken: technical experiments ventured once and not pursued again, social movements that imagined alternatives now forgotten or suppressed, documents of physical and social spaces now missing from contemporary life. What happens, in retrospect, appears inevitable, but didn’t seem so at the time. On the other hand, what really has come to pass has often been unforeseen.

From Vtape’s vast and varied collection, we want to look to the past to help imagine what a different future might look like. For Volume 20 of the Curatorial Incubator, we invite prospective curators to engage with either/both the past and future of video art, to search for alternatives that may have been neglected or forgotten, to draw new lineages, and to scan the horizons of contemporary work for viable futures.

🔮📜⌛🏺🔮

Participants in The Curatorial Incubator will develop their media-arts curating skills through a program of workshops conducted by arts professionals; undertake research using the rich, specialized resources provided by Vtape; engage in intensive viewing of video works from Vtape’s catalogue; and write an essay to accompany their final program, with editorial assistance from experienced writers. The resulting programs will be presented by Vtape in the fall of 2026.

If your proposal is selected, you will receive fees for the curating and writing, and will work within a realistic budget to cover screening fees for your program. The workshop and research phase will begin in May and should be complete by early August. The writing and editing phase will begin in August and be complete by mid-October. Presentation will take place in November-December.

For more information, follow the link in our bio 🌐

Image credit: The Fourth Corner of the World, by Randy & Berenicci (1992)

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Toronto, ON

Opening Hours

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Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm

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+14163511317

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https://linktr.ee/Vtape

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