100 Stories About My Grandmother

Toronto-based artist Peter Kingstone works with
video and photography, often experimenting with
narrative to explore ideas of personal history and
the intangible nature of truth. Premiering during
CONTACT is Kingstone’s new documentary, 100
Stories About My Grandmother, is a four-channel
video installation weaving together portraits of
male sex trade workers telling stories about their
grandmothers. For Kingstone, who frequently uses
his work as a way to investigate his own
relationship to family, the figure of the
grandmother stands as an icon of history. With
this topic as a touchstone and through
conversations with Kingstone, the subjects he
captures are able to open up and reveal something
of themselves.

Sharing family stories may seem banal, but
inviting sex trade workers to do so becomes a way
of including them in a society that is all too
frequently eager to reject them. Audiences are
invited to spend time listening to the thoughts
and memories of this marginalized community. By
empowering the talked about to talk, a voice is
given to those who have often been left voiceless.
100 Stories About My Grandmother is presented in
partnership with the Inside Out Lesbian and Gay
Film and Video Festival.