Photography by Kevin Sarasom

Sarah-Tai is a film programmer, arts curator, critic, and film/story consultant who was born and (mostly) raised in Treaty 13 Territory/Toronto. They are a non-binary femme of Afro-Brazilian, Chinese, and European settler ancestry whose creative efforts work to center embodied Black, queer, trans, and crip freedom practices with an emphasis on working relations that interrogate and dismantle white supremacy culture. They are interested in art and space-making that speaks back to conventional ways of seeing and being seen and experiments counter to presupposed boundaries of form and structure. Here is something lovely from the internet to keep you company while you’re here.

 

Here is the “professional” stuff:

Sarah-Tai currently works as Manager, Programming at Regent Park Film Festival, programs the semi-monthly screening series Black Gold at Toronto’s Paradise theatre, and contributes film and arts criticism to The Globe and Mail, The Los Angeles Times, and CBC Arts. They are a regular contributor on CBC’s Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud where they speak on all things film, television, and pop culture; they are also a member of the Toronto Film Critics Association and GALECA - the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics.

They have previously written for platforms such as MUBI Notebook, Cinema Scope, RogerEbert.com, Artsy, Berlinale Forum, cléo journal, Herizons, and in support of several artist projects; likewise, their words and voice have been shared via outlets such as Canadian Art, Variety, Refinery 29, Harper’s Bazaar, CBC News, and Huffington Post.

Sarah-Tai’s curatorial work has been staged at Workman Arts Off-Site (Toronto), PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts courtesy of WNDX festival of moving image (Treaty 1 Territory/Winnipeg, MB), Cambridge Art Galleries, (Haldimand treaty land/Cambridge, ON), Dunlop Art Gallery (Treaty 4 Territory/Regina), MOCA (Toronto), PAVED Arts (Treaty 6 Territory/Saskatoon), and A Space Gallery (Toronto).

They have spoken about arts culture, film, and moving image arts in their many forms as a guest of the National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Contemporary Art (Toronto), Telefilm, Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, International Documentary Association, Nia Centre for The Arts, Penguin Random House, The Walrus, York University, University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Humber College. From 2022-2023, they were a selected participant in McMaster Museum of Art’s BIPOC Curatorial Mentorship Program working under the guidance of curator Pamela Edmonds with support from Canadian Heritage. Likewise, their curatorial and programming work has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council

Sarah-Tai has worked at the McMaster Museum of Art, as one of the Directors at Toronto’s The Royal Cinema, as the Interim Artistic Director at Saskatoon’s PAVED Arts, as well as appeared as a co-host of Netflix Film’s YouTube series Black Film School. They were previously International Mid-Length Programmer at Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, Festival & Industry Programmer at Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Programmer of Images Festival, and Public Programs Assistant at Art Museum at the University of Toronto; a part of the Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and True/False Film Festival programming teams; and were a Curatorial Fellow at the 2021 Flaherty Film Seminar.

They have taken part in several film festivals and awarding events as juror, host, and panelist, including the IDA Documentary Awards, BlackStar Film Festival, Inside Out LGBTQ+ Film Festival, TIFF, Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival, and Indie Memphis Film Festival. Sarah-Tai has also served as a peer assessor for the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

 
 

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