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 inspires immediate, all-encompassing feeling, 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, speaking on all things film, television, and pop culture as well as 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, and in support of several artist projects; likewise, their words and voice have been shared within outlets such as Canadian Art, Variety, Refinery 29, Harper’s Bazaar, 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), and they have spoken about arts culture, film, and moving image arts in their many forms as a guest of institutions like the National Gallery of Canada, MOCA (Toronto), International Documentary Association, Nia Centre for The Arts, and The Walrus. 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.
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 TIFF, 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 as juror, host, and panelist, including 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.
Select recent, current, and upcoming work:
Queen of My Dreams, Interview with director Fawzia Mirza, The Globe and Mail
Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, Interview with directors Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel, CBC Arts
Someone Lives Here, Interview with director Zack Russel and star Khaleel Seivwright, The Globe and Mail
Origin, Review, The Globe and Mail
Leave The World Behind, Review, The Globe and Mail
Silver Dollar Road, Interview with filmmaker Raoul Peck, The Globe and Mail
wherever you are is where i want to be, Group Exhibition, Workman Arts, Rendezvous With Madness Festival (October 5 — 31, 2023; Toronto, ON)
Touch Me On The Inside and Call Me By My Name: Works by Ayanna Dozier, PLATFORM centre for photgraphic + digital arts, WNDX festival of moving image (August 30 - October 11; Winnipeg, MB)
Curator’s Choice: Black Queer Artists Embrace Figurative Art on Their Own Terms, Artsy
Ordinary Notes, Interview with author Christina Sharpe, CBC Arts
The Melt Goes On Forever: The Art and Times of David Hammons, Review, The Los Angeles Times
Black Gold presents Drylongso, plus virtual Q&A with Cauleen Smith, Paradise (June 22; Toronto, ON)
L'immensità, Review, The Los Angeles Times
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, Review, The Los Angeles Times
A Thousand and One, Review, The Globe and Mail
Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Review, The Globe and Mail
To Build What We Become When We Dream, Group Exhibition, Cambridge Art Galleries (February 25 — May 27, 2023; Cambridge, ON)
M3GAN, Review, The Globe and Mail
Women Talking, Review, The Globe and Mail
Black Drones in the Hive, Interview with artist Deanna Bowen and Curator Crystal Mowry, CBC Arts
The Inspection, Review, The Globe and Mail
The Inspection, Interview with actor Gabrielle Union, The Globe and Mail
Nanny, Interview with director Nikyatu Jusu, The Los Angeles Times
Halloween Ends, Review, The Globe and Mail
Catherine Called Birdy, Review, The Globe and Mail
Barbarian, Review, The Globe and Mail
Pearl, Review, The Globe and Mail
When Morning Comes, Interview with director Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, The Globe and Mail
Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul., Review, The Los Angeles Times
Nope, Review, The Globe and Mail
Sharp Stick, Review, The Los Angeles Times
each of us, beloved, Artist Talk, Dunlop Art Gallery (July 18th, 2022; Regina, SK)
Official Competition, Review, The Los Angeles Times
for those of us who live at the shoreline, Group Exhibition, Dunlop Art Gallery (July 9 – September 7, 2022; Regina, SK)
each of us, beloved, Group Exhibition, Dunlop Art Gallery (July 2 – September 25, 2022; Regina, SK)
Basic Instructions Before Leaving Everything, Solo Exhibition, Timothy Yanick Hunter, A Space Gallery (May 17 – June 18, 2022; Toronto, ON)
Everything Everywhere All At Once, Review, The Globe and Mail
Where There Is No Time There Is No Death, Program Essay, Berlinale Forum ‘22
Fresh, Review, The Los Angeles Times