Urinal

placeholder

Eisenstein, Mishima, Frida Kahlo and other dead artists are uncannily summoned on a mission to probe the policing of public toilets in Ontario. They discover that, since 1981, hundreds of men have been arrested, victims of video surveillance. The key to all this seems to be a portrait of Dorian Gray. Part news story, part surreal comic invention, John Greyson's URINAL is at the cutting edge of new gay cinema: passionate, playful, complex and sharp. (frameline) 

details

  • Runtime

    100 min
  • Country

    Canada
  • Year of Presentation

    1989
  • Year of Production

    1988
  • Director

    John Greyson
  • Cast

    Pauline Carey, Paul Bettis, George Spelvin, Keltie Creed, Lance Eng, David Gonzales, Olivia Rojas
  • Production Company

    Greyson Productions
  • Berlinale Section

    Panorama
  • Berlinale Category

    Essay Film
  • Teddy Award Winner

    Best Documentary/ Essay Film

Biography John Greyson

The Canadian film and video artist was born in Nelson, British Columbia in 1960. He studied film at the Canadian Film Center and has made over 60 award-winning feature films, installations, transmedia works and shorts. In 1989, he won a Teddy Award for Urinal; in 1991, he received another for The Making of Monsters. His work combines documentary and fictional elements and explores issues including queer activism, homophobic violence, AIDS activism, anti-apartheid and anti-war struggles, conflicts in the Middle East, police entrapment and prison abolition. He has taught film production at York University in Toronto since 2014.
 

Filmography John Greyson

1993 Zero Patience | 2007 Orange Clouds | 2010 Rex Vs. Singh | 2017 Memurial | 2018 Gazonto | 2018 Towel | 2020 Prurient | 2020 Auterson Clock