VOLUME 13 of the INSTITUT experiment. Every week, a different hypothesis. Underground at 620 Spadina Ave — around the back, through the lot to the steel doors, down the stairs, past the mechanical room, through the swinging wood laminate door.
5 PM | UA THEATRE SALON | Witnessing War
Ukrainian plays since February 2022. Directed by Andrew Kushnir
An assemblage of short works written since the full scale invasion of February 2022 – Ukraine’s leading dramatists reaching out to us, as they make sense of a world shattered and reformed.
LIANNA MAKUCH is a second generation Ukrainian Canadian theatre artist who has traveled several times to Ukraine to research and develop her plays Barvinok and Alina. She received a Dora Award for Outstanding Direction for her directorial debut, First Métis Man of Odesa, which has been seen on stages nationwide. Her work has taken her to the Stratford Festival, the Banff Centre, the Citadel Theatre, and MacEwan University. She has been honoured as one of UDonation International's 50 Canadian Fellows of Ukraine, received Ukrainian Canadian Congress Leadership Awards, and her theatre work has been referenced in the House of Commons.
ANDREW KUSHNIR is a Canadian playwright, director, performer, teacher and community arts worker based in Toronto. He is artistic director of Project: Humanity, a socially-engaged theatre company where much of his documentary theatre work is done. The inaugural recipient of the Shevchenko Foundation REACH artist residency, he was named one of ten Canadian Artists of the Year by the Globe and Mail in 2023. In 2024 he received the Dora Award for Outstanding Direction and the Toronto Theatre Critics' Award for Best Director of a Play.
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7 PM | PANEL/FILM | JOSHUA CUZZO x BRANDON MORAN
Icelandic Punk History. Presented by WAVELENGTH.
A museum inside a former public toilet in Reykjavík. An aging punk. Buffalo filmmakers Brandon Moran and Joshua Cozzo present excerpts from their forthcoming documentary and a conversation on memory, music, and preserving punk against the odds.
BRANDON MORAN is a Buffalo-based cinematographer, director, and founder of Buffalo Above Films. His work spans documentary and commercial filmmaking, with a focus on character-driven stories and community-based projects.
JOSHUA COZZO is a Buffalo-based photographer, filmmaker, and founder of Memento Academy, an organization bringing photography education to students across New York. He has spent the past decade teaching high school in New York City.
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8PM | FILM | NOT DEAD YET (1984)
A recreation of the iconic pairing of Miles Davis' trumpet to this crime-noir classic in honour of his 100th birthday
RUDY RAY is a Toronto-based actor and trumpet player, and founder of Rudy Ray & Co, an artist collective that runs a program at Union Station every summer. An official recording trumpet player for the Wu-Tang Clan, Rudy trained first as a neuroscientist at the University of Toronto and takes a strong interest in the importance of mental health in the Black community. As an actor he has appeared on Netflix's Self-Made, Ginny and Georgia, Amazon Prime's American Gods, and Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley. His work with Tobi recently won two Juno Awards for Best Rap Song and Rap Album of the Year.
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9 PM | CONCERT | CUTE
Hamilton hardcore in the dark; presented by WAVELENGTH
Hamilton's industrial edge. Noise pushed to its limits. Hardcore that is as crushing as it is meditative.
CUTE is a Hamilton-based hardcore band shaped by the city's industrial landscape and records once considered unlistenable by their peers. Their music moves between crushing intensity and meditative restraint
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10 PM | CONCERT | FAIYAZ AND THE WASTED CHANCES
Migraine-inducing garage. Vintage guitars. Maximum volume. Toronto trio Faiyaz and the Wasted Chances bring blistering punk energy underground.
FAIYAZ AND THE WASTED CHANCES are a Toronto-based garage punk trio blending vintage guitar tones, proto-punk energy, and a steadfast DIY ethos. Known for explosive live performances, they have become a fixture of Toronto's independent music community through grassroots organizing and relentless shows.
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11 PM | VINTAGE VINYL | DJ BABS
From Blondie to Justice. Blur to The Rapture. Underworld and beyond. DJ Babs closes the night with an all-vinyl journey through decades of underground dance floors.
DJ BABS has been collecting vinyl since childhood and has been DJing in Toronto since the late 1990s. A longtime resident at the Bovine Sex Club and co-host of the all-vinyl monthly Juicebox, her sets move effortlessly between New Wave, Post-Punk, Britpop, Indie Sleaze, Garage, Minimal Synth, and unexpected discoveries.