la lumière collective
© Photo Credits: Lily Jue Sheng, 2026.
very abstract and a little bit harsh: films & poetry by Lily Jue Sheng — Screening at la lumière collective
Thursday, September 24, 2026 from 6:30 to 8 PM. Free and open to all.
Co=presented by la lumière collective: 7080, Alexandra Street, #506 Montreal, QC H2S 3J5
Please register in advance.
very abstract and a little bit harsh traces the political consciousness of Lily Jue Sheng’s practice through a decade of their experience around unstable cinema economies. The making of Sheng’s Force Majeure and Mercurial Matter coincided with a period of optical printing and their occupation as a small-gauge technician cataloguing late filmmaker and projectionist Stom Sogo’s life work. His untimely passing in 2012 tasked Sheng with handling Sogo’s queer and seminal diary films, which heavily influenced their early artistic process. Sheng’s films will be screening alongside Sogo’s Slow Death, in a timely combination that speaks to the psychic effects of technology, youth, and capitalist violence. Heritage Architecture 建筑遗产 marks Sheng’s shift to landscape cinema following a period of labour organizing. The program will be accompanied by a short poetry reading that draws from class struggles across various fronts and fissures, followed by a Q&A with Steff Huì Cí Ling.
Program
Force Majeure
2015–2017
5 min. 16mm
Mercurial Matter
2014–2017
6 min. 16mm
Change 变
2016–2017
6 min. 16mm double projection
Heritage Architecture 建筑遗产
2024
9 min. 16mm
Slow Death
2000
Stom Sogo
15 min. Super-8-to-digital
Host
la lumière collective is a collective of local artists and curators who believe in creating cinema and cinematic spaces that foster both artistic and human connections. la lumière collective was founded in 2016 by Emma Roufs, Sonya Stefan, and Benjamin R. Taylor. It is currently co-directed by Emma Roufs and Benjamin R. Taylor, with Noa Blanche Beschorner and Samuel Terry Pitre serving as general coordinators.
Artist
Lily Jue Sheng is an artist-filmmaker and cinema worker working across the moving image, collage, and poetry. They have screened or read at Anthology Film Archives, The Cinematheque, the Emily Harvey Foundation, Mono No Aware, and The Poetry Project. Recent film festival presentations include Light Field Film Festival, Beijing International Short Film Festival, Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, True/False Film Fest, and Kabayitos Microcinema. They have received awards from Creatives Rebuild NY, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the Anderson Center at Tower View, and various local arts councils. Their work develops from places and paradigms relative to being a neuro-atypical minority settler (b. Shanghai, China) in labor struggles on unceded Lenape lands where they grew up and are based (New Jersey and New York).
Moderator
Steff Huì Cí Ling 林惠慈 is a labour researcher and art worker on unceded territories. She is an film programmer for DIM Cinema series at The Cinematheque and was the co-editor of a special issue on the 50th Anniversary of Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital for New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry.
Accessibility
For any questions or requests concerning accessibility to the event or our gallery space, please contact Samuel via email or by phone at 514-842-9686. For general accessibility information, please visit our dedicated page. We are committed to creating an inclusive and welcoming space for all.
Considering ongoing COVID-19 and flu transmissions, please note that mask wearing is strongly recommended during events.