Oraison : espoir d'une réponse céleste

The video documentation of a 24-hour performance where Raphë and Nadia breathe new life into significant moments from their existence. Through a relay format, they revisit and reconstruct personal memories using archival images from Raphë’s private video collection of family footage.

Presented in the storefront of Le Réacteur Art Collective on Rue Sainte-Catherine in Montréal in 2016, Oraison : espoir d’une réponse céleste is an interplay emerging from the artists’ introspection.

  • Raphë
    Director
  • Raphë
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Nadia Kessiby
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Liana Paré
    Camera-Assistance
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Web / New Media
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 18, 2016
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English, French
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Raphë


Raphë is an indisciplinary queer artist working with performance, plastique and video.

Raphë presents acts of transformation and construction of alter personas, exploring the limits of the body and queer identity. Mainly disseminated in subcultural spaces, Raphë’s work is realized in wastelands, abandoned lots and environments they considers hostile.

Raphë abandoned their studies in theater (École Supérieure de Théâtre) and performance in the Montreal drag scene (2009-12) to study martial movement in China with Old Master Wu de Ba Gua Zhang and 24th-generation Shaolin Master Shi Yang Shu at the Qufu Kung Fu School. In a quest for emotional and spiritual transformation, Raphë explores the physical and mental limits of the body through a five-year initiatory journey (2013-17) via India, Australia, Spain and Hawai’i (among others).

In 2022, the performance video-poetry Tërra Bëstia was a finalist at the Near Nazareth Film Festival (Israel) and won Best Music Video at the Parai International Musical Awards (India). The performance Nous sommes tou.te.s des hypocrites was presented at Place Ville-Marie during the launch of the Festival Art Souterrain (Canada) in 2023.

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