RA Residency Program: Orbit
download pdf:
Program Dates:
April 6 - July 2, 2026 (three months)
Application Deadline:
Feb 27th - March 15, 2026, 11:59PM (EST)
Selected Interviews between:
March 23 - 27, 2026.
Applicants can expect to hear back:
by March 30, 2026.
Residency Description
2026 marks the 30th year of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival!
Years of festival programming have inevitably created archives that document the festival’s engagement with successive waves of socio-political and socio-cultural issues.
With this in mind, we’re hosting a three-month residency program to expand our festival’s capacity to activate the past, inhabit the present and imagine the future.
This residency is ideal for artists, research-creation practitioners, and/or community archivists looking to work with the festival’s material and audio-visual archives for three months. We welcome applications from folks with all kinds of backgrounds.
Residents can focus on a project inquiry with either an artistic or archival focus (or a combination of the two) to explore themes and answer questions around the potentialities and limits of evolving pan Asian representation, solidarities and arts programming in the city.
Some questions that informed our conceptualization of the program:
There is no mandatory final deliverable for this residency. Instead, residents will be asked to offer biweekly w-i-p dispatches to be featured through our newsletter and social media. These can take the forms of multimedia formats of short essays, audiovisual work, digital art or other forms to activate archive materials, draft work, or iterative research process.
Residents will each be given a stipend of $3,000 to participate in this program, a pass to this year’s festival, and also receive a complimentary copy of the 25th anniversary anthology, (re)Rites of Passage.
Residents will be able to work on-site at least twice a week for the three months in our office and research centre.
Materials Available:
- Marketing materials
- Recordings of events
- Programme guides
- Old trailers
- Festival paraphernalia and merch
- Copies of commissioned work
- Archive of select short films
- Press Clippings
- Boxes of archive materials in research centre
- Small library of RA produced texts and adjacent texts from other organizations / festivals
Submission Guidelines
Eligibility:
Project Proposal (250 words)
Artistic Practice (250 words)
Materials you plan to engage (200 words)
Space or Tech Requirements (100 words)
Photo Documentation of Past Work: up to 5 photos (Optional)
Textual Documentation of Past Work: up to 5 pages (Optional)
CV
Accessibility:
You may answer these questions via video or audio and attach a link to a downloadable file.
Otherwise, please email these as a PDF to specialprojects@reelasian.com.
(no need to include) Featured Community Events:
YCI x RA x In The Mood event
RA’s What’s Brewing? (check to see if there’s anything on the horizon?)
April 6 - July 2, 2026 (three months)
Application Deadline:
Feb 27th - March 15, 2026, 11:59PM (EST)
Selected Interviews between:
March 23 - 27, 2026.
Applicants can expect to hear back:
by March 30, 2026.
Residency Description
2026 marks the 30th year of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival!
Years of festival programming have inevitably created archives that document the festival’s engagement with successive waves of socio-political and socio-cultural issues.
With this in mind, we’re hosting a three-month residency program to expand our festival’s capacity to activate the past, inhabit the present and imagine the future.
This residency is ideal for artists, research-creation practitioners, and/or community archivists looking to work with the festival’s material and audio-visual archives for three months. We welcome applications from folks with all kinds of backgrounds.
Residents can focus on a project inquiry with either an artistic or archival focus (or a combination of the two) to explore themes and answer questions around the potentialities and limits of evolving pan Asian representation, solidarities and arts programming in the city.
Some questions that informed our conceptualization of the program:
-
How has the festival spoken of and presented itself over time?
-
What are the potentialities of the festival’s archive for the community?
-
What have been the strengths and contributions of the festival?
-
What have been the weaknesses or limitations of the festival’s mandate and vision?
-
How can we trace and trouble the festival’s relationships between community, film industry and the arts?
There is no mandatory final deliverable for this residency. Instead, residents will be asked to offer biweekly w-i-p dispatches to be featured through our newsletter and social media. These can take the forms of multimedia formats of short essays, audiovisual work, digital art or other forms to activate archive materials, draft work, or iterative research process.
Residents will each be given a stipend of $3,000 to participate in this program, a pass to this year’s festival, and also receive a complimentary copy of the 25th anniversary anthology, (re)Rites of Passage.
Residents will be able to work on-site at least twice a week for the three months in our office and research centre.
Materials Available:
- Marketing materials
- Recordings of events
- Programme guides
- Old trailers
- Festival paraphernalia and merch
- Copies of commissioned work
- Archive of select short films
- Press Clippings
- Boxes of archive materials in research centre
- Small library of RA produced texts and adjacent texts from other organizations / festivals
Submission Guidelines
Eligibility:
-
Able to work on-site at the 401 Richmond office twice a week for all three months
-
Identifies as part of Asian diaspora
Project Proposal (250 words)
Artistic Practice (250 words)
Materials you plan to engage (200 words)
Space or Tech Requirements (100 words)
Photo Documentation of Past Work: up to 5 photos (Optional)
Textual Documentation of Past Work: up to 5 pages (Optional)
CV
Accessibility:
You may answer these questions via video or audio and attach a link to a downloadable file.
Otherwise, please email these as a PDF to specialprojects@reelasian.com.
(no need to include) Featured Community Events:
YCI x RA x In The Mood event
RA’s What’s Brewing? (check to see if there’s anything on the horizon?)