Pleasure Dome co-presents Outside the Frame: The Works of Helen Lee, a retrospective of work by experimental Korean-Canadian filmmaker. Curated by Jacob Crepeault and presented between Pleasure Dome and TIFF Bell Lightbox, this program showcases four of the artist’s early works in their original 16mm and 25mm print formats. In her 2024 essay film, Paris to Pyongyang, Lee ponders whose stories get told throughout history and why others are left behind with questions like: “What is outside the frame? What can we not see? What cannot be shown?”. These inquiries have been at the core of her magnetic early works.
Part of Spring 2026
Outside the Frame: The Works of Helen Lee is a retrospective of the experimental Korean-Canadian filmmaker, curated by Jacob Crepeault and co-presented between Pleasure Dome and TIFF Bell Lightbox. For over 30 years, Seoul-born, Toronto-based filmmaker Helen Lee has created captivating worlds that explore Asian Canadian experiences through a feminist, transnational approach. In her work, Western perceptions of diasporic communities in Canada are dismantled in favour of sensitive, sensual character studies. In her 2024 essay film, Paris to Pyongyang, Lee ponders whose stories get told throughout history and why others are left behind with questions like: “What is outside the frame? What can we not see? What cannot be shown?”. These inquiries have been at the core of her magnetic early works.
When: Thursday, May 7, 7:00pm
Where: TIFF Bell Lightbox, Cinema 4, 350 King Street West, Toronto
Tickets for this program can be purchased through TIFF’s official platform here.
Programme:
Helen Lee, Sally’s Beauty Spot, 1990, 16mm print
Helen Lee, Subrosa, 2000, 35mm print
Helen Lee, Prey, 1995, 16mm print
Helen Lee, My Niagara, 1992, 16mm
The screening will be followed by an extended, in-person conversation with the filmmaker.
Content advisory: nudity, sexually suggestive and explicit sex scenes, depiction of attempted suicide
