XINEMA // EMAP

XINEMA [zin-em-a] is an artist-run experimental film series and lab founded and based on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations ("Vancouver", BC). They began operation in 2022 in VIFF Centre's 41-seat Studio Theatre, with a focus on BC-based and connected media artists, stringing emerging and established artists together into monthly thematic programs. Housed in the Norquay Park Fieldhouse, XINEMA now connects local and international artists through ongoing screenings, workshops, and related events in diverse spaces and regions.

Their priorities are to remain low-barrier and platform underrepresented artists and media forms, connecting cinemakers and cinephiles of various backgrounds, disciplines, and career levels. Submissions of films of any year or medium, and proposals for workshops and curatorial collaborations are accepted on an ongoing basis.

The Experimental Media Access Project (EMAP) is a research initiative conducted by XINEMA, grunt gallery, and Crip Cinema Archive.

EMAP focuses on dismantling barriers and prohibitive practices in experimental media arts presentation, particularly those excluding d/Deaf, d/Disabled+, sick, crip, and chronically ill individuals. The project centers affected communities through a lateral working group of cultural workers, curators, and artists who identify as d/Disabled, sick, and chronically ill, with Crip Time as a central organizing and relational tenet.

Experimental media art focuses on exploring new, unusual or unconventional ideas and methods. It often uses technology and creative techniques to challenge traditional media and create novel forms of expression, like digital art, interactive installations, and video or film works. This interdisciplinary field emphasizes the process of creation and the artist's exploration of ideas, rather than commercial viability, to encourage new perspectives and engage with contemporary issues.

What's Next

The EMAP community accessibility survey closed on February 2, 2026. Thank you to everyone who participated your responses directly shape this work.

We are currently analyzing the survey data and developing publicly shared resources based on community feedback. Later this year, we will be sharing research findings and hosting programming informed by what we heard.

To stay informed or get in touch, email us at emap@xinema.ca.

About EMAP

The Experimental Media Access Project is led by a diverse committee of cultural workers, curators, and artists to conduct research focused on dismantling barriers and prohibitive practices in media arts presentation, particularly those excluding d/Deaf, d/Disabled+, sick or chronically ill individuals. This project aims to generate resources such as best practices, guidelines and tools based directly on feedback from affected communities to help arts organizations transform media arts programming and event planning through the lens of radical accessibility, inclusion, and disability justice.

The project centers d/Deaf, d/Disabled+, sick and chronically ill voices through a lateral working group, a committee assembled to study and report on accessibility gaps and make recommendations, composed of cultural workers who identify as d/Disabled, sick and chronically ill, with Crip Time as a central organizing and relational tenet. The term Crip Time is used by some disability theorists and advocates to describe disabled individuals' unique relationship to time.

The community accessibility survey was the project's first stage of public research and community consultation, building on each project partner's ongoing engagement with d/Disabled+ artists and communities. The feedback gathered will deepen our understanding of intersectional challenges and exclusionary structures and inform program components, our working structure, and the development of best practices.

We do not position ourselves as experts, and acknowledge the fluctuating nature of our own capacities as a working group and those of the communities with whom we are engaging. We welcome knowledge sharing towards the shared goal of increasing accessibility in contemporary media arts presentation practices.