Finding Her Beat - Film Screening and Q&A

Powell Street Festival Society, DOXA Festival, and SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs present a screening of Finding Her Beat as part of a day of femme Taiko in Vancouver

This screening will be followed by a 30-minute Q&A with Jennifer Weir, Executive Producer of the film and Executive Director of TaikoArts Midwest.

Join Powell Street Festival Society for a day of femme Taiko on Saturday, February 18th, 2023! Begin the day with a 30-minute free public Taiko performance at 12:00 noon by Vancouver’s Sawagi Taiko, the first all-women Taiko group in Canada, at Woodward’s Atrium. Following the performance at 1:30 PM, DOXA, SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, and Powell Street Festival Society have partnered for a ticketed screening of the film Finding Her Beat—a documentary about a drum master from Japan and a Korean adoptee from Minnesota boldly convening an all-female troupe to perform Taiko, the Japanese drumming art that had been off-limits to women for centuries. The film will be wrapped with a 30-minute Q&A with the Executive Director of TaikoArts Midwest and Executive Producer of the film, Jennifer Weir. Tickets are $10-15 dollars (plus fees) on a sliding scale. This day of femme Taiko will be bookended with light refreshments at a free, informal talkback at 4:00 PM with Jennifer Weir and Vancouver Taiko Society at KW Studios’ Production Studio.

This event takes place at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, located on the 3rd floor of SFU's Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at 149 W. Hastings St. in Vancouver.

Jennifer Weir is the Executive Director of TAM, Artistic Director of Enso Daiko, and has been actively performing, creating, producing, and teaching taiko for over 25 years. She is the recipient of past grants from the MN State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, American Composers Forum, and Taiko Community Alliance. She has led leadership workshops for the Shannon Institute with the Wilder Foundation, and has presented at TedxUMN and the BushConnect Conference. She also has extensive background as a theater director and dramaturg.

Power, Passion, and Rhythm. Canada's first all-women taiko group. Founded in 1990, Sawagi Taiko is a multi-generational group of women of East Asian and Indigenous heritage, brought together by our shared passion for the Japanese drum. With thunderous drum beats, stirring vocals, and martial-arts inspired choreography, we share the empowerment and exhilaration we feel through taiko with our diverse audiences. We harness the power of the drum to support feminist and social justice ideals.

SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs (SFUW) engages with leading edge artists in dance, theatre, cinema, music and digital arts; provoking new practices and approaches reflecting the ever-changing landscape of contemporary arts. 

DOXA is presented by The Documentary Media Society, a Vancouver based non-profit, charitable society (incorporated in 1998) devoted to presenting independent and innovative documentaries to Vancouver audiences. The society exists to educate the public about documentary film as an art form through DOXA Documentary Film Festival, a curated and juried festival comprised of public screenings, panel discussions, public forums and educational programs. The 22nd annual DOXA Documentary Film Festival is scheduled for May 4–14, 2023; stay tuned for further details.

Host or Publisher Powell Street Festival