Screening: Landlines

Landlines follows migrant truck drivers living in the Greater Toronto Area as they navigate the unjust realities of the trucking industry — wage theft, inadequate training and unsafe conditions, exploitative pay, grueling hours, and constant surveillance inside their trucks.

These labour conditions unfold alongside rising xenophobia toward South Asian communities, unaffordable housing, and the weight of transnational familial expectations, revealing the layered pressures of migrant life.

Interwoven with observational footage, shadow puppetry renders imagined inner worlds – tracing how drivers operate in isolation, sustain connection across distance, and forge new forms of resistance while on the road.

The film is followed by a Q&A with Miru Yogarajah, Jay Aramboo and the documentary participants.

Miru Yogarajah (they/them) is a trans and Tamil filmmaker, writer, community organizer, and researcher. Their storytelling praxis is rooted in a deep commitment to care and to illuminate stories that explore the tensions between possibility and precarity. Their films have been produced by the National Film Board of Canada, developed with CBC, and screened at festivals including the Inside Out Film Festival (2020), Regent Park Film Festival (2020), F-O-R-M Film Festival (2021), and Reel Asian Film Festival (2023). They were awarded the 2022 Hot Docs Cross Current Fund to develop their feature-length documentary Im/migrant Buyers’ Club. As a writer, they were a 2021 fellow with The Local, and they have bylines in West End Phoenix, Briarpatch Magazine, GUTS Magazine, LOGO TV, and more. Most recently, they created the zine Queer n Trans Cinema sold in bookstores across Toronto and Montreal. They are a co-creator of Tender Again, a monthly bodywork event run entirely on mutual aid, with historical roots in the community care work of the Black Panther Party’s The People’s Program.

Jay Aramboo (they/them) is a queer and Tamil, self-taught animator, video editor and music producer. Growing up on cell animation and 80s Tamil films, they hold an understanding of how visual storytelling can transcend cultural and generational borders. As a product of caste oppression, they prioritize showcasing stories that are too often inaccessible to a mainstream audience. Jay received the Best Short Film award at the Peel Film Festival in 2016 for their film, Bench. They have had the pleasure of acting as creative consultant, animator and director for artists Aiko Tomi and Humble the Poet. In their free time, you can find them tinkering with CRT TVs or giving well deserved pets to their, dog, Cookie.

The Peel Regional Labour Council is the voice of labour in the Peel Region, representing over 50,000 workers. Situated just west of Toronto, we represent affiliates from Brampton, Bolton, Caledon, Georgetown, Mississauga, and sections of Port Credit. Our affiliates come from so many different sectors including teachers, paramedics, office staff, metal workers, and construction trades.

Justice for Truck Drivers are truck drivers fighting for their rights. We often experience misclassification, wage theft, harassment, and unsafe working conditions. Most of us are racialized immigrants. As essential front-line workers, we demand laws and infrastructure we can depend on for decent, safe and just working conditions. We encourage all truck drivers and supporters to join our movement.

Gallery TPW is a non-profit artist-run centre dedicated to exhibiting experimental artistic and curatorial practices that push the boundaries of lens-based media, creating a forum for critical dialogue and community engagement.