Suspect is a cult exhibition site that unites cinephiles with an obscure library of films. The film shop, like its predecessors in the era of art cinema and b-cinema, embodies a subcultural sensibility that fuses art cinema with a DIY ethic and a tradition of spectatorship rooted in zine culture and a long history of independent and alternative media.
As such, it reflects the aesthetic of underground, erotic, and experimental filmmaking. The shop carries a large selection of films, ranging from exploitation classics to new releases. It also offers a wide variety of zines, merchandise, and screening events.
Moreover, the store is an important part of a network that reaches across the city and connects local cult filmmakers to each other. Its founders originally opened the store to raise funds for their film projects, but it quickly grew into its own entity, a hub for the burgeoning Toronto underground cinema community.
Having worked on several investigative documentaries for Reveal, including those about caregiver wage theft and deadly accidents at Amazon warehouses, Rachel de Leon began exploring cases of young people being arrested and charged with lying to police in 2018. These efforts culminated in the Netflix original documentary Victim/Suspect, released in 2024. Following its release, clips from the film are being used to train police officers nationwide.
About the Author
