This programme is preceded by FILE NO. 2304.
USA202460 minEnglishToronto PremiereAvailable Online, Documentary
Through the lens of directors Tadashi Nakamura and Quyên Nguyen-Le, this compelling documentary captures the bold journey of visionary artist-activist Nobuko Miyamoto. From her upbringing in a Japanese American internment camp to her breakthrough as a performer in films and on Broadway, Miyamoto reflects on how her personal encounters with racial injustice inspired her blending of artistic endeavours with Asian American advocacy. Her thoughtfully created music, dances, and theatre productions carry on to bridge cultural divides and facilitate mutual support among BIPOC communities.
Interweaving intimate interviews and rare archival materials with evocative cinematography, Nakamura and Nguyen-Le tell the remarkable story of Miyamoto not only as a resilient community “artivist," but also as a loving friend, partner, and mother. This heartfelt recount is timely, encouraging the audience to reinforce collective resistance and solidarity amidst ongoing systemic racial oppression.
– Steffi Ng
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2024
CAAMFest San Francisco, 2024
AWARDS
Best Documentary, CAAMFest San Francisco, 2024
Quyên Nguyen-Le, Tadashi Nakamura
Tadashi Nakamura is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker and the director of the Watase Media Arts Center, a production company of the Japanese American National Museum.
Quyên Nguyen-Le (they/them) is a Daytime Emmy-nominated queer Vietnamese filmmaker born to refugee parents where Chumash and Tongva lands meet (San Fernando Valley, Los Ángeles).
This programme is preceded by FILE NO. 2304.
19 Nov, 2024 7:00 pm
Innis Town HallGA
Ticketing is required for this presentation, but tickets are free. Limit 2 tickets. This event will have open seating – sit anywhere in the venue that isn’t specifically reserved.
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This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated). Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the screening with directors Tadashi Nakamura and Quyên Nguyen-Le modated by Vidhya Elango.
Vidhya Elango
Moderator
Vidhya Elango is a researcher and cultural worker living in Toronto. Her interests include diaspora, place-making, language, and their intersections. Currently, she is the Heritage Manager — Exhibition and Research at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto.
Seemingly stagnant on the surface, in motion underneath. These five short films trace and retrace what movements and stories might exist within us and beyond, pulling us in unexpected directions.
Trouble seems to follow Jie and his family. Training to be a competitive fencer, Jie is lost, haunted by the childhood memory of a near-drowning incident with his menacing older brother Han. Years later, a teenage Han is imprisoned after killing a competitor during a fencing match (by accident, he swears). Meanwhile, Jie's mother has been spiteful and distant ever since, with no love to give her younger son. So when Han is finally released from prison, Jie is desperate to have some family love restored — and eager for some helpful fencing and boyfriend dating tips, too. But is Han’s reformed presence for real?
CREATURA is a multimedia cross-programming stream at the 28th Reel Asian Film Festival, spotlighting the strange, wild, and untamed — concepts historically used to marginalize. This session will explore how these concepts manifest through stories of endangered traditions and reimagined realities. The documentary THE LAST OF THE SEA WOMEN provides a vivid portrayal of South Korean fisherwomen preserving an ancient practice amidst modern developments. Meanwhile, UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, set in a reimagined Canada where Farsi and French are official languages, presents a surreal world where societal norms are upended and loneliness is a common experience. Both films vividly embody the spirit of CREATURA by pushing the boundaries of human experience and challenging conventional perspectives.
Founded in Toronto in 1997, Reel Asian is Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival and a year-round cultural organization dedicated to championing Asian, Asian diasporic, and Asian Canadian artists and storytellers. What began as a grassroots film festival has grown into a national platform supporting filmmakers and audiences through screenings, education, industry initiatives, artist development, and community programming presented across Toronto, the GTA, and online across Canada.
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Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8 Canada
(416) 703 – 9333
info@reelasian.com
Charitable number: 870021383RR0001
