Canada, Vietnam202180 minEnglish and various languages with English SubtitlesAnimation, Documentary, Drama, Experimental, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Sci-fi, Women Filmmakers
Carefully set and intentionally crafted, the site-specificity of these short films recognize the role of place as a character integral to offering layered understandings of self, community, and purpose.
Canada202113 minTamil with English subtitlesToronto PremiereDrama, Experimental, Women Filmmakers
Trina encounters another version of herself as a paramilitary fighter for the Tamil Tigers and begins to question the ways in which we rebel.
This presentation has English subtitles.
An Active Listener will be available to offer one-on-one peer support for viewers who may find the content of this presentation triggering. More info on how to access here.
This film contains the potentially triggering topics of war and intergenerational trauma.
Maya Bastian
Maya Bastian is an award-winning filmmaker and writer with roots in conflict journalism. She specializes in exploring untold stories, integrating the voices of each unique community through active engagement, research, and open dialogue.
Canada20214 minEnglishCanadian PremiereDocumentary, Women Filmmakers
Two Filipino Canadians candidly reflect on how separating from their mothers during immigration has affected their mental health and family cohesion.
This presentation has English subtitles.
Thea Loo
Thea Loo is a producer and director from Vancouver. She is currently producing To Make Ends Meat 結束肉, a documentary project premiering this fall at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival.
Canada202110 minEnglish, Mandarin, Japanese with English subtitlesLGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Sci-fi, Women Filmmakers
In the year 2090, Sam tries to bring her lover back to life.
This presentation has English subtitles.
Lovina Yavari, Lance Fernandes
Lovina Yavari is a Canadian actor, director, artist, fashion designer, and internationally published model in Toronto. She can be seen in DC’s Shazam, Polar, and The Boys.
Lance Fernandes, a graduate of the Toronto Film School, is a commercial director and visual-effects artist.
Canada202011 minNo dialogueAnimation, Family, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers
Oscillating between the past and the present, a woman sits in a hospital room, alone with her dying father.
Jordan Canning, Howie Shia
Jordan Canning, a graduate of the Directors’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre, has made more than a dozen short films.
Howie Shia is an illustrator, animator, writer, and director whose work combines a love for ancient mythologies with a fascination for modern urban environments.
Canada202110 minNo dialogueToronto PremiereAnimation, Women Filmmakers
A disquieting fable with dark humour, a child tries to gain her father's affection, but the family dog proves to be a fierce rival.
This presentation has no captions and no dialogue.
Alisi Telengut
Alisi Telengut is a Canadian artist of Mongolian descent. She creates animation frame by frame under the camera, with painting as the medium, to generate movement and explore handmade and painterly visuals for her films.
Canada20215 minEnglish, Cantonese with English subtitlesCanadian PremiereDocumentary, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Non-binary Filmmakers, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers
Highlighting the rich tenacity of Toronto’s East Chinatown community, this film explores the area’s people, sidewalks, and businesses, giving voice to their experiences of community, identity, anxieties, and hopes for the future.
This presentation has English subtitles.
This presentation has open captions.
Amanda Ann-Min Wong
Amanda Ann-Min Wong (she/they) is a Toronto-based film director, writer, sound artist, and musician exploring themes of loss, nostalgia, and memory, as well as finding purpose and community through the arts.
Canada20205 minEnglish, Cantonese with English subtitlesDocumentary, Women Filmmakers
Filmmaker Christine Wu wayfinds her shifting relationship to Hong Kong, as someone who is now observing the region from afar.
This presentation has closed captions.
Christine Wu
Christine Wu is a Hong Kong-born filmmaker and cultural worker living on the territories of the Williams Treaties First Nations (Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ont.). She creates from a place of self-compassion, reflecting an ongoing process of self-education about systemic injustice and healing.
Vietnam202022 minVietnamese with English subtitlesCanadian PremiereDrama, Sci-fi
On a quest to rebuild home, an alien encounters a reverent worshipper, a cynical construction worker, and a mysterious medium, observing their varying ideas of home.
This presentation has English subtitles.
Ostin Fam
Born and raised in Hanoi, Ostin Fam is a member of Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, the first and largest collective of independent filmmakers in New York, and a 2017 recipient of Sony Pictures’ IFP Marcie Bloom Fellowship in Film.
10 Nov, 2021
to 19 Nov, 2021
PG
The shorts in this program include works screened two decades ago at Desh Pardesh, as well as films made last year by a cohort of South Asian and Indo Caribbean emerging filmmakers who participated in Inside Out Festival’s Short Film Lab.
Deep in the night, Fai and his friends are sleeping on the streets of Sham Shui Po, the poorest district in Hong Kong. The police arrive without notice and clear out their belongings, their makeshift homes reduced to roadside trash. With the help of social worker Ms. Ho, Fai takes the case to court, while he and his friends struggle to create a new home.
Spanning over a decade from 1984 to 1996, Shooting Indians: A Journey with Jeffrey Thomas is a portrait of Jeffrey Thomas, a self-described “Urban Iroquois” photographer, exploring the influences on his life that led him to his career.
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 and Asian diasporic 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.
401 Richmond Street West, The Commons (Suite 448)
Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8 Canada
(416) 703 – 9333
info@reelasian.com
Charitable number: 870021383RR0001
