The premiere for Therapy Dogs will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox 3.
This feature film will also be shown as an online screening from Nov 14 – Nov 20.
Canada202183 minutesEnglish, Cantonese with English Subtitles Canadian PremiereDrama, Experimental
The Class of 2019 at Cawthra Park Secondary School is gearing up for their senior year. Teen angst fills the hallways. Nervous students convene in classrooms. Hopeful romantics ask each other out for prom. Amidst these moments of self-discovery, friends Ethan and Justin set out to shoot a film under the pretense of being a yearbook project, recording pivotal moments and character portraits during this tumultuous stage of adolescence. No one at Cawthra Park seems to be prepared for what will come next in their rebellious filmmaking adventure.
Ethan Eng’s debut feature film Therapy Dogs is an introspective look at the director’s coming-of-age in senior year. Combining elements from documentary, fiction, and experimental styles, Therapy Dogs navigates the quintessential Mississauga high school experience with evocative imagery and rhythmic sequences, offering an intensely rich window into Eng’s craft, interpersonal relationships, and his exploration of the near-universal rite of passage: the last year of high school.
– Nicolas Uribe
Justin Morrice
Ethan Eng
Kevin Tseng
Kyle Peacock
AWARDS
AGBO Fellowship, Slamdance, 2022
Ethan Eng
Ethan Eng is the Toronto filmmaker behind Therapy Dogs, a movie shot secretly during his last year of high school in 2019. It had its world premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival, making him the youngest director to ever compete, and earned him the ABGO fellowship, presented by the Russo Brothers.
12 Nov, 2022 8:00 pm
TIFF Bell Lightbox 3The premiere for Therapy Dogs will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox 3.
This feature film will also be shown as an online screening from Nov 14 – Nov 20.
Rated PG
Content Warning: Sexist language and situations, coarse language, smoking and drinking, drug use
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and closed English subtitles digitally.
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the theatrical presentation with director Ethan Eng.
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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 filmmakers and artists. 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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