The screening for Night Shifts will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox 4.
Canada, India, Singapore, USA2022English and other languages with English subtitlesAnimation, Drama, Experimental, Family, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Non-binary Filmmakers, Women Filmmakers
From dusk ‘til dawn, the night takes centre stage as a mood, setting, tone, and place for our characters’ lives and their environments to be illuminated on screen.
India202213 minutesBengali with English subtitles
Satakshi and Madhyama reunite at a celebration during Durga Puja. Over the course of the night through rides, snacks, and glances, we feel their relationship charged with an energy that lasts years.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Tanmay Chowdhury and Tanvi Chowdhury
Tanmay Chowdhury is a cinematographer, editor, photographer, and filmmaker. His photography has been published in various magazines and publications worldwide, including Rolling Stone and Vogue.
Tanvi Chowdhury is a writer and filmmaker who seeks to explore and tell stories about human dynamics, identity, and gender.
Canada202214 minutesEnglish and Vietnamese with English subtitles
Titled after the term “nanitic,” referring to first-generation worker ants who care for their offspring as well as the Queen Ant, we witness the structure of a multigenerational family through the eyes of Trang and Mai.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Death and dying
Carol Nguyen
Carol Nguyen is a Vietnamese Canadian filmmaker based in Montreal who is working toward her first documentary feature as well as an animated short.
Singapore, USA20224 minutesEnglishAnimation, Women Filmmakers
Why should I make dinner if we are both in love? A story of gendered roles and the ethics of care.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film has no dialogue and is not captioned.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Gender violence, queer violence, nudity
Elizabeth Xu
Born and raised in Singapore, Elizabeth Xu attends the Rhode Island School of Design for animation. They are excited by the potential of analogue mediums and tangible surfaces, and in their free time, they make books and think about conversation as a beautiful medium.
USA202215 minutesEnglish and Mandarin with English subtitles
One night for Lu, a New York City delivery driver.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Lloyd Lee Choi
Lloyd Lee Choi is a Korean Canadian writer and director living in Brooklyn who was named 30 Under 30 by Marketing Magazine. Choi is compelled to tell stories that reflect the real world around us.
USA202222 minutesEnglish and Mandarin with English subtitles
In an isolated desert motel, Mengmeng digs up a rotting carcass. Later that night, something long buried is unearthed in her mother.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Death
Yvonne Zhang
Yvonne Zhang is a British Chinese director and writer who uses folklore, dream logic, and digital media to explore immigration, memory, and loss.
13 Nov, 2022 5:30 pm
OnlineThe screening for Night Shifts will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox 4.
This shorts programme will also be shown as an online screening from Nov 14 – 20. Purchase the shorts VOD pass to watch this programme online and all other shorts in selection at the festival.
Rated PG
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the theatrical presentation with attending guests from this shorts programme, moderated by Blythe Shulan Hunter.
Blythe Shulan Hunter
Blythe is a Toronto-based writer, editor, and member of Reel Asian’s Programming Committee. She holds an MA in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto, where she focused on race and aesthetics of ‘yellowness’ in East Asian music videos. Her core interests include contemporary Chinese cinema and learning K-pop dances.
Asian Canadian comics will discuss the ways they’ve broken down barriers to tell their jokes to a wide audience on stage, in sketches, and on film and TV. Together, they’ll discuss their individual approaches to the craft, how they navigate stereotypes, personal experiences in their work, and how comedy has allowed them to challenge, explore, and find comfort in their identities.
How do you love a place that doesn’t seem to love you back Director David Siev broaches that question in Bad Axe, a complicated love letter to his hometown.
Keita is the hero and the hope of the remote island Shishikari thanks to his flourishing fig business, which is about to bring in a large government grant and revitalize the community.
India202213 minutesBengali with English subtitles
Satakshi and Madhyama reunite at a celebration during Durga Puja. Over the course of the night through rides, snacks, and glances, we feel their relationship charged with an energy that lasts years.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Tanmay Chowdhury and Tanvi Chowdhury
Tanmay Chowdhury is a cinematographer, editor, photographer, and filmmaker. His photography has been published in various magazines and publications worldwide, including Rolling Stone and Vogue.
Tanvi Chowdhury is a writer and filmmaker who seeks to explore and tell stories about human dynamics, identity, and gender.
This film is part of the Night Shifts shorts programme.
India202043 minHindi, English with English subtitlesNorth American PremiereDocumentary, Experimental, Women Filmmakers
A mysterious tiger walks through the forest, barely revealing itself, save for a few rare and magical glimpses. This allegorical fiction begins Pallavi Paul’s description of systemic police violence in Delhi, India, based on events suppressed from official history. Using scattered but historically significant fragments of documentation, including video and audio eyewitness accounts, Paul explores the intersections of power, gender, and the narrativization of memory. The film moves across moments like the national emergency of 1975–77, and the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984, all while remaining contemporary by alluding to recent police brutality across university campuses.
Creating a narrative from the memories and stories of collective power, resistance, and violence, Paul arrives at a coherent study of an abuse of power that is situated in Delhi, but that is easily recognizable almost anywhere in the world.
- Mariam Zaidi
OFFICIAL SELECTION
2021 International Film Festival Rotterdam
2021 Sheffield DocFest
Pallavi Paul
Video artist and film researcher Pallavi Paul works with video, installations, and performance. She started her scientific career with a study of literary science, and has now completed her PhD in film studies in New Delhi. Paul’s work has been shown at, among others, the Tate Modern in London, Contour Biennale in Mechelen, Belgium, and the Mumbai Film Festival.
10 Nov, 2021
to 19 Nov, 2021
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.
Q&A with Pallavi Paul, moderated by Bedatri Choudhury
Bedatri is a culture journalist and documentary film professional. She has managed documentary projects at Doc Society, Working Films, The Gotham Film & Media Institute, and CAAM, among others. An alumna of the NYFF Critics Academy, Sundance and SXSW Press Inclusion Initiatives, the National Critics’ Institute, and Berlinale Talents, she lives in New York City. Presently, she is the Managing Editor of Documentary Magazine and a programmer with DOC NYC.
In the electrifying lead-up to the multi-city Aurat March (Women’s March) in Pakistan, director Anam Abbas follows grassroots organizers as they navigate a deeply surveilled and violent environment to assert a growing, nation-wide feminist movement. Negotiating freedoms with fearful relatives and dodging constant scrutiny, activists move with unbreakable commitment to galvanizing their communities with a radical feminist agenda.
It starts simple enough. In town on a stopover, years after she transitioned, Kris is meeting her college ex-girlfriend Naomi again for the first time. But seeing an ex is never simple. As the evening unfolds, the past inevitably creeps back into their conversations.
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.
India202012 minMalayalam with English subtitlesAnimation, Family-friendly
Aisha believes it was the endless rain, while Ambadi insists it was the sea. Amid their bickering, three children embark on a quest to trace the origins of their village stream.
This presentation has English subtitles.
Balaram J
Balaram J is a writer, designer, and independent filmmaker from Kerala, India. He has created animation for the visionary filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery’s feature films Jallikattu (2019) and Churuli (2021).
Canada, India, Japan, USA2021English and various languages with English SubtitlesAnimation, Comedy, Drama, Family, Family-friendly, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Music, Women Filmmakers
Fun and free, encounter a programming offering dedicated to celebrating creativity, wonder, and self-expression for audiences of all ages.
Canada20213:00EnglishAnimation, Women Filmmakers
After losing his best friend, an elderly pug named Henry must depend on his owner for help.
Ann Marie Fleming
Ann Marie Fleming is an award-winning Canadian visual artist, writer, director, animator, and cross-platform media maker who works in a variety of genres (animation, experimental, documentary and drama) that often deals with themes of family, history, and memory.
India202012 minMalayalam with English subtitlesAnimation, Family-friendly
Aisha believes it was the endless rain, while Ambadi insists it was the sea. Amid their bickering, three children embark on a quest to trace the origins of their village stream.
This presentation has English subtitles.
Balaram J
Balaram J is a writer, designer, and independent filmmaker from Kerala, India. He has created animation for the visionary filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery’s feature films Jallikattu (2019) and Churuli (2021).
Canada20214 minNo dialogueAnimation, Family-friendly, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Women Filmmakers
Set across three separate timelines, a couple struggle to openly love each other.
This presentation has no captions.
Sheryl Au
Sheryl Au is a Malaysian, born and raised in Singapore, who loves drawing and is pursuing a career in animation. Her aspirations have taken her to Sheridan College, where she has now graduated with a Bachelor of Animation from the school.
Japan20217 minEnglish, Japanese with English subtitlesCanadian PremiereAnimation, Family-friendly, Music
Inspired by the 12th- to 13th-century Japanese picture scroll Bird and Beast Character Caricature, this animation presents one unfolding scroll featuring Japanese and English wordplay through marine animals.
Koji Yamamura
Koji Yamamura is an award-winning animator and a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts who began his artistic practice at the age of 13.
Canada20214 minCantonese with English subtitlesWorld PremiereAnimation, Family, Family-friendly
Inspired by director Aiken Chau’s experiences at the dinner table, a fly wreaks havoc on a family's dinner at a restaurant.
Aiken Chau
Aiken Chau is a Chinese Canadian artist and animator who enjoys storytelling and creating characters. A graduate from the Sheridan College animation program, he experiments with animation of all mediums.
USA20217 minEnglish, Cantonese with English subtitlesFamily, Family-friendly, Women Filmmakers
In Los Angeles’s Chinatown, Sammi tries to help her parents keep their seafood restaurant afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This presentation has English subtitles.
Jane Chow
Jane Chow is a Los Angeles-based writer-director from Hong Kong. Her films and web series have screened at festivals worldwide, and she has directed commercials for TikTok, Tinder, as well as the Biden-Harris campaign.
USA202012 minEnglishToronto PremiereDrama, Family, Family-friendly, Women Filmmakers
Aishwarya Narayanan clashes with her coach father and questions the meaning of success while vying for a spot at the prestigious National Spelling Bee.
This presentation has closed captions.
Amrita Singh
Born in Tamil Nadu, India, and raised in Hyde Park, Chicago, Amrita Singh is a writer and director with an MFA in filmmaking from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she later served as adjunct faculty.
Join us in conversation with directors and special guests in attendance! ASL interpretation will be made available thanks to Toronto Sign Language Interpreter Services. Ticket holders can watch on the CineSend Reel Asian portal.
November 13, 2020 at 8PM
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Back for a second year, join the Wee Asian Arts Channel for sweet and simple pre-recorded arts activities led by a line-up of talented local artists:
En Lai Mah
Transform stories into movement using a combination of Shaolin Kung Fu and contemporary dance with multidisciplinary performance artist, playwright, and choreographer En Lai Mah.
Rosena Fung
Author of Living with Viola Rosena Fung shows you how to draw and transform your favourite dumplings and other food items into cute, wacky characters.
Basil AlZeri
Visual artist and educator Basil AlZeri will show you how to both archive and achieve all your goals and aspirations.
So You Think You Can Pitch is back! Celebrate our 15th year of pitch competitions by supporting your favourite emerging filmmakers in our live event! Featuring a total of five finalist individuals or teams, the winner will walk away with our amazing prize package to kickstart or finish their short film, including a cash award, in-kind support, and the opportunity to premiere their work with us at next year’s festival!
Aman, a young aspiring writer, moved to Kuala Lumpur to follow his dreams, but all he has is his late father’s old car and nowhere to live. To make ends meet, he uses his room on wheels to illegally earn money through a driving-service app. This is how he meets Bella, a student from Penang.
Absence|Presence is a series of panel conversations, screenings, and workshops reintroducing Desh Pardesh to Reel Asian’s audiences and community. Desh Pardesh was a multidisciplinary arts and culture festival that engaged with the political issues of South Asia and its diasporas through a multi-day festival and conference.
India, Italy, Qatar, Romania202089 minGondiya, Madiya, Hindi with English subtitlesNorth American PremiereDocumentary, Family, Open Captions, Women Filmmakers
Somi and her husband met and fell in love while fighting alongside fellow Naxalites, a communist rebel group fighting for the rights of tribal communities in India for the past 50 years. Although the group represents a quarter of the population and lives in extreme poverty, Naxalites are seen as the biggest threat to national security for the State of India.
After a decade of armed struggle, Somi and her husband choose to surrender under the government’s Surrender Policy and begin the draining bureaucratic process of integrating into a hostile and unwelcoming Indian society. Through thoughtfully executed vignettes and with intimate access to Somi and her family, directors Arya Rothe, Cristina Hanes, and Isabella Rinaldi of the NoCut Film Collective construct a moving verité portrait of an ex-Naxalite family seeking a future for their children while being held hostage to the whims of a rigid and unforgiving contemporary Indian State.
– Mariam Zaidi
OFFICIAL SELECTION
International Film Festival of Rotterdam, 2020
Visions du Réel, 2020
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, 2020
One World Romania, 2020
Durban International Film Festival, 2020
AWARDS
Special Jury Mention, International Film Festival of Rotterdam, 2020
Cristina Hanes, Arya Rothe, & Isabella Rinaldi
NoCut Film Collective was co-founded in 2016 by independent filmmakers Cristina Hanes (Romania), Arya Rothe (India), and Isabella Rinaldi (Italy) after studying together at DocNomads’ Master Course in Documentary Directing. NoCut Film’s first production is the creative documentary, A Rifle and A Bag (2020), directed and produced by the three co-founders.
12 Nov, 2020 10:00 am
to 19 Nov, 2020 11:59 pm
14A
ASL interpretation will be made available thanks to Toronto Sign Language Interpreter Services. Ticket holders can watch on the CineSend Reel Asian portal.
November 16, 2020 AT 11:00AM
A cowardly horse robbery ends in murder, leaving a boy fatherless and his family in disarray. When the boy’s mother is forced to move the family out of their village, a mysterious man arrives who might be able to help restore order. What may appear to us as a “Western,” with its familiar framing of vast vistas and sublime steppes, is really a story about fractured families and survival in the wake of violence.
This fireside chat gathers together filmmaker mentors from Reel Asian’s 2020 Unsung Voices incubator to discuss what the building blocks of a good narrative are. This event is part of the Reel Ideas Symposium.
This conversation invites emerging thinkers, artists and community cultural workers to consider digital futures for those without access to the city arts landscape, and by extension, digital opportunities. This event is part of the Reel Ideas Symposium.
Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, U.K., USA66 minEnglish and various languages with English SubtitlesAnimation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Experimental, Family, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers
Each of these extraordinary films call upon the act of remembrance as important and timely work for community care, knowledge, and abundance. Includes winners of Air Canada Short Film or Video Award, Reel Asian 2020 I BOUGHT A TIME MACHINE and I DREAM OF VANCOUVER.
Canada, Germany20207 minMongolian with English subtitlesAnimation, Documentary, Family, Open Captions, Women Filmmakers
Rated G
Steadily narrated by the director’s grandmother, The Fourfold imbues an indigenous worldview and wisdom based on the ancient shamanic rituals and animistic beliefs in Mongolia and Siberia.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2020
Ottawa International Animation Festival, 2020
Vancouver International Film Festival, 2020
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 hand-made and painterly visuals.
India, Singapore2019 9 minEnglish and Punjabi with English subtitlesWorld PremiereDocumentary, Family, Open Captions
Rated PG
At 62, Samriti visits her late father’s home in Amritsar, India - a place that only existed in retellings of the past - for the very first time.
GurJeevaan Singh BalRose
GurJeevaan Singh BalRose enjoys storytelling because it’s a powerful tool to bring people together and evoke emotions. He hopes to make more films about Sikh history and culture in Singapore and India.
USA2019 5 min English and Vietnamese with English SubtitlesInternational Premiere Documentary, Experimental, Family, Open Captions
Rated PG
“Where do you want to start?” The relationship between mother and son, uttered and silent, what’s known and forgotten, archival footage and public spaces are strewn into this affecting elliptical portrait of Orange County’s Little Saigon touching upon the history of war, displacement, and colonialism.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2019
Chris Nguyen
Chris Nguyen is a documentarian & community builder based in Los Angeles. He is currently a production coordinator on Equal, and volunteers with A-Doc, the Asian American Documentary Network.
South Korea, USA202015 minEnglish and Korean with English subtitlesToronto Premiere Documentary, Family, Open Captions, Women Filmmakers
Rated PG
What does it take to open conversation and unpack your family’s past? Playful and unabashed, director Yeon Park sets off to do so by purchasing a time machine off eBay.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Visions du Réel, 2020
DOXA Documentary Film Festival, 2020
San Diego Asian Film Festival, 2020
AWARD
Air Canada Short Film or Video Award, Reel Asian 2020
Yeon Park
Yeon Park is a filmmaker from Seoul, Korea, who continued her studies at Stanford. Her ultimate goal as a filmmaker is to make documentaries that encourage empathy through capturing people’s emotions.
Canada20207 minEnglishDocumentary, Experimental, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Reel Asian Award Winner
Rated PG
I Dream of Vancouver interrogates alienation from the lived experience of spaces as they are subsumed by algorithms and mediated images, linking corporate technologies and gentrification with the erasure of populations that don’t fit Google’s agenda.
AWARDS
Winner of Air Canada Short Film or Video Award, Reel Asian 2020.
Warren Chan
Warren Chan is an MA student at York University, where he researches usage of A.I. generated images in experimental cinema. Outside of his studies, he also interrogates the role of new media technologies in film and video.
USA2019 8 minEnglishInternational Premiere Documentary, Family-friendly
Rated G
Learning from and caring for the land she farms on, Catherine Nguyen owns two-thirds of an acre by herself growing and selling annual vegetables while challenging the industrialization of food in Portland, Oregon.
OFFICIAL SCREENINGS
Oregon Documentary Film Festival, 2020
DC Asian Pacific American Film, 2020
Anthony Newen
Anthony Newen started making films when he got bored of doing magic tricks and needed a new hobby. He now makes films telling stories that deal with themes of love, loneliness, place, identity, and sometimes a bit of comedy to keep things lighthearted.
Japan, U.K.2019 15 minEnglish and Japanese with English SubtitlesCanadian PremiereDocumentary, Open Captions, Women Filmmakers
Rated G
A breathtaking and touching documentary alerting the urgency to care for our habitats and preserve the incredible knowledge of the Ama, a tradition of women divers spanning over thousands of years in Japan, weaving the director’s personal connection to it all.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
American Documentary and Animation Film Festival, 2020
The People’s Film Festival, 2020
Under Wire Festival, 2019
Georgie Yukiko Donovan
Georgie Yukiko Donovan is a Japanese-English documentary filmmaker with a multidisciplinary approach inspired by a diverse background in theatre, television and film.
12 Nov, 2020 10:00 am
to 19 Nov, 2020 11:59 pm
Join us in conversation with directors and special guests in attendance! ASL interpretation will be made available thanks to Toronto Sign Language Interpreter Services. Ticket holders can watch on the CineSend Reel Asian portal.
November 17, 2020 at 11:30AM
India, Singapore2019 9 minEnglish and Punjabi with English subtitlesWorld PremiereDocumentary, Family, Open Captions
Rated PG
At 62, Samriti visits her late father’s home in Amritsar, India - a place that only existed in retellings of the past - for the very first time.
GurJeevaan Singh BalRose
GurJeevaan Singh BalRose enjoys storytelling because it’s a powerful tool to bring people together and evoke emotions. He hopes to make more films about Sikh history and culture in Singapore and India.
12 Nov, 2020 10:00 am
to 19 Nov, 2020 11:59 pm
China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South KoreaEnglish and Various Languages Action, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Experimental, Horror, Thriller
Caught in a standstill, these films follow the choices made and risks taken by characters to impel even the smallest of pivots.
Award
Award Description
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
