Accessibility
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This programme is presented with a mix of open captions and English subtitles. Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
Canada, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, USA2022-2023TRT: 1h43English, Hindi, Māori, Farsi, Indonesian, Korean2slgbtq+, Animation, Comedy, Directed By Women, Documentary, Drama, Experimental, Family-friendly, Immigrant stories, Mystery
More to the situation than what it seems, these shorts choose to examine, tease, and redefine the forces that pull us to make a decision.
*Directors in attendance starred.
USA202313 minEnglishDirected By Women, Drama
Maggie, a young Asian American sound artist, grapples with her imposter syndrome as it takes on new extremes at her first artist's residency.
*Annie Ning
Annie Ning is a filmmaker from Suzhou, China, currently based in NYC, where she is pursuing her MFA in screenwriting/directing at Columbia University.
Canada20229 minEnglishComedy, Documentary, Experimental
Pixels of the Orient appropriates Western media depictions of East Asia for a psychedelic and comedic exploration of ahistorical East Asian aesthetics and identity.
*Warren Chan
Warren Chan is a video artist and curator with a focus on experimental works that analyze digital and new media technologies.
New Zealand202313 minEnglish, Hindi, Māori with English subtitlesDrama, Family-friendly, Immigrant stories
When Anu, a recent widow, moves to New Zealand from India, she's forced to confront her grief by completing an ordinary ritual in an extraordinary circumstance: quarantine.
Pulkit Arora
Pulkit Arora is a writer-director based in India and New Zealand. His directorial work focuses on identity, faith and belonging.
Canada202314 minEnglish, Farsi with English subtitles2slgbtq+, Comedy, Directed By Women, Drama
An Iranian Canadian girl reluctantly makes a new friend when the new student from Iran offers to help fix her ruined unibrow — for her, a symbol of the Iranian heritage she tries desperately to hide from the world.
*Nedda Sarshar
Nedda Sarshar is an emerging filmmaker and writer who loves to tell stories that centre queer women of colour and their immigrant families. Sarshar won Reel Asian’s Pitch Competition in 2021 with this work.
Singapore202211 minEnglish Animation, Comedy, Directed By Women, Experimental
In the strange, polarized world of Hands and Butts, a single act of violence toward an oppressed Butt sets the mediaverse ablaze.
Calleen Koh
Calleen Koh finds joy in turning serious societal issues into wacky stories using her crazy sexy characters, like anthropomorphic sushis, phallic Crayola-coloured children or walking butts in her manic animated films.
Indonesia202318 minIndonesian with English subtitlesDrama
Working as a fisherman to support his small family, Ucup is used to consuming his catch from the sea until one day something strange happens that makes him realize something about his daily meal.
Muhammad Heri Fadli
Muhammad Heri Fadli is from Central Lombok, Indonesia, and just finished his master’s degree at the University Technology Mara in visual communication and new media.
South Korea202224 minKorean with English subtitlesDirected By Women, Mystery
Kyu-ho, an ordinary office worker, receives an interview request from a famous writer and agrees to talk to her.
*ROH Do-hyeon
Do-hyeon Roh has held various jobs in the field, such as a lighting technician for a commercial film and a web novelist after signing a contract with a publisher.
PG
Content Warning: Depictions of dead marine life
11 Nov, 2023 7:30 pm
TIFF Bell Lightbox C4–
This programme is presented with a mix of open captions and English subtitles. Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
The Good Guise is an artist collective in Toronto formed to spark conversations around healthy masculinity.
Societal, political, and magical forces at play beyond our control, this programme brings together a variety of filmmaking approaches to reflect on what can remain in troubling times, and along with it, agency to construct the narrative.
You rarely couple poop and romance together, but Okiku and the World does it effortlessly in the most genuine and adorable way.
Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, UK, USA2022-2023TRT: 1h30Tagalog, English, Korean2slgbtq+, Animation, Comedy, Directed By Women, Drama, Experimental, Romance, Science Fiction
Hmm … this doesn’t seem right?! This programme asks us to sit with the discomforting feelings that arise when we begin to confront the unknown in what we believe to know.
*Directors in attendance starred.
Philippines, Singapore202315 minTagalog with English subtitlesComedy, Drama
The audition process for an exploitative game show becomes the latest test of a long-suffering mother’s fortitude and tenacity.
Sonny Calvento
Sonny Calvento is a director, writer, and producer based in Manila. At the age of 19, he worked as a drama writer for ABS-CBN, the largest broadcasting network in the Philippines.
UK20223 minEnglishAnimation, Experimental, Science Fiction
A mad clock takes the viewer on a time trip to a random planet where the concept of time is experienced differently from the one we know...
*Shunny Kim & Taewan Kim
Shunny Kim and Taewan Kim are animators based in London. Co-directing their BA graduation film, their interests aligned through experimental animation, character design and collaboration.
Canada202315 minEnglish and Tagalog with English subtitlesDirected By Women, Drama
In this complex family thriller, Gian has been plotting revenge since the day Janine, his mother, was sent away.
Nushi Sharma
Nushi Sharma is a Filipino Indian undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia.
Canada202310 minEnglish2slgbtq+, Music
Filmmakers Njo Kong Kie and John Greyson (using their highlighter compositional method) have created an original short opera about the last day on Earth for Li Shiu Tong, the lover of Berlin sexologist and legendary gay-rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld.
Njo Kong Kie & *John Greyson
Njo Kong Kie is an award-winning Toronto composer who has been a long-serving music director of La La La Human Steps in Montreal.
John Greyson is a Toronto filmmaker who is a pioneer of the new queer cinema. His films have won four Berlin Teddies, five Canadian Screen Awards, and over 50 Best Film prizes at festivals internationally.
Malaysia202312 minEnglishExperimental, Fantasy
Two crocodilian men go to a swimming pool to cool off. One of them is seemingly of a different and special kind; the other is unable to control his desire.
Mark Chua & Lam Li Shuen
Mark Chua and Li Shuen Lam are a filmmaker and artist duo. Their films often employ absurdist imagery, thinking on place, histories and the peculiarity of human desire.
Singapore, USA20238 minNo dialogue2slgbtq+, Animation, Experimental, Romance
One night, a person brushes the teeth of a dog and turns into a bus.
This film has no dialogue and is presented without captions.
Elizabeth Xu Yuan Li (EXYL)
EXYL is a filmmaker and animator born and raised in Singapore. They were trained in painting and drawing, but moved slowly but surely into time-based mediums like live action and animation.
South Korea202227 minKorean with English subtitlesDirected By Women, Drama, Horror, Science Fiction
Sujin, who was recently fired and is planning to go to Canada on a working holiday, lives with her family after her parents’ return.
Eun-uk Jeong
Eun-uk Jeong is studying film at Myongji University.
12 Nov, 2023 5:00 pm
TIFF Bell Lightbox C4PG
Content Warning: Flashing lights; depictions of suggested violence
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This programme is presented with a mix of open captions, English subtitles, and no captions. Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
Step into the thrilling world of TV writing with a range of talented writers as they share their insights into crafting a successful TV series, advancing careers in the writers' room, and promoting diversity in showrunning.
A job interview, a children’s clothing store, a government registry office. These are just some of the everyday sites for which the characters of Terrestrial Verses must navigate cultural, religious, and institutional constraints imposed on them.
South Korea202214 minKorean with English subtitlesAnimation, Drama, Family-friendly
A boy longs for his father's affection, but he is only interested in fishing.
Jinman KIM, Jiyoung CHON
Jin-man Kim and Ji-young Chon both work at HUMUHUMU Stopmotion Studio as directors.
Blue Ant Media is looking for its next hit factual paranormal series with T&E and HauntTV's global free streaming channel. Join us for a spooky information session with Blue Ant Media's Sam Linton, VP Production and Development and Julie Chang, EVP Business Strategy and Co-productions, to get all of your questions answered.
For our Closing Night Event, come celebrate the live So You Think You Can Pitch competition at the 27th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Reception to follow.
Initiated in 2002 by Yuni Hadi (Singapore), Amir Muhammad (Malaysia) and Chalida Uabumrungjit (Thailand), S-Express has become an annual showcase of programming from Southeast Asia, spotlighting the abundant filmmaking talent and a nuanced insight into the stories of each participating region. This year, Reel Asian presents S-Express Malaysia, programmed by Chong Lee Yow of Mini Film Festival, featuring five films depicting one's ability to (un)trap themselves from limitations set upon them, be it bodily, mind, or soul, to achieve relief and victory.
Denmark, South Korea20228 minNo Dialogue Animation, Directed By Women, Experimental
Unable to find the presence of women in the artwork of Lee Jung-seob, I am a Horse spins an imaginative tale inspired by tae-mong (Korean birth dreams) of women born with half of their bodies, being a horse and a tiger.
This film has no dialogue and is presented without captions.
Chaerin Im
Chaerin Im is a filmmaker from South Korea with a focus on experimental animation. With the use of craftsmanship and distinctive materials, she explores gender issues and sexual imagery.
Blue Ant Media is looking for its next hit factual paranormal series with T&E and HauntTV's global free streaming channel. Join us for a spooky information session with Blue Ant Media's Sam Linton, VP Production and Development and Julie Chang, EVP Business Strategy and Co-productions, to get all of your questions answered.
Ho-jun, a flailing actor, has found relative success as a social media influencer, hawking fishing hacks. He preps his live stream at his preferred fishing spot, only to be disrupted by an obnoxious stranger whose bad vibes are ruining the morning.
South Korea20216 minKorean with English subtitlesAnimation, Family, Family-friendly
Battery Dad is in charge of every corner of the house from children’s toys to remote controls and door locks. What can Battery Dad do when a sudden downpour floods the valley?
Jeon Seung-bae
Jeon Seung-bae graduated from Chung-Ang University of Advanced Imaging Science in multimedia and film. He works at Toyville Animation Studio as an animation director.
9 Nov, 2022
to 20 Nov, 2022
OnlineG
Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, USA2022English and other languages with English subtitlesAnimation, Dance, Experimental, Family, Family-friendly, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Non-binary Filmmakers, Women Filmmakers
Short and sweet, this delightful collection of films presents stories of tenderness, curiosity, and possibility.
Canada20222 minutesNo DialogueAnimation, Family-friendly
A newcomer to the city tries to figure out their commute.
Tarun Padmakumar
Tarun Padmakumar is a Toronto-based animator who hails from the state of Kerala in South India. Though he’s worked with many mediums, he enjoys creating with animation above all.
Canada20223 minutesEnglish, Cree, and Cantonese with English subtitlesAnimation, Experimental, Family-friendly, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Non-binary Filmmakers
A pair of Two-Spirit Métis Chinese youth soften a deer hide together.
Kay Chan
Kay Chan (they/he/she) is a Two-Spirit and non-binary Tkaronto-based artist who was raised across Turtle Island/Canada. With their mixed Métis Chinese heritage, Chan transforms their many experiences, passions, and identities into a vision while weaving together the traditional and digital art mediums they have accessible.
Australia20216 minutesEnglish with English subtitlesAnimation, Family-friendly, Women Filmmakers
Charlie and her dog, Doug, set out on a journey up a mountain to shoot down the brightest star in the sky.
Wendy Lu, Natalie Tran, & Cindy Zhi
Wendy Lu,Natalie Tran, and Cindy Zhi are an Asian Australian group of motivated ragtag animators from Sydney, Australia. With hopes of creating a story that would matter to themselves and others, the three teamed up to create In Sight.
USA20224 minutesEnglishAnimation, Family-friendly, Women Filmmakers
Aki, a beginner chef, must make a delicious meal for the emperor’s banquet, however, things don’t go as planned.
Wanci Hua
Currently studying at the California Institute of the Arts, Wanci Hua is a Taiwanese animator who loves creating whimsical worlds and sharing tender stories.
South Korea20216 minKorean with English subtitlesAnimation, Family, Family-friendly
Battery Dad is in charge of every corner of the house from children’s toys to remote controls and door locks. What can Battery Dad do when a sudden downpour floods the valley?
Jeon Seung-bae
Jeon Seung-bae graduated from Chung-Ang University of Advanced Imaging Science in multimedia and film. He works at Toyville Animation Studio as an animation director.
Malaysia202218 minutesNo DialogueAnimation, Family-friendly, Women Filmmakers
A recently orphaned rhino tries to find a new home in the wilds of the Borneo rainforest.
Juhaidah Joemin & Sandra Khoo
The first generation of filmmakers in her native Borneo family, Juhaidah Joemin draws inspiration from her rich cultural heritage and vast natural surroundings where she grew up.
Sandra Khoo is a director by day and works on her own pet projects and animated shorts by night.
Canada20215 minutesEnglish with English subtitlesDance, Family-friendly, Non-binary Filmmakers
A young boy looks for love from his older self, while seeking sanctuary in nature.
Mirusha Yogarajah
Mirusha Yogarajah is a writer, filmmaker, and housing advocate based in Toronto.
Indonesia202214 minutesIndonesian with English subtitlesFamily, Family-friendly
Abbas and his friends are out to create the most epic action film in 2005! What will Abbas encounter along the way?
Rayhan Dharmawan
Rayhan Dharmawan is a freelance screenwriter for feature films and a director of independent short films and music videos under the collective, Poolside Studios. He may have not determined his true path yet but he’s enjoying every step of the way.
Season 3 brings together four spectacular local artists who will guide you through simple and playful pre-recorded activities all from the comfort of your home.
Puppet pals and character making with Maryanna Chan!
Maryanna Chan will show you how to take everyday objects around you and transform them into fun characters and puppet pals.
Maryanna Chan (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian Illustrator and Scenographer from Treaty 6 Territory (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan). She studied Illustration at the Alberta College of Art + Design, and graduated in 2018. In 2021 she graduated from the Scénographie program at the National Theatre school of Canada. Her work focuses on representation, cultural identities, equality, and liberation. She aims to highlight and uplift the stories of underrepresented and marginalized communities in her work.
Blanket-fort skill sharing with Catherine Hernandez!
Author and screenwriter Catherine Hernandez will share her blanket-fort building skills.
Catherine Hernandez‘s novel, Scarborough, won the Jim Wong-Chu Award and was a finalist for Canada Reads 2022. Her children’s books include M Is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book, I Promise and Where Do Your Feelings Live? She wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Scarborough, which won 8 including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Express movement through sequential art making with Bree Jiang!
Illustrator and official 2022 Reel Asian Festival Creative Artist Bree Jiang shows you how to express movement through sequential art-making.
Bree Jiang (they/them) is a queer interdisciplinary artist of Chinese descent based in Tkaronto aka Toronto. Their multidisciplinary arts practice comprises of painting, illustration, animation and design. Jiang’s work explores topics such as speculative worlds, the natural world, identity and community-building.
Celebrate your festival spirit and make parols with Maria Patricia Abuel!
Show your sparkle and festive spirit with artist Maria Patricia Abuel as you create star ornaments inspired by the parol, a traditional Filipino star lantern!
Maria Patricia Abuel (she/her) is a Toronto/Tkarón:to born and raised Filipina multidisciplinary artist. Her practice questions issues of hybrid identity, femininity, and conservative expectations. She challenges traditional frameworks within cultures and artistic practices with a playful irony, with a focus on family history, pop culture, and the body.
Our friends Kat Estacio and Tara Hejazi at Wavelength Music curate a special playlist for Wee Asian featuring independent artists to listen, dance, or relax to! Share your playlist favourites by tagging @wavelengthmusic and @reelasian.
Kat Estacio is a Tkaronto-based creative and recovering overachiever. An experienced administrator, Kat has a B.Comm and over a decade on-the-ground work with community non-profits and arts organizations. They previously worked as managing director at Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture, and continues to be involved in different capacities throughout the years as an arts mentor, committee member, and consultant.
Tara Hejazi is a huge music enthusiast and loves curating playlists and discovering new music. Her favourite genres are altrnb and hip-hop.
Reel Asian’s festival creative Bree Jiang transforms their animation into a colouring sheet! Show off your artistry and share your colouring sheet with us by tagging @reelasian on social media.
The Class of 2019 at Cawthra Park Secondary School is gearing up for their senior year. 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.
This year’s Reel Ideas Conference gathers industry professionals, filmmakers, and performers to reflect on the specificity in their works, representing their own nuances along with their communities' lived experiences.
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.
Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea202275 minutesEnglish and other languages with English subtitlesAnimation, Docu-fiction, Drama, Experimental, Women Filmmakers
These films do not shy away from difficult and layered stories, distant memories, and buried feelings. Our characters ground, trace, and reconnect pathways toward recognizing the resiliency within oneself through their roots and relations to the places around them.
South Korea202226 minutes Korean and Jeju dialect with English subtitlesDrama, Women Filmmakers
Deep in the dry stream, Yu-bin and Geon are each other’s only friends. To them, this place is the best hideout and playground—but no one seems to understand.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
Kang Ji-hyo
Kang Ji-hyo majored in film studies in college. Her previous short film Interpreting Hyun-ju (2020) won the Grand Prize at Aichi International Women’s Film Festival, and screened in festivals locally and internationally.
Canada, USA202111 minutesEnglish and Uchinaaguchi with English and Japanese textDocumentary, Experimental, Family
Director Shō Yamagushiku presents a poetic and sensorial tribute to ancestors in Okinawa: “Our uyafaafuji (ancestors) appear to intervene in our daily lives, refusing to let us forget, refusing to let us compromise, and refusing to let us live restrained by the laws of the nations that seek to claim us.”
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED G
Shō Yamagushiku
Shō Yamagushiku’s creative practice is grounded in a diasporic islander consciousness. He is committed to cultivating the space to tell difficult and complicated stories in hopes of dismantling the separation and stagnation that inform the world he was born into.
Malaysia202216 minutes English, Malay, Tamil and Mandarin with English subtitlesDocu-fiction
In the aftermath of the world's greatest financial sham in 2015, this docu-fiction follows a Malaysian child who finds solace and guidance from an unlikely figurehead.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content Warning: Trauma, Criminality
Ananth Subramaniam
Ananth Subramaniam is a Malaysian-based filmmaker and architect. His films often explore his ancestral identity and family within the context of a multi-layered genre.
Canada20223 minutesTamil with English subtitlesExperimental
A feller cuts down a forest until he arrives at the last tree standing. The tree confronts the feller.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
Kalainithan Kalaichelvan
Kalainithan Kalaichelvan is a Toronto-based filmmaker known for directing music videos for some of Toronto’s leading artists, and was nominated for a Juno Award for Music Video of the Year in 2022.
Australia20224 minutesEnglish, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Cantonese with English subtitlesAnimation, Women Filmmakers
Snippets of daily lives and sensory experiences, children and the elderly, workers, gossiping aunties and the overwhelming feeling you get when you’re in Cabramatta that memories are constantly being created all around you.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
Anna Phuong Nguyen, Winston Liu, Lilian Yu Wen Cao
Lilian Yu Wen Cao, Winston Liu and Anna Phuong Nguyen are all recent graduates of University of Technology Sydney. Filled with childhood memories and nostalgia, 2166 is a love letter to Cabramatta and Canley Vale.
Philippines202115 minutes Ilokano with English subtitlesDrama
Lynn leaves her family behind and traverses the harrowing roads of the Cordilleran highlands to try her luck in the city as a country singer.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
Rated PG
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan
Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan is an independent filmmaker born of Ifugao and Visayan descent. The Headhunter’s Daughter premiered at Sundance 2022, where it won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize.
10 Nov, 2022 6:30 pm
OnlineThe screening for Moving On 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 Julienne Discutido.
Julienne Discutido
Julienne (she/her) is a Filipino-Canadian film programmer dedicated to elevating the work of emerging filmmakers. She is currently a programming assistant at the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, involved with the Canadian Screen Awards and Talent Development programs. This is her third year as part of Reel Asian’s Programming Committee. Her favourite things to watch are horror, documentary, and cult films. She is also a strong enthusiast of any potato dish.
If From Every Tongue It Drips is a documentary constructed between three locations that follows Ponni, who writes a form of 19th-century queer Urdu poetry called Rekhti, and her lover Sarala, a camera operator.
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.
Inspired by age-old Filipino folklore, this frightening thriller is a chilling story about the resurfacing of dark family secrets.
South Korea202226 minutes Korean and Jeju dialect with English subtitlesDrama, Women Filmmakers
Deep in the dry stream, Yu-bin and Geon are each other’s only friends. To them, this place is the best hideout and playground—but no one seems to understand.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
Kang Ji-hyo
Kang Ji-hyo majored in film studies in college. Her previous short film Interpreting Hyun-ju (2020) won the Grand Prize at Aichi International Women’s Film Festival, and screened in festivals locally and internationally.
This film is part of the Moving On shorts programme.
Canada, South Korea202279 minutesKorean, Turkish, German, Polish, Khmer, Chinese, French, Yoruba with English SubtitlesCanadian PremiereSci-fi
In 1993, UFOs suddenly appeared over key cities around the world. The huge structures remained in the sky, stationary, silent, and unknown. Twenty-nine years later, with neither the origins nor the intentions of their arrival deciphered, humanity succumbs to speculations that aliens are walking among us.
Allegorical, humanistic, and poetic, Unidentified reflects on mankind's primordial need to seek for answers. Through disparate, cohesive vignettes, Jude Chun's existential debut uses fundamental science-fiction concepts to examine our inner selves, as only then may we know the things that bind or alienate us from one another. Combining multi-genre elements such as comedy, mystery, and even musical theatre to delve into the depths of soulful connection and the universal theme of social identity, the film also subtly comments on the repercussions of a nation’s traumatic past—and the vision of a transformative future.
Sponsor: Korean Consulate
Sun Jang
Hyoin Kim
Hohyeon Jeon
OFFICIAL SELECTION
FantasticFest, 2022
BendFilm Festival, 2022
Jude Chun
Jude Chun is a Korean Canadian director currently working in Seoul. Unidentified is his first feature film. His 2016 short film The Time Agent won multiple awards at international film festivals, and has been optioned for feature development by Black Label Media.
The screening for Unidentified 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
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the theatrical presentation with director Jude Chun.
When a man from the “extinct” Sinixt people in what’s called British Columbia’s Slocan Valley challenges his deportation to the United States, the question arises: How can his people be extinct when he is very much alive? This feature film will also be shown as an online screening.
In this oddly sweet and gentle story, Hong, a shy young man, opens his eyes to love when he coincidentally meets Lele, the mistress of a sex worker business.
When reserved, late-bloomer Grace gets passed up for a major promotion at work, she tries to break out of her shell by pursuing a one-night stand at the club.
South Korea2022112:00Korean with English Subtitles International PremiereDrama
Hye-jeong leaves a protest group of closely knit families, mourning the victims of an industrial accident, to which she also lost her husband. To move on with her life, she buys a sparkly new apartment with the settlement money, but things go awry when she notices the unit's construction defects that render her and her son without any usable water. When she attempts to get the problem fixed, an unexpected group stops her in the act: her new neighbours. Beyond being ostracized and called a traitor for accepting the settlement money, Hye-jeong must now stand up against her neighbours, who would do everything in their power to stop her from making the defects publicly known, for fear of their real estate getting devalued.
Having a place you can call your own in this day and age is a luxury, amid skyrocketing housing prices. That is why what seems very local and realistic in Dream Palace also resonates internationally. Seasoned actress Kim Sun-young of Three Sisters (2020) plays Hye-jeong, while the film makes a new discovery with Lee Yoon-ji, who puts up her most persuasive performance to date. The fresh yet ironic struggles between victims against victims will leave an unsettling aftertaste that tears one apart between conscience and the desperate need to survive.
– June Kim
Kim Sun-young
Lee Yoon-ji
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Busan International Film Festival, 2022
Ka Sung-moon 가성문
Ka Sung-moon was born in South Korea, studied film since high school, and is the winner of 2019 Korean Film Council’s screenplay competition. Dream Palace is his first feature following shorts Story about K (2006) and Mongrels (2017). Mongrels screened at several film festivals domestically and internationally, including the Brussels Short Film Festival.
13 Nov, 2022 5:00 pm
TIFF Bell Lightbox 3The screening for Dream Palace will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox 3.
RATED PG (RATING DESCRIPTION)
CONTENT WARNING
Violence, Coarse language, Smoking, drinking
The Class of 2019 at Cawthra Park Secondary School is gearing up for their senior year. 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.
How do our bodies and environments absorb and hold onto repetitive patterns, habits, and routines? This presentation of shorts exercises the capacity to confront harmful structures, encourage reflexivity, and affirm the embodied knowledge we carry. This shorts programme is available online.
A collaborative exhibition by Jasmine Gui (special projects programmer, RA) & keiko Hart (co-curator), RA:X Puncta aims to present a plurality of punctum moments (as defined by Roland Barthes) that disturb and prick at diasporic Asian narratives and slip beyond an easy legibility of “Asianness”.
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
