Free event.
240 minEnglish
We're kicking off ReelAsian24 with a bang! 
Party with us (digitally of course) on Nov 6 at 9PM (EST) for our Zoom Festival Launch Party and fundraiser hosted in partnership with ISO Radio, New Ho Queen x Hot Pot Community, Ricecake, and Bubble_T.
The night is jam packed with some of the best from coast to coast with DJ sets from Toronto faves Paul Chin, Roshanie, Discography x Lazy Suzn x Kai, and a drag performance from Ms. Nookie Galore. From the House of Rice in Vancouver, Bella will be DJing with performances by Maiden China, Kara Juku, Skim, and House Mother Shay Dior. Last but not least the imitable West Dakota joins us all the way from NYC!
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Titles featured in GIF Roulette
36 Chambers of Shaolin
Above the Rim
Aces Go Places
Aces Go Places 2
All the Wrong Spies
Astroboy
Batman
Boyz n the Hood
Brave Archer
Brave Archer 2
Chicken and Duck Talk
Chungking Express
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Deer Bell
Dimensions in Dialogue
Dr. Slump
Dumplings
Eat Drink Man Woman
Five Deadly Venoms
Front Page
God of Cookery
God of Gamblers 2
Golden Warrior Gold Lightan
Goonies
Gremlins
Hard Boiled
Hausu
I Love Maria
In the Mood for Love
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Juice
Kwaidan
Legend of the Condor Heroes (1983 TVB)
Macross
Momotaro Sea Warriors
Mr. Boo Meets Pom Pom
Mr. Vampire
Nine Venoms
Old Master Q
Return of the Condor Heroes (1983 TVB)
Return of the One-Armed Swordsman
Security Unlimited
Sixteen Candles
Spider and Tulip
Stand By Me
The Lost Boys
The Magic Touch
The Private Eyes
Touch of Zen
White Men Can’t Jump
Join Howie Tsui for a deep dive artist talk on visual sampling, loops, fragmentation, and memory through GIFs from film and TV that have impacted and informed his recent media work. Part of this conversation will be held with Grayson Lee.
NOVEMBER 15, 2020 AT 7:00PM
LibrettoI heard my heartbeat:
Tutum tum, Tutum Tum, Tum Tututum, Tutum Tum
I know this rhythm, warm, growing. The cadence of a poem remembering its own pentameter.
Natarseen nalarzeen, Maa hame baahamasteem
This is a popular chant in Iranian protests, taking its beat from the metric counts of Persian epic poetry.
U _ _ , U _ _ , _ U U _ , U _ _
The prosody leads the way this poem is read. The rhythm echoes thousands of people marching down the streets of Tehran. Bodies in synch, voices in tune – a crowd in climax. Rhythm mirrors heartbeats, then one beat united, a movement…protest…revolution.
Na ekhtelaas na barjaam, Moghaavemat yek kalaam
Poetic, paternal, and harmonic. One voice shaped by thousands of bodies. A beat without an instrument to play it on. Occasional foot heels striking the ground, hands clapping to introduce a transition in tempo
They say history repeats itself; cyclical, monotonous and repetitive. Like chanting. A call for action and an abstraction, rising in collective objection with increasing fervor. Are they cultural weapons?
مرگ†بر†تو،†مرگ†بر†تو،†مرگ†بر†تو
The medium is… The medium is… Meaning is not just words, but the material qualities of the language and the execution of action (sharp as knives).
Streets become stages, activists turn into actors. These repeated rhyming couplets shouted in a call-and-response format make use of common prosodic strategies such as internal rhyme and assonance.
Iranee meemeerad, zellat nemeepazeerad.
We mimic each stressed syllable, internalize the prosody, and embody the segmentation of slogans. Our phonological awareness surpasses the ability to detect, segment, and manipulate the sounds in language. We are masters of rhythm, teachers of rhyme, poets of turmoil, and deliverers of the voice!
Maa bachehaye jangeem, bejang ta benajgeem
Translation, as a fundamental metaphor of our time, highlights the challenges posed through cultural, political, and linguistic fragmentation in a global setting.
clap, [rest], clap, [rest], clap, clap, clap
Translation, a means of transcending crossing borders can also be the act of bordering. It can create common understanding while at the same time identifying key differentiators. These chants remain Farsi, while letting the performers be the translators, the actors, and the remediators. Meaning is derived not from the meaning of the words, but from the physical and material elements of the words.
Marg [rest] bar[rest], dik taa tor!
The decades-long social revolution unfolding in slow bass percussion is one melody line.
Can you feel the beat? Can you hear the emotional impact of the phrase? Can you hear the urgency to create a repetitive pattern? Can you hear the old man shout in front his shop window? Can you feel the power?
“Because our societies have the illusion that they change quickly, because the past slips away forgotten, because identity is intolerable, we still refuse to accept this most plausible hypothesis: if our societies seem unpredictable, if the future is difficult to discern, it is perhaps quite simply because nothing happens. Except for the artificially created pseudo-events and chance violence that accompany the emplacement of repetitive society.”i
KHAAREJii explores the paradoxes within the act of translation as a mechanism that opens up a space between different cultures, while creating a space for misrepresentation and a border that sets dual settings such as source and target, center and periphery, local and foreign. It celebrates the impossibility and failure of translation and considers the alternatives in translation.
I See Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music, The University of Minnesota Press, 89-90
ii KHAAREJ in Farsi can be translated as: outside, foreign, out of tune/out of key (in music), outer, exterior, abroad, quotient (mathematics), and beyond.
KHAAREJ NO.3KHAAREJ NO.3 REF
Join Sahar Te in a deep dive artist talk on her audio-visual practice that weaves in elements from literature, translation, sound, oral history, and theatre.
NOVEMBER 14, 2020 AT 7:00PM
Join Oliver Husain in a deep dive artist talk on lenticular cinema, an invention dating back to the 1930s that uses thin vertical wires mounted in front of the screen to create a glasses-free 3D effect.
NOVEMBER 13, 2020 AT 7:00PM
35 minEnglish
Each year, Reel Asian celebrates Asian talent with awards for features and short films. Juried by distinguished creatives, filmmakers and industry professionals, these awards speak to the brilliant talent within our communities and the meaningful impact these stories leave with our audiences. This year, you're invited to join co-hosts Lainey Lui and Angela Sun as they reveal the award winners for the 24th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. So, get your drinks ready and tune in for appointment-viewing to find out who the award winners are for this edition!
Lainey Lui
Co-host of CTV’s THE SOCIAL, ETALK anchor, and scribe of the immensely popular celebrity gossip blog, LaineyGossip.com, Lainey Lui does what she does for one reason – to provide a gossip education to the Canadian public. Lui is regularly called upon as a celebrity expert by media outlets worldwide and has covered The Oscars, The Golden Globes, The Olympics, and Royal weddings.
Angela Sun
Angela Sun is a mad, fat, first generation/ settler theatre performer, creator, producer, arts administrator, and writer of Chinese descent. She has previously performed in or co-created works for Koffler.Digital (Koffler Centre of the Arts), The Bentway, the Gardiner Museum, and the Art Gallery of Ontario; as well as the Toronto Fringe Festival, the Hamilton Fringe Festival, SummerWorks Performance Festival, Paprika Festival, and the InspiraTO Festival.
Osler Best Feature Film Award
All feature works are eligible for this prize. $,1500 cash prize.
CineSend Best First Feature Award
All first feature films are eligible for this prize. $1,000 cash prize.
The Truth to Power Award
All documentary films are eligible for this $1,250 cash prize, donated by Karla Bobadilla, Diang Iu, Immanuel Lanzaderas, Sonia Sakamoto-Jog and Victoria Shen.
Change Connect Award
All films made by 30 & under artists are eligible for this prize. $500 cash prize.
National Film Board of Canada Best Canadian Short Film Award (Emerging)
All short works made by emerging Canadian artist (with credits fewer than 4 films) are eligible for this prize of post-production services, $5,000 value.
Air Canada Short Film or Video Award
All short films and videos are eligible for this prize. Opportunity to broadcast on Air Canada’s in-flight entertainment screens on international flights.
Animasian Award
All animated works are eligible for this prize. $600 cash prize.
WIFT Toronto Film Award
All films made by female-identified Ontario-based artists are eligible for this prize. $500 in programming gift certificates and one-year membership to WIFT Toronto.
Carrianne Leung
Carrianne Leung is a fiction writer and educator. Her debut novel, The Wondrous Woo was shortlisted for the 2014 Toronto Book Awards. Her collection stories, That Time I Loved You was named one of CBC’s Best Books of 2018.She is currently working on a new novel, titled The After.
Melissa Bisagni
Melissa Bisagni is the Media Initiatives Program Manager at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), in Washington, DC. She was previously the Director of Programming for the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival where she is a senior advisor.
Danis Goulet
Danis Goulet is a writer and director. Her films have screened at Berlin, Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). She is a former programmer for TIFF and a former director of the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. Her debut feature NIGHT RAIDERS is currently in post production.
*All decisions made by the juries are final and binding and not subject to appeal.
Mandeq Hassan
Mandeq Hassan has spent years working extensively in the film industry. Hassan has been a key member of the Toronto-based distribution company Sisterhood Media and her credits include popular works Gay Mean Girls and The Regent Park Project. She received the 2019 Director’s Guild of Canada New Visions Award.
Ammar Keshodia
Ammar Keshodia is a filmmaker and curator. He has worked on the programming teams for festivals such as TIFF, SXSW, and Overlook. In 2019, he served as the Lead Programmer at Reelworld Film Festival. He has written for publications such as Bright Wall/Dark Room, NANG Magazine, and Peephole Journal.
Fransiska Prihadi
Fransiska Prihadi is an architect, co-founder of art-house cinema MASH Denpasar and has been the program director of Minikino Film Week, Bali International Short Film Festival since 2015. She is now working on her research thesis about international short film festivals for her Master of Tourism Studies at Udayana University.
USA202083 minEnglish, Cantonese, Mandarin with English SubtitlesDocumentary, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers
Down a Dark Stairwell takes a nuanced and careful look at the events following the 2014 case where Akai Gurley was shot and killed in the stairwell of an apartment building by Chinese-American NYPD officer Peter Liang.
Director Ursula Liang (no relation to Peter) and her crew follow the Black Lives Matter protests rallying around Gurley’s family to support a conviction, while also following various predominantly Asian American communities’ protest responses to what they deem an unfair trial.
In our current context of urgent calls for accountability around excessive police violence, Down A Dark Stairwell’s raw and honest witness to the ways racial politics fissure and divide us feels timely and necessary. In documenting multiple communities’ response to every new development from the event, the film contends with how fraught and limited notions of justice can be, and the devastating violence that the policing system inflicts on Black communities.
- Jasmine Gui
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
True/False Film Festival, 2020
Visions du Réel, 2020
Blackstar Film Festival, 2020
AWARDS
Best Documentary, Ashland Independent Film Festival 2020
The Truth to Power Award, Reel Asian 2020
Ursula Liang
Ursula Liang is a journalist-turned-filmmaker. After working in print (ESPN The Magazine, T: The New York Times Magazine), she directed two critically-acclaimed feature documentaries, 9-Man and Down a Dark Stairwell. Ursula lives in the Bronx, N.Y.
12 Nov, 2020 7:00 pm
to 13 Nov, 2020 7:00 pm
Content warning: Events surrounding killing by police
Live Panel Discussion, November 12 at 8:45PM
Contact Active Listener (November 12, 8:30-11:30PM)
Accompanying our opening night screening presentation of Down a Dark Stairwell is a live online discussion with special guests.
ASL interpretation supported and made available by Toronto Sign Language Interpreter Services. Active listener available from 8:30PM – 11:30PM.
Click here to contact the Active Listener. Contact and communication is confidential.
Nataleah Hunter-Young, Writer and Film Curator
Moderator
Nataleah Hunter-Young is a writer, film curator, and PhD candidate researching Black aesthetic practice and representations of mediated police brutality in contemporary art. She has supported festival programming for TIFF, Hot Docs, and the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.
Syrus Marcus Ware, Activist and Artist
Panelist
Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. Syrus uses painting, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture. He is part of the Performance Disability Art Collective and a core-team member of Black Lives Matter – Toronto.
Ursula Liang, Director of Down A Dark Stairwell
Panelist
Ursula Liang is a journalist-turned-filmmaker. After working in print (ESPN The Magazine, T: The New York Times Magazine), she directed two critically-acclaimed feature documentaries, 9-Man and Down a Dark Stairwell. Ursula lives in the Bronx, N.Y.
J.M. Harper, Co-writer and Editor of Down a Dark Stairwell
Panelist
J.M. Harper is a documentarian. Down A Dark Stairwell is his third documentary feature as editor. He’s currently editing a feature documentary about Kanye West. His work has been featured on AdWeek, Vimeo Staff Picks, FADER and the Guggenheim.
Michelle Chang, Co-writer and Editor of Down a Dark Stairwell
Panelist
Michelle Chang is a Brooklyn-based editor of documentary features as well as short form projects. Feature credits include When Claude Got Shot, Harbor From the Holocaust, 9-MAN, Like Any Other Kid, (A)Sexual, American Promise (Additional Editor for POV Broadcast, Emmy nomination). Before becoming an editor, Michelle was an associate producer for ABC News “20/20” and “Primetime.”
This case captured the attention of national media and highlighted what we in our respective communities have known for a long time: we are not united. In fact, in low whispers with problematic language, we often talk about one another. But what we are not talking about is the many reasons why this space between us exists: bubbles created by social media filters and propaganda, white supremacy, structural oppression, social inequality and isolation.
I want to learn from these conversations. To look at how the complexities of this case reflect the complexities of our fight for humanity, agency and respect. To talk about whether the battles we fight bring us power or dissipate it. And to examine who really benefits when marginalized groups are divided.
- Ursula Liang
This is a non-exhaustive community resource list to complement the discussion around Down a Dark Stairwell (2020).
Purpose
This short resource guide makes clear the importance of human engagement with the politics of living in the world around us. As a pan-Asian-centered festival, we have human relations with the world around us behind the screen and view our programming as an important public-facing conversation that moves us towards deep thinking and the work of repair.
Books:
Video/Zine:
News Articles:
Podcasts:
Key Toronto based Organizations:
Resources:
Catch Oliver Husain's Lenticular Lencture this year at the festival, featuring a digital installation of "French Exit" and an artist talk.
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.
Unfolding over a tumultuous three days, Dust And Ashes is a quiet thriller following a grieving Hae-su, forced to learn and navigate the system in order to collect insurance after the death of her mother. Overworked, underpaid, and facing eviction, Hae-su takes desperate measures in order to escape impoverishment. Winner of the 2020 Cinesend Best First Feature Award!
Canada, South Korea, Taiwan65 minEnglish and various languages with English SubtitlesAnimation, Dance, Documentary, Drama, Family, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers
Starting from a place of silence, these five films poignantly position the ways intergenerational trauma is held and healing can begin. Includes winner of Air Canada Short Film or Video Award, Reel Asian 2020 SING ME A LULLABY.
Canada202015 minEnglish with English SubtitlesDocumentary, Family, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Open Captions, Women Filmmakers
Rated PG
Pairing personal home videos with audio-recorded stories from Katherine Chun, Wenda Li, Tamai Kobayashi, and Nancy Seto - four queer Asian women recall, relive, and reflect upon their adolescent years.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Inside Out Film Festival, 2020
Iris Prize Film Festival, 2020
AWARDS
Nominated, Iris Prize, 2020
Amanda Ann-Min Wong
Amanda Ann-Min Wong is a filmmaker, writer, and musician originally from Singapore who now lives in Toronto. In her free time, she loves jamming out with her queer alt-rock band, cutsleeve.
Canada20208 minEnglishAnimation, Documentary, Family, Women Filmmakers
Rated PG
Tenderly crafted, director Anne Koizumi recounts a shameful childhood memory spurring conversation and a self-realization that which felt out of reach was there all along.
AWARDS
Honorable Mention – Betty Youson Award for Best Canadian Short Documentary, Hot Docs, 2020
Best Canadian Animation Winner, Ottawa International Animation Film Festival, 2020
Anne Koizumi
Anne Koizumi’s films have screened nationally and internationally. Additionally, Koizumi teaches stop-motion animation workshops across Canada and is currently a media arts educator at the NFB.
Canada20194 minEnglishToronto PremiereDocumentary, Family
Rated PG
Drawing parallels between ikebana and finding belonging, Japanese Canadian elder Kaz Takahashi shares stories of her upbringing.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Seattle Asian American Film Festival, 2020
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2020
Alejandro Yoshizawa
Alejandro Yoshizawa is a filmmaker from Vancouver, British Columbia and currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Theatre and Film as well as the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program.
South Korea20198 minKorean with English SubtitlesCanadian PremiereAnimation, Documentary, Family, Open Captions, Women Filmmakers
Rated PG-13
Confronting patriarchy and societal gender norms aside, Tiger and Ox is about a fraught yet loving relationship between mother and daughter.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Festival Internacional de Cine de Huesca, 2020
Palm Springs International Shorts Fest, 2020
San Diego Asian Film Festival, 2020
Seunghee Kim
Seunghee Kim has pursued a career as an animation filmmaker since 2014. Her previous films Mirror in Mind and SimSim (The Realm of Deepest Knowing) won awards and screened at numerous international film festivals.
Canada202029 minEnglish, Taiwanese with English SubtitlesDocumentary, Family, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers
Rated PG
A film that began over 15 years ago, Sing Me a Lullaby is a heartachingly touching story of a daughter’s attempt to piece together the missing parts in her mother’s history.
AWARDS
Short Cuts Share Her Journey Award, Toronto International Film Festival, 2020
Air Canada Short Film or Video Award, Reel Asian 2020
Tiffany Hsiung
Tiffany Hsiung is an international award-winning filmmaker based in Toronto, Canada. Her approach to storytelling is driven by the relationship that is built with the people she meets both in front and behind the lens.
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 18, 2020 at 9PM
Canada202029 minEnglish, Taiwanese with English SubtitlesDocumentary, Family, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers
Rated PG
A film that began over 15 years ago, Sing Me a Lullaby is a heartachingly touching story of a daughter’s attempt to piece together the missing parts in her mother’s history.
AWARDS
Short Cuts Share Her Journey Award, Toronto International Film Festival, 2020
Air Canada Short Film or Video Award, Reel Asian 2020
Tiffany Hsiung
Tiffany Hsiung is an international award-winning filmmaker based in Toronto, Canada. Her approach to storytelling is driven by the relationship that is built with the people she meets both in front and behind the lens.
12 Nov, 2020 10:00 am
to 19 Nov, 2020 11:59 pm
South Korea20198 minKorean with English SubtitlesCanadian PremiereAnimation, Documentary, Family, Open Captions, Women Filmmakers
Rated PG-13
Confronting patriarchy and societal gender norms aside, Tiger and Ox is about a fraught yet loving relationship between mother and daughter.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Festival Internacional de Cine de Huesca, 2020
Palm Springs International Shorts Fest, 2020
San Diego Asian Film Festival, 2020
Seunghee Kim
Seunghee Kim has pursued a career as an animation filmmaker since 2014. Her previous films Mirror in Mind and SimSim (The Realm of Deepest Knowing) won awards and screened at numerous international film festivals.
12 Nov, 2020 10:00 am
to 19 Nov, 2020 11:59 pm
Canada20194 minEnglishToronto PremiereDocumentary, Family
Rated PG
Drawing parallels between ikebana and finding belonging, Japanese Canadian elder Kaz Takahashi shares stories of her upbringing.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Seattle Asian American Film Festival, 2020
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, 2020
Alejandro Yoshizawa
Alejandro Yoshizawa is a filmmaker from Vancouver, British Columbia and currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Theatre and Film as well as the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies Program.
12 Nov, 2020 10:00 am
to 19 Nov, 2020 11:59 pm
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
