Taiwan, UK2018 6:00No dialogue2slgbtq+, Animation, Available Online, Experimental, Gay, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Non-binary, Queer, Transgender
Comprising over 2,000 hand-painted frames, Adorable presents a journey of a queer person, illustrating modern queer society, where discrimination, freedom, and love coexist.
IN PERSON: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).
ONLINE: This film is fully captioned in closed captions (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).
Cheng-Hsu Chung
Cheng-Hsu Chung is a Taiwanese animation artist and director based in Berlin. Chung’s artistic practice focuses on surreal images and character performances in animation to articulate the changing nature of emotion, modern love, and the experiences queer bodies encounter.
6 Nov, 2025 8:30 pm
TIFF Lightbox C4PG
CONTENT ADVISORY
depictions of animated sex and intimacy
U.K.202499 minEnglish, ArabicToronto Premiere2slgbtq+, Drama, First Feature, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Romance
Layla is a struggling Palestinian drag queen who often finds creative ways to make ends meet, surrounded by a small, supportive group of close friends within the North London queer scene. A stuffy corporate event performance goes terribly wrong, making Layla and their outrageous antics go viral, and they meet the seemingly-dull-in-comparison marketing executive Max. Despite their very different worlds, a transformative love affair ensues, much to the annoyance of their close friends, who are highly skeptical of how healthy or affirming this relationship could possibly be.
Amrou Al-Kadhi’s assured direction shines just as brightly as Bilal Hasna’s breakout performance in this fun, flashy, and tender directorial debut packed with the catchiest club hits and an abundance of sparkles. As a complicated and lovable Layla navigates familial expectations, close friendships, and their own identity, what emerges is a proud queer love story that at its core celebrates self-love, freedom, and community.
– Mariam Zaidi
Bilal Hasna
Louis Greatorex
Safiyya Ingar
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Sundance, 2024
BFI London, 2024
Vancouver Queer, 2024
Amrou Al-Kadhi
Amrou Al-Kadhi is a writer, performer, and filmmaker. Al-Kadhi has written episodes for Little America (Apple TV), The Watch (BBC America), Hollyoaks (Channel 4), and has several TV shows and feature films in development. Al-Kadhi’s drag show, GLAMROU, recently had a sell-out run at the Soho Theatre. It received rave reviews and will continue to tour next year.
15 Nov, 2024 8:00 pm
TIFF Lightbox C3AA
CONTENT ADVISORY
Nudity, coarse language; depictions of sex
–
This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated). Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
After a mysterious encounter leaves her daughter Sumi in a coma, Sara rushes from South Korea to Winnipeg to be by her side. As Sumi heals, Sara begins to unpack details of her life that her daughter never shared with her. On a mission to find a husband to take care of Sumi when she wakes, Sara ventures into the daunting unknowns of dating apps and Winnipeg winters, and finds out more about herself than she planned.
Sit in on this exclusive screening and deep dive of LATE BLOOMER, the groundbreaking series from the creative mind of Jasmeet Raina (Jus Reign). Centred on Jasmeet Dutta's life, the show unpacks family expectations, intergenerational relationships, and racial identity in ways rarely seen on Canadian TV. We’ll screen Episode 1: "Nudes" and Episode 4: "The Turban," offering a glimpse into Jasmeet’s complex journey as he navigates personal desires that go against familial pressures. Stick around to hear from the creative team about how Late Bloomer has landed in the community, and how it will continue to shape these conversations in real life.
Deep in debt, with a house and a university-bound kid, plus a marriage on the rocks, reformed gambler Lucky sees his luck run out after getting scammed in a tax-fraud scheme. Ashamed and desperate to keep it from his family, he returns to underground backroom gambling dens, playing for big payouts to relieve the debt and win back his family’s favour. Meanwhile, each family member, unaware of Lucky’s troubles but feeling the money crunch, too, resorts to unsavoury means to dig out of their hole.
Indonesia2022Indonesian and other languages with English subtitlesAnimation, Drama, Experimental, Family, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Women Filmmakers
S-Express is a short film program exchange initiated in 2002 by Yuni Hadi (Singapore), Amir Muhammad (Malaysia) and Chalida Uabumrungjit (Thailand), featuring regional programming from South East Asia. This annual collaboration offers insight into the development of filmmaking talent and abundance of complex storytelling from each participating region. This year, Reel Asian spotlights S-Express Indonesia programmed by Fransiska Prihadi of Minikino, featuring five short films with the hopes of recharging your festival experience.
Indonesia202120 minutesMakassarese and Indonesian with English subtitles
In a city where “men” are fanatics about football, Akbar is compelled to pretend he loves the game to avoid being rejected by his new college friends.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Gender and queer violence, sexist language and situations, coarse language, strobing lights
Khozy Rizal
Khozy Rizal is a filmmaker based in Makassar, Indonesia. In 2020, he founded Hore Pictures, an independent production house that has produced several short films.
Indonesia2021 22 minJavanese with English subtitles
Trapped in his past, an old man steals an army uniform to chase away the ghosts that terrorize his long nights.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and closed English subtitles digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Violence, trauma, death, blood, extreme audio
Christian Banisrael
Born in Indonesia, Christian Banisrael directed his first short film Mist of the Past (2018), which premiered at the 2019 Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Indonesia202015 minBahasa with English subtitlesDrama
Nur’s husband, who had previously left for Malaysia as a migrant worker, returns home in an unexpected condition.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Trauma
Muhammad Heri Fadli
Born in Central Lombok, Indonesia, Muhammad Heri Fadli began his career as a filmmaker in 2013. Since then, Fadli has directed over 10 short films in seven years.
Indonesia202117 minIndonesian with English subtitlesDrama
Sura is a young boy who lives in a fishing village. One day he finds a broken sex doll washed ashore and tries to fix it.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Violence
Tumpal Tampubolon
Holding a bachelor’s degree in math, Tumpal Tampubolon has written and directed several short films, which have screened in various domestic and international film festivals.
Indonesia20217 minutesIndonesian with English subtitlesAnimation
The Archipelago brings together the perspectives of four Indonesian filmmakers as they interpret contemporary Indonesian society.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Azalia Muchransyah and Firman Widyasmara
Azalia Muchransyah is a filmmaker, writer, and scholar from Indonesia with a Ph.D. in Media Study from the University at Buffalo (SUNY). She currently teaches at Binus University film program in Alam Sutera.
Firman Widyasmara was an illustrator and a bank analyst before becoming an animator in 2005. Together with colleagues, he founded Lanting Animation, a collective community animation house.
Fransiska Prihadi
Guest Programmer
Fransiska Prihadi is program director of Minikino since 2015. She is an architect and co-founder of the art-house cinema MASH Denpasar. She has served as guest programmer, preselections committee & jury for various national and international short film festivals, with experience as facilitator and mentor for filmmaking and film critics workshops.
12 Nov, 2022 12:00 pm
Innis Town HallThe free screening for S-Express: Indonesia will be shown at Innis Town Hall.
This shorts programme will also be shown as an online screening from Nov 14 – 20.
Rated PG
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the theatrical presentation with attending guests from this shorts programme, moderated by Kelly Lui.
CBC and Reel Asian are proud to present a special evening celebrating the traditions and spirit of Tết beautifully shown in “Li Xi”, season 1, episode 9 of Run The Burbs.
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.
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”.
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.
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”.
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. This feature film will also be shown as an online screening.
In a crucial feminist interrogation of inter-Korean politics and U.S. imperialism, Crossings follows international women activists attempting to cross the 38th parallel, demanding an end to the ongoing Korean War. This film is free and also available online.
Singapore202171 minutesEnglish, Malay, Cantonese, Hokkien with English subtitles North American PremiereDocumentary, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Women Filmmakers
In this reflective documentary, director Quen Wong turns the lens toward the intimate and vulnerable in her own life as a trans woman in Singapore, making time and space to honour acts of looking and being seen, moments of being fearful and working to communicate, and reflecting on past decisions in order to make new ones. Though gentle and quiet, these gestures are powerfully earnest, and refreshingly honest.
Against the context of a conservative nation-state, Some Women also uses dialogue and gathering to address a fuller spectrum of queer life on the island, threading Wong own story with recollections and perspectives from other generations of trans women, through the accompaniment of Sanisa and Lune Loh. These moments in the film archive and celebrate trans and queer folks’ evolving strategies for survival, protest, celebration, and continuance. Through Some Women, Wong practices vulnerability so as to request it from others, and celebrates herself so she can celebrate others. The lens is up close and personal, enmeshed fully in the act of bearing witness.
- Jasmine Gui
Lune Loh
Sanisa
Quen Wong
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Singapore International Film Festival, 2021
Sheffield DocFest, 2022
AWARDS
Audience Award – Singapore International Film Festival, 2021
Quen Wong
Quen Wong is Singapore’s first openly trans woman filmmaker, and Some Women is her first feature film. It was a recipient of the Tan Ean Kiam Foundation – SGIFF Southeast Asian Documentary Grant in 2019 and the IDFA Project Award at Docs by the Sea in 2020. It also won the coveted Audience award at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2021.
12 Nov, 2022 2:00 pm
TIFF Bell Lightbox 3The screening for Some Women 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 captions in-person and digitally.
Brothers Saud and Nadeem live in a working-class, predominantly Muslim neighbourhood in New Delhi, where they have made it their lives’ work to care for injured black kites falling from the polluted skies of the city.
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.
Missed chances, unspoken conversations, fated meetings, connections sparked in the most unexpected places: these shorts delve into the weight of all our relations in their fullness and in their absence.
Canada, Sri Lanka, UK202167 minutesTamil, Urdu, English with English subtitlesDocumentary, Experimental, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers
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. As their personal lives unfold on camera, the lines between rehearsal and reality, location and distance, and self and other seem to dissipate. The couple’s conversations are interwoven with the director’s own reflections, connecting dots from each of their specific experiences and reference points.
By choosing to look at the personal and political through the framework of quantum physics, director Sharlene Bamboat draws connections between British colonialism and Indian nationalism, tracing the impact these distinct histories and realities have on queer art, politics, poetry, dance, and music. From landmark pieces of music and poetry composed by revolutionary figures to more contemporary works, the film shows us the politicization of South Asian pop culture and the possibilities of its reclamation.
- Mariam Zaidi
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, 2021
Berlin International Film Festival, 2022
Sharlene Bamboat
Sharlene Bamboat is a moving-image and installation artist based in Tio’tia:ke (Montreal). Her practice often engages with translation, history, and music, uncovering sensory and fractured ways of knowing. Bamboat’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Art of the Real, Sharjah Film Platform, and Henry Art Gallery.
12 Nov, 2022 4:45 pm
OnlineThe screening for If From Every Tongue It Drips will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox 4. This feature film will also be shown as an online screening from Nov 12 – Nov 20
Rated PG
This film is presented with open captions in-person and digitally.
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the theatrical presentation with director Sharlene Bamboat.
Hye-jeong leaves a protest group of closely knit families, mourning the victims of an industrial accident, to which she also lost her husband.
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.
Set in the 1990s, South Korean immigrant and single mother So-young looks to make a fresh start in a West Coast Canadian suburb with her son Dong-hyun.
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.
9 Nov, 2022
to 20 Nov, 2022
OnlineG
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is available with closed English subtitles digitally.
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.
Hye-jeong leaves a protest group of closely knit families, mourning the victims of an industrial accident, to which she also lost her husband.
Considering the need to keep creating within Asian Canadian cinema, this panel gathers filmmakers and artists to discuss the implications, complexities, and pressure one might face when delivering their second artistic work. Together, they offer tips, anecdotes, and lessons learned in bringing their stories into the foreground for the second time around.
Kiran, a first-generation Punjabi truck driver, is about to become a father, but he is preoccupied by questions and reflections on family, fatherhood, and responsibility.
Canada, Iran, USA72 minutesEnglish and other languages with English subtitlesAnimation, Documentary, Drama, Experimental, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Women Filmmakers
Missed chances, unspoken conversations, fated meetings, connections sparked in the most unexpected places: these shorts delve into the weight of all our relations in their fullness and in their absence.
Canada202216 minutesEnglish, Arabic and French with English subtitlesDrama, Family
Amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Montreal, Leila, who has been keeping a secret from her family, finds herself in a predicament after her father falls ill and she is called back home.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Death
Farhad Pakdel
Farhad Pakdel is a Montreal-based filmmaker whose work explores identity (de)construction, liminality, absence, place, and memory.
USA20228:00EnglishDrama, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Romance, Women Filmmakers
Maggie and Celine meet in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant while having dinner with their respective families.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Emily Jampel
Based in New York City, Emily Jampel is a filmmaker from Oʻahu who currently works as a development executive at the Oscar-nominated and Peabody Award-winning production company, the Department of Motion Pictures.
Canada20229 minutesEnglish, Japanese with English SubtitlesAnimation, Documentary, Women Filmmakers
Filmmaker Natalie Murao asks her mother, “Why have I never liked tomatoes?” It’s a simple question that leads to an unearthing of a Japanese Canadian fisherman’s story during the World War 2 internment.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English & Japanese subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Trauma, racist situation
Natalie Murao
Natalie Murao is a Yonsei filmmaker and educator from unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) territories, whose work explores themes of generational disconnect, personal memory, and communication.
Iran202110 minutesPersian with English subtitlesComedy, Drama, Women Filmmakers
A young boy feels obliged to write a will for a dying woman who lives alone.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Death and dying
Ilnaz Kheyrkhah
Born in Iran, Ilnaz Kheyrkhah has a law degree from the International University of Ghazvin. Company is her first film.
Canada202213 minutesEnglish and Tagalog with English subtitlesDrama, Family, Women Filmmakers
Musician and songwriter Kimmortal stars as Gracie who meets the younger version of herself as the two share a common thread.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Stephanie Sy
Stephanie Sy is a Filipino Chinese Canadian artist born and raised on Treaty 1 Winnipeg. Knots is Sy’s debut work as a writer and director.
Canada202220:00English and Urdu with English subtitlesComedy, Drama, Family, Sci-fi
When Imran suddenly loses his dad, an opportunity to travel back in time for an evening gives him a chance to face him again.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Kashif Pasta
Kashif Pasta is an award-winning director, writer, and producer using film and storytelling to tell character-driven stories centered on South Asian and Muslims with a sense of joy and wonder.
12 Nov, 2022 7:00 pm
OnlineThe screening for Encounters 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 Kelly Lui.
Following her previous basketball documentary Finding Big Country (2018), Kat Jayme embarks on an equally quixotic journey to find out why the Grizzlies abandoned Vancouver.
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.
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.
USA20228:00EnglishDrama, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Romance, Women Filmmakers
Maggie and Celine meet in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant while having dinner with their respective families.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Emily Jampel
Based in New York City, Emily Jampel is a filmmaker from Oʻahu who currently works as a development executive at the Oscar-nominated and Peabody Award-winning production company, the Department of Motion Pictures.
This film is a part of the Encounters shorts programme.
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
