Canada, Pakistan202189 minUrdu, English with English subtitlesNorth American PremiereDocumentary, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers

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.

Using observational footage of heated organizing conversations and extensive coverage of the movement and its backlash across 11 cities, Abbas constructs a layered narrative, astutely tracing state suppression of women’s resistance in Pakistan to the damage caused by its colonial past. This Stained Dawn (Dagh Dagh Ujala), which borrows its title from a verse by revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz about the tainted dawn after a violent partition, is a powerful record of a turning point in Pakistan’s history, as one of the most urgent displays of large-scale feminist organizing gains remarkable momentum and promise.

- Mariam Zaidi

South Korea2021115 minKorean with English subtitlesDrama, Reel Asian Award Winner

Mi-yeon seems to be living the perfect life as a choirmaster and the wife of a successful man. In comparison, her sisters Hee-sook and Mi-ok seem to be miserable, making Mi-yeon frustrated. But in the shadow behind her perfect smile, Mi-yeon’s also suffering from the three sisters’ shared childhood trauma that they’ve yet to come to terms with. On the day of their father’s birthday, the monstrous truth breaks free from its bubble, leading to turmoil.

Three Sisters is an emotional rollercoaster that samples contemporary Korean society. It critically questions how domestic violence, childhood trauma, and social standing are both seen and overlooked through the stories of the three unique characters. Moon So-ri, an award-winning actress and the film’s co-producer, plays Mi-yeon in a rare and strong women-led film with a cathartic ending.

- June Kim

Taiwan202045 minTaiwanese Mandarin with English subtitlesToronto PremiereDrama, Reel Asian Award Winner

In a society different from what we know, a hotel in Taipei welcomes suicidal people and assists them in committing the act by providing several methods that they can choose from. Over the course of one night, a receptionist starts to defy the rules and develops an unusual friendship with a hotel guest who can't make up her mind on whether she wants to live or die. 

Thoughtful and poetic, Taipei Suicide Story uses a few glimpses of grim dystopia to enforce transcendental and deeply human connections. The narrative explores the suffocating sensation of loneliness with a casual, empathetic and sweet approach, thus removing the social stigma and neutralizing the fleeting experiences between the two characters. KEFF's new film reflects on the mundanity of existence, the possibility of death or the opportunities of life, and the gift of choice—and the difference it makes.

- Roland Basmayor

USA202189 minEnglishDrama, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers

After being met with the destabilizing news of her parents’ divorce, Angie, a teenage, mixed-race Asian girl, reckons with her multiracial identity and sexual awakening in this quirky coming-of-age story. Her Asian-ness is called to question when her Chinese father begins dating a Chinese woman with a daughter who shares his culture and language. Angie’s feelings of inadequacy are met with her white-dominated surroundings in Galveston, Texas, fetishizing her mixed-race identity. 

Angie, an unpopular highschooler, secretly ignites a sexual relationship with Liam, an all-American popular high school boy. She questions her morality when she befriends Sheryl, Liam’s popular Instagram-influencer girlfriend. Inbetween Girl explores Angie’s journey of girlhood using a whimsical variety of animation and mixed-media to explore her teenage angst, looking at young love, race, desire and belonging. 

- Sarah Barzak

Malaysia, USA202114 min EnglishInternational PremiereDocumentary, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Non-binary Filmmakers, Reel Asian Award Winner

Combining multiple artistic formats, this intimate portrait is a transnational meditation through time and space of an international art student studying abroad in the United States.

Accessibility

This presentation has English subtitles.

Directors Bio

Emory Chao Johnson

Emory Chao Johnson (they/them) is an artist settled on the land of the Tongva working primarily in documentary filmmaking. Their approach to documentary is grounded in empathy and compassion.

Canada202011 minNo dialogueAnimation, Family, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers

Oscillating between the past and the present, a woman sits in a hospital room, alone with her dying father.

Directors Bio

Jordan Canning, Howie Shia

Jordan Canning, a graduate of the Directors’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre, has made more than a dozen short films.

Howie Shia is an illustrator, animator, writer, and director whose work combines a love for ancient mythologies with a fascination for modern urban environments.

Canada20215 minEnglish, Cantonese with English subtitlesCanadian PremiereDocumentary, LGBTQ+ Filmmakers, Non-binary Filmmakers, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers

Highlighting the rich tenacity of Toronto’s East Chinatown community, this film explores the area’s people, sidewalks, and businesses, giving voice to their experiences of community, identity, anxieties, and hopes for the future.

Accessibility

This presentation has English subtitles.

This presentation has open captions.

Directors Bio

Amanda Ann-Min Wong

Amanda Ann-Min Wong (she/they) is a Toronto-based film director, writer, sound artist, and musician exploring themes of loss, nostalgia, and memory, as well as finding purpose and community through the arts.

Canada202113 minEnglish, Chinese with English subtitles World PremiereDrama, Family, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers

Struggling with finding her artistic voice, Jessie is an aspiring photographer and art student trying to balance her role as a daughter in her larger family.

Directors Bio

Alice Charlie Liu

Alice Charlie Liu is a photographer, designer, and director based in Toronto and New York City. She is an alumni of TIFF Next Wave, Telluride Film Festival’s Student Symposium, and a Tribeca Film Institute Film Fellow.

USA202083 minEnglish, Cantonese, Mandarin with English SubtitlesDocumentary, Reel Asian Award Winner, Women Filmmakers

ONLY AVAILABLE IN ONTARIO

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

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.