Canada202485 minEnglish, Cantonese and ToisaneseWorld PremiereAvailable Online, Directed By Women, Documentary, First Feature, History, Immigrant stories, Women Filmmakers
In 1923, Canada passed the ironically named Chinese Immigration Act — better known as the Chinese Exclusion Act — which for the next 24 years barred virtually any Chinese person from entering the country. They were the first ethnic group to be singled out in this way.
In her directorial debut, award-winning actor and playwright Keira Loughran traces her family’s history to show the act’s devastating impact on the Chinese community, focusing on her grandmother, activist Jean Lumb, who was the first Chinese Canadian woman to receive the Order of Canada. Among the many incidents igniting Lumb’s activism was the shocking revocation of her Canadian citizenship when she married Loughran’s Chinese-born grandfather — a lesser-known requirement of the act.
Loughran also connects Canada’s discriminatory practices to the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic, when China was blamed for the virus, ultimately revealing the strength and resilience of a community.
– Deanna Wong
Keira Loughran
Keira Loughran is a fourth-generation Chinese Canadian theatre artist and filmmaker who has tackled many creative projects that explore her cultural roots and reflect Canada’s multicultural past and present.
16 Nov, 2024 12:00 pm
TIFF Lightbox C3GA
Tickets for the in-cinema presentation have gone into advance rush. No more public advance tickets are available. Please join the rush line on the day of the screening when we will release unclaimed holds and reserves.
We can usually get everyone in the rush line in but rush tickets are strictly subject to availability and not guaranteed. Rush lines start an hour before the first screening of the day so the earlier you join the rush line the better your chances.
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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.
Information on available captions will be added soon, thank you for your patience.
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the screening with director Keira Loughran, producer Craig Thompson, and Helen Lee, a participant in the film.
At the heart of this captivating coming-of-age sports film is Ashley Chea, a Cambodian American basketball marvel whose high school career we follow. Hailing from a lower-class immigrant family that sought safety in the U.S. after the Khmer Rouge came to power, Chea is given the opportunity to attend a private school and thus pursue a coveted college basketball career. While her parents work vigorously at their doughnut store and can’t attend her games, Chea bonds with her Japanese American coach, who helps her with doctor's appointments and even attaining her driver’s licence.
This programme invites audiences into a storytelling dialogue between imagineNATIVE and Reel Asian on the solidarity between Indigenous and settler Asian people. Tenacious and confrontational, this collection transports resilience from the past and into the present.
Amir is an aspiring chef trying to get ahead, but he can’t seem to break out and meet his own expectations or those of his parents, while his favoured younger brother Mahyar can seemingly do no wrong. When news from Iran arrives that a family friend has died and passed his entire inheritance solely to Mahyar, the mystery of the gift’s provenance begins to unravel the family's story, the image of their parents, and the relationship between the two brothers.
USA202286 minutesEnglishCanadian PremiereDocumentary, Women Filmmakers
San Francisco, 1973. Chol Soo Lee, a young Korean American man, is charged and hastily convicted of murder in Chinatown. Only Lee wasn’t anywhere near the shooting. Marooned in prison, Lee’s case gains notoriety after journalist K.W. Lee’s investigative exposé, which inspires a new generation of Asian American activists to fight for Chol Soo Lee’s release in 1983.
But freedom is elusive in Julie Ha and Eugene Yi’s moving documentary, which covers the rise of a movement and the fall of a man too battered by prison to meet the expectations of him. Expertly layered with extensive archival footage of Lee and contemporary interviews with leaders of the freedom movement, Free Chol Soo Lee is at times a justice-system drama, and a character study—and always empathetic. And it resists the typical salaciousness of the “true crime” genre to show the true human impact, between despair and salvation, on a man yearning to be free.
- Aram Siu Wai Collier
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Sundance Film Festival, 2022
Busan International Film Festival, 2022
Julie Ha and Eugene Yi
Julie Ha’s storytelling career spans more than two decades, in both ethnic and mainstream media, with a specialized focus on Asian American stories. Free Chol Soo Lee marks her first documentary-film project.
Eugene Yi is a filmmaker, editor, and journalist. His film-editing work has premiered at the Berlinale, Sundance, Tribeca, and others.
11 Nov, 2022 6:15 pm
The screening for Free Chol Soo Lee will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox 3.
Rated PG
Content Warning: Violence, sexual violence, trauma
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the theatrical presentation with producer Su Kim.
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.
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.
Join us for a deep-rooted dive into Uprooted: The Plantemic, a show about houseplants surviving the pandemic. We’ll explore the narrative of this CBC Gem short-form series, the development from concept art to animation, and contextualize the series not only in its time, but also in contemporary conversations, as storytelling methods evolve. In an era of remote working, what would my houseplants think of me? Do they root for me? Find out from the creative team behind Uprooted.
Canada20213 minutesEnglishDocumentary, Experimental, Women Filmmakers
A fleeting and poetic retrospect of a young woman who develops a chronic illness.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and closed English subtitles digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Shubhi Sahni
Shubhi Sahni is an Indian Canadian filmmaker based in Los Angeles and Toronto. She makes intimate films in the space between documentary and fiction. Sahni is an Annenberg Fellow at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
This film is part of the Muscle Memory shorts programme.
Festival favourite Midnight Snack returns for another bite! This time, 2.0 features six talented female directors who cook up tales full of intrigue and awareness, boldly confronting themes that are often left indigestible.
Following three Muslim women activists who have come of age since 9/11, An Act of Worship is a unique glimpse into the lives of a new generation of American Muslims deeply impacted by over 40 years of history that has shaped their lives and trajectories in powerful and irreversible ways.
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, USA202210 minutesEnglish and Mandarin with English subtitlesDrama, Family, Women Filmmakers
In the face of uncontrollable sorrow, Bo desperately suppresses a “grief flower” sprouting from his face before his big speech at his father’s funeral.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Wendy Xu
Wendy Xu is a rising Chinese Canadian filmmaker whose narrative recipes never fail to include just a pinch of absurdity and humour.
This film is part of the Muscle Memory shorts programme.
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.
So You Think You Can Pitch is back in person for Reel Asian’s 26th annual festival! Catch the live showdown between finalists as they pitch their short-film projects to a jury for a chance to win our amazing prize package to kickstart or finish their film.
Following three Muslim women activists who have come of age since 9/11, An Act of Worship is a unique glimpse into the lives of a new generation of American Muslims deeply impacted by over 40 years of history that has shaped their lives and trajectories in powerful and irreversible ways.
Singapore202210 minutesEnglish and Mandarin with English subtitlesAnimation, Comedy, Women Filmmakers
Following three separate stories, four average Singaporeans encounter a sexual situation in the course of their day.
ACCESSIBILITY
This film is presented with open English subtitles in-person and digitally.
RATING
RATED PG
Content warning: Self-harm, blood, sexist language and situations, abortion, strobing lights
Calleen Koh
Calleen Koh is BAFTA-nominated animated-film director and artist from Singapore. She loves to make people laugh but also be disturbed by her sexy, manic, animated films.
This film is part of the Muscle Memory shorts programme.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
A recent report released by the DOC Institute points to the lack of data on funding for documentary content produced by Indigenous, Black or racialized filmmakers. This panel will discuss why it's important for agencies and broadcasters to collect and share race based data in order to achieve their stated equity goals. The panel will also analyze the stories and experiences shared by BIPOC filmmakers which speak of systemic barriers to funding.
This panel brings together Asian Canadian media producers to discuss the current Canadian film and TV landscape. They’ll discuss their path and expertise in producing stories across a variety of genres and formats. What are the stories they’re focused on producing? What is the role of producers in this current landscape, and what is being done to increase the number of projects produced by Asian creatives?
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.
Tune into this beloved section online to access free programming for all ages that will spark joy, inspire creativity, and encourage wonder.
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.
USA202282 minutesEnglish, Arabic with English subtitlesToronto PremiereDocumentary, Women Filmmakers
Following three Muslim women activists who have come of age since 9/11, An Act of Worship is a unique glimpse into the lives of a new generation of American Muslims deeply impacted by over 40 years of history that has shaped their lives and trajectories in powerful and irreversible ways.
Aber is a community organizer leading a sanctuary city initiative in New York. Khadega is finding her way while advocating for her community in Michigan. Ameena is a civil-rights lawyer in California navigating motherhood while fighting for change. Interwoven with their stories is a historical timeline skilfully combined with home movies to create a deeply moving and meaningful tapestry of shared trauma, culture, joy, and resistance. An Act of Worship is an emotional portrait about a community that has undergone enormous change, but one that is taking control of their narrative on a path towards power and defiance against further marginalization.
- Mariam Zaidi
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Tribeca Film Festival, 2022
Nausheen Dadabhoy
Nausheen Dadabhoy is a director and cinematographer whose work spans fiction and documentary. She has lensed an Oscar-nominated film, an Emmy-winning documentary, and films that have played at Sundance, TIFF, and Locarno, as well as on Al Jazeera, HBO, and PBS. Her directorial debut The Ground Beneath Their Feet premiered at IDFA.
13 Nov, 2022 3:00 pm
OnlineThe screening for An Act of Worship will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox 4.
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 closed captions digitally.
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the theatrical presentation with director Nausheen Dadabhoy
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.
So You Think You Can Pitch is back in person for Reel Asian’s 26th annual festival! Catch the live showdown between finalists as they pitch their short-film projects to a jury for a chance to win our amazing prize package to kickstart or finish their film.
Challenging norms, paving the road, and telling fresh stories, our Canadian Spotlight Artist program is dedicated to a member of the dynamic and talented Asian Canadian film community. This program celebrates a selected artist by activating their journey, process, and future works.
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.
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.
Challenging norms, paving the road, and telling fresh stories, our Canadian Spotlight Artist program is dedicated to a member of the dynamic and talented Asian Canadian film community. This program celebrates a selected artist by activating their journey, process, and future works.
Canada202289 minutesEnglishToronto PremiereDrama, Romance, Women Filmmakers
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. Her choice in partner, Carter Stone, an NHL player at a crossroads, is having an equally rough night. After an initial meet-cute and disastrous attempt at a hookup, the two walk Toronto’s wintry streets, wandering from bar to skating rink to office, slowly but surely finding common ground as the night progresses.
Kim’s Convenience’s Andrea Bang shines in a dramatic role as rigid Grace, whose acerbic stubbornness adds a bumbling comedy, as she learns where she can bend without breaking. The feature debut of veteran Canadian TV writer and director Renuka Jeyapalan, Stay The Night showcases delightfully familiar locals-only Toronto hangouts, while asking us to lose ourselves in a version of the city where a brief encounter doesn’t have to mean a transaction.
– Vidhya Elango
Andrea Bang
Joe Scarpellino
Humberly González
Raymond Ablack
OFFICIAL SELECTION
SXSW, 2022
Renuka Jeyapalan
Renuka Jeyapalan is a Toronto-based writer and director. Her shorts have screened at TIFF, Tribeca, and the Berlinale. She has directed episodes of Kim’s Convenience, Workin’ Moms, Sort Of, Children Ruin Everything, Son Of A Critch and the Netflix original series Ginny & Georgia. Her first feature, Stay The Night, premiered at South by Southwest.
The screening for Stay The Night will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox 3.
This feature film will also be shown as an online screening from Nov 14 – Nov 17.
Rated PG
Content Warning: Coarse language, smoking, drinking
This film is presented with open captions in-person and closed captions digitally.
Join us for a Q&A immediately after the theatrical presentation with director Renuka Jayapalan.
Six first-time and emerging filmmakers embarked on a summer-long filmmaking journey online with Reel Asian's Unsung Voices Youth Video Production Workshop. We’re proud to present their world premieres here.
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 this reflective documentary, director Quen Wong turns the lens toward the intimate and vulnerable in her own life as a trans woman in Singapore.
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.
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Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8 Canada
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info@reelasian.com
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