Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
506 Bloor St W
Please note this program is exclusively in-person. This event is a part of the Reel Ideas Symposium: Specificity Drives Authenticity programme.
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. Tết is the most important annual holiday in Vietnamese culture, gathering families and friends in the celebration to usher in the new year. This moderated discussion will explore the behind-the-scenes research and decisions made in authentically portraying the music, decor, food and celebrations of Tết in the Pham household, alongside the episode’s cultural consultant. What does authentic representation mean? What are considerations in representing the family values of a Southeast Asian-South Asian Canadian family?
Looking ahead to its season 2 premiere, the Run The Burbs team takes pause to provide audiences an opportunity to gather for an intimate screening and discussion about the series' thoughtful and inclusive approach to telling a family sitcom.
Mélanie Lê Phan
Current Production Executive, Comedy at CBC Television
Mélanie Lê Phan has worked for CBC Television in both Scripted and Unscripted programming since 2013. She is currently an Executive in Charge of Production for Scripted Digital Originals for CBC, overseeing production and development of mid-length series for CBC Gem and of social video series for CBC Comedy. She has worked on the most recent seasons of The Amazing Gayl Pile, How to Buy A Baby and My 90-Year-Old Roommate in addition to other digital scripted series. Mélanie has also worked on digital unscripted content, including the doc series Farm Crime and The Artists as well as several CBC Docs: Shorts one-offs.
Andrew Phung
Actor and Comedian, co-creator of RUN THE BURBS
Andrew Phung is an award-winning actor, improv comedian, emcee, and writer. His infectious and relatable personality has made him one of Canada’s top comedic performers. His work on KIM’S CONVENIENCE has earned him four Canadian Screen Awards (2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021) in the category of Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Andrew’s recent television and film credits include RUN THE BURBS, THE BEAVERTON, EVENTS TRANSPIRING, WYNONNA EARP, and factual series THE CANADIAN IMPROV GAMES, where he served as the host, and won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Host – Digital Series. He can also be heard on CBC Radio as a regular contributor to Now or Never, The Debaters, and Because News. He is a father it to wonderful boys, husband to the amazing Tamara, and proud owner of over 500 sneakers…seriously.
Rakhee Morzaria
Comedian, Actor and Writer
Rakhee Morzaria is an actress and comedian who produced, wrote, and starred in the Canadian Screen Award and Canadian Comedy Award nominated web-series, NOTE TO SELF about the daily adventures of an overconfident second-generation millennial.
Rakhee has performed at the Toronto Fringe Festival, Toronto Sketchfest, SheDot Festival, Hart House Theatre and Bad Dog Theatre. She is a graduate of Factory Theatre’s artistic training program, Second City’s Conservatory, the Second City Bob Curry Fellowship Program, and she has performed in various shows with the company. Her on-screen credits include Global TV’s PRIVATE EYES, FX’s WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, and HUDSON & REX.
Her comedy has been featured at the WIFT-T showcase, Atlantic Film Festival, and the National Screen Institute’s Film Festival.
Aleysa Young
Director
Aleysa Young made her television debut directing the first season of The Baroness Von Sketch Show. She directed and executive produced New Eden (Crave) and has worked on multiple comedies including Workin’ Moms (CBC), Cavendish (CBC), Kim’s Convenience (CBC), Ginny and Georgia (Netflix), and the finale episodes of Brendar the Barbarian (Nick) and Strays (CBC).
Her work has garnered numerous awards and nominations, including Canadian Screen Awards, Directors Guild of Canada, and Canadian Comedy Awards.
Her most recent projects include The Kids In the Hall reboot (Amazon), and Run the Burbs (CBC) in which she was producing director and EP.
In addition to her commercial work, she’s also working on a film about small town Chinese restaurants based on the novel Chop Suey Nation by Ann Hui.
She is a co-founder of Hire Higher, an organization focused on connecting BIPOC focused film initiatives, foundations, and talent with the commercial production industry through outreach, education, advocacy and mentorship.
If there’s a spare moment, she’s updating the Listings List, a curated collection of Craigslistings.
Joyce Wong
Director
Vinh Nguyen
Cultural Consultant
19 Nov, 2022 7:00 pm
to 9:00 pm
Hot Docs Ted Rogers CinemaHot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
506 Bloor St W
Please note this program is exclusively in-person. This event is a part of the Reel Ideas Symposium: Specificity Drives Authenticity programme.
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.
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.
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.
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. These conversations offer insights and tools to help future generations build their own storytelling skills, allowing them to share confidently.
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. This event is FREE.
SUN NOV 13 AT 3:00 PM
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?
MON NOV 14 at 4:30 PM
Asian Canadian comics will discuss the ways they’ve broken down barriers to tell their jokes to a wide audience on stage, in sketches, and on film and TV. Together, they’ll discuss their individual approaches to the craft, how they navigate stereotypes, personal experiences in their work, and how comedy has allowed them to challenge, explore, and find comfort in their identities.
TUES NOV 15 at 4:30 PM
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.
WED NOV 16 at 4:30 PM
THIS EVENT IS IN-PERSON ONLY. 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.
THURS NOV 17 at 2:30 PM
Join us for a deep-rooted dive into Uprooted: The Plantemic, a show about houseplants surviving the pandemic, with us. 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.
FRI NOV 18 at 4:30 PM
THIS EVENT IS IN-PERSON ONLY. 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. Tết is the most important annual holiday in Vietnamese culture, gathering families and friends in the celebration to usher in the new year. This moderated discussion will explore the behind-the-scenes research and decisions made in authentically portraying the music, decor, food and celebrations of Tết in the Pham household, alongside the episode’s cultural consultant.
SAT NOV 19 at 7:00 PM
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.
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. Cheer on the dedication and creativity of emerging filmmakers and support the future of Asian Canadian cinema—or learn some tips and tricks for when it’s you up there.
Pitch Winner Prize Package
Pitch Finalist Package
Yazmeen Kanji
Filmmaker
Pitch Project Title: One Day
Yazmeen Kanji is a Muslim Indo-Caribbean filmmaker, the Advocacy and Outreach Lead at BIPOC TV & Film, as well as the founder of Films With A Cause. Her first funded film, With Love From Munera (2020), premiered at the Inside Out Film Festival, screened at TIFF Next Wave and the Reel Asian Film Festival and won the 2021 Breakthroughs Film Festival Audience Choice Award. Yazmeen is in development on her first feature supported by the Hot Docs Cross Currents Fund.
Carol Nguyen
Director
Pitch Project Title: Beyond Borders
Carol Nguyen is a Vietnamese Canadian filmmaker, born and raised in Toronto, now based in Montreal. Her films often explore the subjects of cultural identity, silence and memory. Her latest film “Nanitic” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2022 and was awarded the IMDBPro Share Her Journey Award. Her prior film, “No Crying at the Dinner Table”, also premiered at TIFF in 2019 and had its international premiere at IDFA 2019, where she was additionally invited as the Opening Night speaker. In 2020, “No Crying” also received the Jury Prize for Short Documentary at SXSW. Carol is a 2018 Sundance Ignite fellow and a IDFA Space Project 2022 lab participant for her project “The Visitors”. Today, Carol is writing and directing several projects, including two feature films as well as an animated short.
Alice Wang
Filmmaker
Pitch Project Title: Family Business
Alice Wang is a Chinese-Canadian writer and director based in Toronto. ¼ of Videatur Collective, they’re passionate about supporting youth from QTBIPOC communities in filmmaking. An RBC Emerging Director’s Award recipient and winner of the Regent Park Film Festival Pitch Competition, they gravitate towards stories about loss, acceptance, and belonging.
Eman Ayaz
Filmmaker, Director
Pitch Project Title: You Are Not A Muslim
Eman Ayaz is a Pakistani multidisciplinary artist who first joined the film industry as an actor. She plays a series lead in CBC Gem’s Homeschooled and released her first original EP in April. More recently, she discovered the world of documentary as a way of exploring questions about her own conflicting identities as a queer Muslim living in Canada. She hopes that through her work she can create meaningful dialogue and give a voice to the rich and diverse Muslim communities in North America.
Reşat Fuat Çam
Filmmaker
Pitch Project Title: The Art of Vanishing
Reşat Fuat Çam is a film scholar, filmmaker and visual artist based in Canada. Exploring the intersection of moving image technology, philosophy and critical theory, his work combines academic research practices with artistic experiments. He received his doctoral degree in Cinema and Media Studies from York University, Toronto in 2019. His most recent short fiction film Coal (2020) has been screened and won awards internationally. He is currently a post-doc researcher at Kadir Has University working on VR.
Rabiya Mansoor
Screenwriter, Actor, Comedian, Producer
Victoria Morado
Media Director, Universal Films Canada
Victoria Morado is the Director of Media for Universal Films Canada, responsible for assisting in the strategic development and execution of all the advertising and promotional initiatives for the studio’s slate. Recent releases include Easter Sunday, NOPE, Jurassic World Dominion and Bros. Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Victoria was Traffic Manager at Maxus Canada, where she led the traffic team for diverse studio products including Jurassic World, the Fast & Furious franchise and Despicable Me.
Farah Abdo
Producer
Farah Abdo is a Filipina Palestinian filmmaker based in the GTA. She graduated from Centennial College’s Broadcasting and Film Program after completing her internship in Manila at ABS-CBN. Although she works in film full time, she is always producing multiple projects on the side headed by BIPOC and queer creatives. She produced the short film A Lonely Afternoon which premiered at the 24th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.
Shazia Javed
Founder and Producer, LifeSketch Media
Shazia Javed is the Founder, Producer & Content-Creator at LifeSketch Media, a production company that is committed to nuanced storytelling & perspectives from historically marginalized communities. Her documentary, 3 Seconds Divorce streamed worldwide on Netflix, won the Reelworld Audience Choice Award and was invited for impact screenings across the globe. Her docu-short, Namrata was produced by the National Film Board and was a finalist for 3 AMPIA awards. Shazia’s work has screened at prestigious film festivals such as Hot Docs, Doxa, MIFF and Durban International among others. She is an alumna of Banff Spark Accelerator for Women in the Business of Media; Reelworld E20; Women in Director’s Chair; BIPOC Film & TV Showrunner’s bootcamp; and the DOC Breakthrough program where she won the pitch prize sponsored by Rogers Media and CBC. She has garnered support from Canadian and international broadcasters and various arts councils for her projects. Shazia is an inductee of Playback’s 10 to watch. She is currently working on a robust slate of projects that include the webseries, Second Chance, Hina!
Rahul Chaturvedi
Director-Writer
A graduate of the prestigious Canadian Film Centre (CFC), Rahul Chaturvedi is an Indian-Canadian filmmaker who enjoys telling heartfelt, hopeful, whimsical stories of underrepresented groups. His award winning film FORBIDDEN TIKKA MASALA was licensed by CBC, TIFF Digital Platform, Air Canada, and Omeleto. He recently worked on STATION ELEVEN as a script consultant and dialect coach. He has also been in writers rooms for shows developed by CBC Gem, Rogers, Crave, and PBS.
Kyle Credo
Filmmaker
Kyle Credo, is a Filipino-Canadian filmmaker. He wrote and directed children’s programming in Taiwan that ranged from short films to travel shows. His latest short, A Two (2022), was shot with a $50 budget, a crew of three and has premiered at Bali’s International Short Film Festival. His short before that, A Lonely Afternoon (2020), was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and has won multiple awards at festivals around the world.
Samir Ballou
Industry and Education Programmer, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Samir is a screenwriter, educator, and film festival coordinator based in Toronto. He is determined to help develop the voices of Asian Canadian and marginalized storytellers and give the community opportunities to showcase their projects with Reel Asian.
Janet-Rose Nguyen
Actor, Writer, and Creator
Janet-Rose Nguyen is an award-winning actress and writer. Her work explores magic, horror, feminism, queerness, and the Asian diaspora. She is the co-chair of the ACTRA Diversity and Inclusion committee, serves on ACTRA council, and is an alumnus of the Reelworld Emerging 20 Program, the Canadian Film Centre’s CBC Actors Conservatory, and served on the Bursary committee of Firefly Creative Writing. She is currently the Writer in Residence with INKSpire Org. Her films have been featured with the National Screen Institute and Myseum Toronto. Janet-Rose loves to paint, collage, and cuddle with her tailless cat and is completing her Screenwriting and Creative Writing degree. She has appeared in film on The Boys, Workin’ Moms, and the pilot Dream Date.
Michael Fukushima
Producer
In his 38-year career, Michael Fukushima has been an animator and filmmaker, with 30 of those years as a producer at and head of the National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Studio. He’s a member of the AMPAS® Academy, with over 200 films (and a few nice awards) under his belt. He has produced three Oscar-nominated animation shorts and executive produced a fourth. Now mostly retired, Fukushima skis, cycles, and cherry-picks projects that interest him from filmmakers he admires.
13 Nov, 2022 3:00 pm
to 5:00 pm
The Paradise TheatreDoors open at 2:30
The Paradise Theatre
1006c Bloor St W
Toronto
Free tickets will be distributed on a first-come basis and are subject to availability. This event has open seating.
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”.
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.
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.
See the city in a new light! Reel Asian is thrilled to partner with the City of Toronto’s BigArtTo, a city-wide initiative involving large-scale projections across 25 wards in the city, to represent Routes & Rituals. Mark your calendars for November 17 to 20 as Routes & Rituals will be projected onto Fairview Library from 5pm to 8pm.
Routes & Rituals is originally a program contributed to Critical Distance Centre for Curator’s large-scale durational project Phase I of Place Settings. The program features video-based works by artists Nelson Wu, Farrah Miranda, and Basil AlZeri who approach food through bodied, material sites that reflect our relationships to one another, the land, and ourselves. These works expand beyond food as the act of consumption, contemplating varying pathways food is brought into existence, whether through kitchen utensils from a beloved store, repetition and stillness in sites of food preparation, or collective movement as resistance. Beyond the content, the respective formats of each video-based work further interrogate and negotiate the complexity and fluidity of food relationships.
Looking to see more? Viewable online alongside the works are in-depth artists talks that share further insight on the process, themes, and reflections of the project. Audio description are available for all works and Q&As for free online through VUCAVU.
Nelson Wu
Artist, Tuesday
Nelson Wu is a Chinese Canadian artist who creates pixel art and illustration. Graduating from OCAD University, he is currently working in the video game and entertainment industry. He has produced a variety of illustrations, pixel art, and animations. He is inspired by his experiences in Asia; a sense of nostalgia and surrealism are often themes present in the work.
Farrah Miranda
Artist, Speaking Fruit
Born in the Gulf to parents who were migrant workers, Farrah Miranda’s lived experience has confronted her with the way people, places, objects and experiences are bordered. This inspires aspects of Miranda’s artistic practice in which she questions how borders are enacted through processes of categorization, securitization, censorship and control.
Moving between the gallery and the public sphere, Miranda creates situations that actively engage the viewer. With mediums that range from manipulated found objects to performance, installation and new media, she experiments with the pedagogical possibilities of art in undoing colonial borders, citizenships and illegalities.
Basil AlZeri
Artist, a recipe for a bleeding heart
Basil AlZeri is a cross-disciplinary visual artist living and working between Toronto and Waterloo region, Canada. AlZeri’s practice involves the intersection of art, education, and food, taking multiple forms, such as performance, drawing, video, and ephemeral installation. His ongoing research and practice examine the politics and significance of work in our lives. Issues he addresses include professionalization, careerism, emotional/immaterial/unrecognized labour, and the co-optation of relational practices by socially engaged art. AlZeri’s work has been exhibited in Amman, Dubai, Halifax, Mexico City, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, Regina, Rome, Santiago, Tartu and Toronto.
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
