How are we tied to the spaces we inhabit? These shorts consider our impact and influence on the environments we move through, and simultaneously how these spaces inform and shape our actions.
MOTHER TONGUES: THE JOURNEY OF TAM GOOSSEN
Cailleah Scott-Grimes • Canada • 2019 • 22:00 • English • World Premiere • Documentary
This film follows the story of Tam Goossen, a Chinese-Canadian community activist and organizer who advocated for the Heritage Language program as a TDSB school board trustee in the 1990s.
Cailleah Scott-Grimes* is a Toronto-based film director dedicated to inspiring confidence in people whose stories often go untold. She holds an honours BA in East Asian Studies and Visual Studies from the University of Toronto.
* In attendance
THE ZOO
Julia Kwan • Canada • 2019 • 11:39 • English • Other • Animation / Drama
Tuk and a baby polar bear’s life seem entwined as they both witness the gradual changes in their living environment.
Julia Kwan is a Vancouver-based filmmaker who studied film at Ryerson University and was a director resident at the Canadian Film Centre where she made her award-winning short, Three Sisters on Moon Lake. In 2005, Kwan made her feature film debut with Eve and the Firehorse. The film premiered at TIFF and played at Sundance, where it won the coveted Special Jury Prize for World Cinema.
CELESTE AND MOULEE TILL THE END OF THE WORLD
Celeste Koon • Canada • 2019 • 12:47 • English • Canadian Premiere • Comedy / Sci-Fi
Celeste and her rabbit Moulee somehow wake up in the aftermath of an apocalyptic catastrophe. Now what?
Celeste Koon* is a fun and adventurous filmmaker known for her creative mixed media style. She has written, directed, and produced a number of short narrative films which have gotten into festivals across the globe including TIFF Kids, Clermont Ferrand, and Cinekid.
* In attendance
WORTH
Meelad Moaphi • Canada, Pakistan • 2019 • 13:50 • Urdu with English Subtitles • World Premiere • Drama
A single father struggles with the decision to sell his infant baby for money so he can safely escape with his daughter.
Toronto filmmaker Meelad Moaphi* is a BFA (’10) and MFA (’19) graduate of York University’s Film Production program. His works have screened internationally, including at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Montreal World Film Festival. Moaphi’s unique international upbringing has informed his culturally diverse body of work, which include pieces in English, Spanish, and even Farsi and Japanese. Worth — his latest piece, shot in Pakistan with Urdu dialogue — was distilled from his first feature screenplay.
* In attendance
RED NIGHT
Hunter Wu • China • 2019 • 11:39 • Cantonese and Mandarin with English Subtitles • World Premiere • Drama
Set in Shanghai, Lian Yi longs for Hong Kong and finds herself one evening in a Hong Kong-style cafe sharing a meal with the two brothers who run it.
Hunter Wu was born into a family who operates a movie theatre in Guangzhou. Wu’s first contact with cinema was through early impressions of the quotidian movie theater environment and memorabilia – movie tickets, the sound of film rolls going through the projector, and the sound of Cantonese dialogues in the background. Realizing film would become a lifelong commitment, Wu enrolled in Shanghai Vancouver Film School and is currently studying Film Production.
UNSPOKEN
Patrick G. Lee • USA • 2019 • 17:07 • English • Canadian Premiere • Documentary
What does it mean to create, find, and nurture chosen community? Unspoken shares the collective conversations of six queer and trans Asian Americans around their experiences to kinship, queerness, and acceptance.
Patrick G. Lee (he/they) is a queer Korean American documentary filmmaker, writer, and community organizer. They’re interested in building collaborative, community-based approaches to filmmaking that reject traditional hierarchies of authority and that equip queer and trans people of color with media-making skills. Their reporting has appeared in Mother Jones, ProPublica, The Atlantic, CNN.com, and more. In 2018, Lee helped organize KQTcon, the first national Korean queer and trans conference in the US. Their favorite snack is kongjang (soy-braised black beans).