VMACCH logo, click here to return to the home page

Ann Shin

Arts & Expression, East Asian, Film

Photograph of Ann Shin - Photographer: Sandy Nicholson

She is a writer and filmmaker born in London, Ontario and raised on the West Coast. Her mother came to Canada during the Trudeau years to work as a nurse; her father specialized in animal husbandry. Like most Korean immigrants however, they went into business, opening a handful of grocery stores one after another and ultimately starting up a commercial mushroom farm in B.C.'s Fraser Valley. A near-fatal accident on the farm left her mother wheelchair bound when Ann was 9 years old. The accident profoundly affected her and the rest of the family.

Ann started writing poetry when she was a child. Her work has since been published in anthologies and magazines in Canada and the United States. Her first volume of poetry is called The Last Thing Standing of which Nino Ricci writes is "a beautiful and memorable book. Ann Shin writes about love, loss and the idea of home with clarity, wit and grace."

Her other publications include The Last Thing Standing (Mansfield Press, 2000) and Crossroads Cant (Broken Jaw Press, 1997).

Her films explore themes of migration, alienation, cultural myths, race and beauty. Her documentaries have been broadcast worldwide and screened in numerous festivals, garnering awards. 'How to Breathe the Air of Our Ancestors' won a gold medal at the 1998 New York Festivals, 'The Roswell Incident' won Bronze at the 1999 Columbus International Film Festival, 'Western Eyes' won the 1998 National Film Board Reel Diversity Competition, 'The Four Seasons Mosaic' was nominated for Best Performance Documentary at the 2005 Geminis. Currently, she resides in Toronto with her husband and two daughters. She works as a producer and is writing a novel.

Ann's documentaries include:
The Four Seasons Mosaic, CBC, 2004
Almost Real, Connecting in a Wired World, National Film Board of Canada, 2002
Western Eyes, NFB and CBC Newsworld, 2000
The Fall of an Asian Tiger, Vision TV, 1999
The Roswell Incident, History TV, 1998
How to Breathe the Air of Our Ancestors, CBC Radio, 1998

For more information about Ann's publications:
http://www.mansfieldpress.net/authors/Shin.htmlhttp://www.brokenjaw.com/catalog/pg31.htm
http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/shin.htm

For more information about Ann's film and television work:
www.fathomfilmgroup.com
http://www.nfb.ca/explore-by/director/Ann-Shin/
http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/data/production/prod_3121.
asp?lang=en&cat=tv&g=doc&y=2004


Video links for Ann Shin

To view 'Western Eyes'
http://www.nfb.ca/film/western-eyes/

To view 'Almost Real: Connecting in a Wired World'
http://www.nfb.ca/film/almost-real/

To listen to 'How to Breathe the Air of Our Ancestors'
http://www.cbc.ca/outfront/listen/2004/04-09-20.html

Back to top