Asian Film Database
Sabah (2005) |
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| 90min. Fiction, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English and Arabic |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ruba Nadda (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | One day, when Sabah least expects it, she falls in love with the wrong man. She's Muslim, he's not. Unbeknownst to her family, she embarks on a whirlwind affair before both culture and love collide. (femfilm.ca) |
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Sadame Gawa I Without Destiny (2008) |
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| 4min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | This enka ballad is embroiled with intimacy and heartbreak and was popularized in the past decade by one of Japan's most popular male vocalists, Hosokawa Takashi. Sadame Gawa takes us back to karaoke's roots, as unabashed sentimentality is re-examined by Nemerofsky Ramsay. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Sally (2008) |
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| 8min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English, Cantonese |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Assisted by the B.C. Arts Council and Canada Council |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Hong Kong, China |
| Summary: | Sally is a portrait, a love ballad. The artist gazes at beautiful Sally as she relaxes in her bathrobe in the sumptuous suite of the China Club in Beijing. Always behind the camera, Wong is uninhibited as ever as he crafts an intimate portrait. This video was recorded in Hong Kong and Beijing. (paulwongprojects.com) |
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Sally's Beauty Spot (1990) |
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| 13min. Experimental, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Helen Lee (South Korea) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | Award of Excellence at the Ann Arbor Film Festival |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | In this lively, intimate film, a large black mole above an Asian woman's breast serves as a metaphor for cultural and sexual difference. Off-screen women's voices and scenes form the 1960 Hollywood miscegenation melodrama "The World of Suzie Wong" counterpoint Sally's own interracial encounters and emerging self-awareness. A stylish and playfully impressionistic account of racial expectations and role-playing which critiques Western stereotypes of Asian femininity. (CFMDC) |
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Salton Sea (2010) |
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| 5min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Paul Wong Projects |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | Part of the filmmaker's Scorched series, the video features abandoned trailers, desolated communities and humans trying to exist in the Mojave Desert. It was presented as part of Paul Wong's '5', a series of site-specific events and installations commissioned by the City of Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Programs. (www.5.paulwongprojects.com) |
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Salty Wet (2002) |
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| 9min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English, Cantonese |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Winston Xin and Desiree Lim (Malaysia) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A deconstructive look at translations and misconceptions of queer Cantonese and English slang through the eyes of immigrants. (Vtape) |
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Sam & Me (1990) |
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| 91min. Fiction, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Deepa Mehta (India) |
| Production Company: | Sunrise Films, ITC Distribution, Film Four International, Astral Film Enterprises |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | This touching and finely observed debut feature by Deepa Mehta follows a young Indian man who immigrates to Canada and is given a job looking after an elderly Jewish man. Their growing friendship isn't considered appropriate by their families. (femfilm.ca) |
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Samurai Swing (1999) |
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| 19min. Romantic Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Mieko Ouchi (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Irresponsible Films, Inc. |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | Nomination for 2000 U.S. Asian American Entertainment Awards, Best Short Film; Nomination for 1999 Alberta Media Production Industries Association, Best Production under 60 minutes |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A young Japanese Canadian man must decide whether to help his dad revive their Chinese greasy spoon, or follow his real dream... to become a lounge singer. (www.asianamericanfilm.com) |
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Sasha & Freddie (2005) |
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| 2min. Romance | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | David Eng (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Asian, Jewish, lesbian, gay, it's all muddled up anyways in this oh-so-appropriately un-PC dinner conversation! A refreshing burst of hilarity from Toronto's David Eng. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Satellite Telefizyoon (2013) |
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| 5min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | EArabicnglish |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Nahed Mansour (Lebanon) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Egypt |
| Summary: | Satellite Telefizyoon (the phonetic translation of Satellite 'Television' in Arabic) highlights the willingness of Egyptian media to engage, reproduce and distribute stereotypically racist depictions of other cultures in order to highlight the state's modernizing project in the 1980s. (Nahed Mansour) |
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Saving Home (1999) |
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| 2min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Susan Kim (Australia) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | http://vimeo.com/44840035 |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Having arrived in a new country, a young girl realises that the journey has just begun. This short but beautiful animation uses oil paints under camera. (Reel Asian) |
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Say No Go (2008) |
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| 5min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Karylnn ming Ho (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Kickin' it old school – "Say No Go" is the quintessential rap song and comes with a message. ming Ho's video interpretation reconsiders the '80s anti-drug campaign, violence, and girls under the influence. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Schwanzfilm (2011) |
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| 6min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | German |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Wayne Yung (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Germany |
| Summary: | A gay man speaks about his body image and growing older in the age of the internet. (wayneyung.com) |
| Source: | |
Scorched (2010) |
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| 9min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Sound |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Paul Wong Projects |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | In picture-in-picture style, Wong has structured four recordings made in the Sonoran and Mojave deserts of Southern California. Recorded in the blistering heat of July, he positions the natural and man's failed attempts to exist in this unrelenting climate. Scorched the installation was presented as part of '5', a series of site-specific events and installations commissioned by the City Of Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Programs. (paulwongprojects.com) |
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Screen Test (2004) |
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| 7min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Linda Lee (Canada) |
| Production Company: | National Film Board of Canada |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | This short documentary portrays an actor's perspective on ethnocentrism and systemic racism in the entertainment industry. Made as part of the Work for All project in 2006, an National Film Board of Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada -Labour initiative to combat racism in the workplace. (Vtape) |
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Sea In The Blood (2000) |
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| 26min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Richard Fung (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | https://vimeo.com/95455607 |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Sea In The Blood is a personal documentary about living with illness, tracing the relationship of the artist to thalassemia in his sister Nan, and AIDS in his partner Tim. At the core of the piece are two trips. The first is in 1962, when Richard went from Trinidad to England with Nan to see a famous hematologist interested in her unusual case. The second is in 1977 when Richard and Tim made the counterculture pilgrimage from Europe to Asia. The relationship with Tim blossomed, but Nan died before their return. The narrative of love and loss is set against a background of colonialism in the Caribbean and the reverberations of migration and political change. (Fung, Richard) |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Search Engine (1999) |
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| 4min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Wayne Yung (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Memories linger and possibilities open with the digitization of desire. (Reel Asian) |
| Source: | |
The Search for Evangeline (2014) |
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| 84min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Bashar Shbib (Syria) |
| Production Company: | Sunset Pictures |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | This film is an homage to 100 years of feature filmmaking in Canada. Evangeline was the first feature films directed by E. Sullivan and P. Cavanaugh made in Canada in 1913 and shot in Nova Scotia. It is based on a Longfellow poem written in 1847 depicting the expulsion of the Acadian population into diaspora by King George II. The 1913 film was independently produced by Canadian Bioscope Company without any government funding. A copy of the 1913 production of Evangeline has not been found so far. Shbib seeks to find out what remains of this first Canadian feature film. This film was shot in Louisiana, Washington D.C., Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine, California, New York, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Ontario. (www.sunsetpictures.ca) |
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Searching For Wonder (2011) |
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| 6min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Tricia Lee (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A street magician helps Kevin, a 12-year-old prodigy who attends university and lives on the fringe of an adult world, renew his sense of wonder and rediscover his childhood. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Season of the Boys (1997) |
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| 4min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ho Tam (Hong Kong) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | Shot at the Chinatown Basketball Tournament in New York City in August 1997 when the video maker stumbled upon the event by chance. Season of the Boys is about the myth of a "boy-season" that all men have been waiting for, which comes just once and only for a brief moment. (Ho Tam) |
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Secrets (2007) |
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| 15min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Nadia Tan (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A collage of diverse abstract imaging, film techniques, animation and anonymous audio recordings reveals real-life secrets. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Seduction (1987) |
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| 87min. Drama | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Bashar Shbib (Syria) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A trailer is parked deep in the forest. Its occupants are Mikael (Attila Bertalan) and his wife Melanie (Kathy Horner). Mikael is a film director. He is seeking locations to put an opera on video. Melanie lives in her own world, listening to the sounds of strange forest occupants. Are they the product of her imagination? Mikael thinks it's all madness and has nothing but contempt for this woman obsessed by a mad fear of bears. (www.oneira.com) |
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Self Portrait (Smile) (2001) |
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| 25min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Silent |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Heather Keung |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Self Portrait is an endurance performance art video whereby the artist attempts to smile for as long as she can. Focused on a closely framed image of her face, the video emphasizes the relationship between the artist's body to the camera and viewer. As she painfully forces the expression, the involuntary physical responses, such as twitching and drooling, gradually make it unbearable to perform. (Vtape) |
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Self-portrait (2008) |
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| 2min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Khanhthuan Tran ( Vietnam) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | In a study on himself, Tran concentrates on drawing to illustrate the process of self-reflection. In watching the film, viewers are taken through the process as the artist's face gradually becomes masked by his own delineated image (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Servitude (2011) |
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| Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Warren P. Sonoda |
| Production Company: | Lightning Entertainment |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | First feature to be greenlit at the inaugural and prestigious Telefilm/CFC/Just For Laughs Comedy Lab. |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A group of frustrated waiters at a kitschy, Western-themed steakhouse take over their restaurant for one final, glorious, revenge-filled night when they discover they are all about to be fired by the new corporate owners. (shootgoodfilms.blogspot.com) |
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Set Fires (2008) |
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| 4min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Assisted by the B.C. Arts Council and Canada Council Media Arts |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | As police attempt to shut down an eviction party at a house destined for demolition, the Punks retaliate by setting a fire. Riot police clear the area. A second night of fire seals the fate for the surrounding houses when a block of houses are immediately demolished to make way for new condominiums. This video is in the 'ZOOOOOM series, part of '5', site-specific projects commissioned by the City of Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Art program. (www.5.paulwongprojects.com) |
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Se-Tong (Boy Serpentine) (1999) |
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| 17min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Heng Tang (Australia) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A young boy stumbles upon a giant snake in the forest, an so begins an obsessive fascination. Serpents and dragons are powerful thematic symbols in this film about racial, sexual and religious prejudice. (Reel Asian) |
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Seven Days of Menstruation (2010) |
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| 5min. Silent, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Sound |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Annie Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Seven Days of Menstruation is a five-minute and twenty second silent video documenting the precarious behaviour of menses in a toilet bowl (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Seven Hours to Burn (1999) |
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| 9min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Shanti Thakur (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | Best Documentary Short Film, Cleveland International Film Festival; Gold Prize—Documentary, New York Expo of Short Film; Best Documentary, City Paper's Philadelphia Independent Film Contest; Best Documentary Short, CineWomen New York; Best Documentary, Nextframe Film Festival; Best Editing, Nextframe Film Festival; Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film Festival; Director's Choice Award—Black Maria Film and Video Festival, USA (+ tour to 60 US cities); Bronze Award-Experimental Film, Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival; Honourable Mention, Big Muddy Film Festival |
| Setting: | United States, Canada |
| Summary: | A visually expressive personal documentary that explores a family's history. Filmmaker Thakur mixes richly abstract filmmaking with disturbing archival war footage to narrate the story of her Danish mother's and Indian father's experiences. Her mother survives Nazi-occupied Denmark while her father experiences the devastating civil war in India between Hindus and Muslims. Both émigrés to Canada, they meet and marry, linking two parallel wars. Their daughter lyrically turns these two separate histories into a visually rich poem linking past and present in a new singular identity. (Doubletake Documentary Film Festival) |
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Shadow Play (1999) |
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| 5min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Susan Kim (Australia) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | In a plaiful world of shadows and light, a lonely prince learns the true nature of his games. This stop motion puppet animation was a finalist at the Wrold Animation Celebration, USA, and Dendy Film Awards, Sydney. (Reel Asian) |
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Shadow Puppet (2012) |
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| 5min. Video Art, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Yi Cu (China) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Through the use of an optical printer as a creative device, the individual frame is played like a music note. A rhythmic improvisation visualized on celluloid. (mubi.com) |
| Source: | |
Shan Xia Di: Under the Mountain (2004) |
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| 40min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English, Shanghainese |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Wayne Yung (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada, Germany |
| Summary: | A Chinese-Canadian grandson mixes travelogue, family history, and personal reflections as he visits the ancestral village for the first time. (wayneyung.com) |
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Shao Ping the Acrobat (1981) |
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| 25min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Deepa Mehta and Paul Saltzman (India) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | China |
| Summary: | This film shows practice and performance sessions of a Shanghai acrobat team, focusing on 16-year-old Shao Ping, but showing juggling, tumbling, and trapeze acts. Also shows family and relaxation time enjoyed by Shao Ping. (femfilm.ca) |
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Shaolin Sisters (2004) |
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| 5min. Action, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | Cantonese |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Mishann Lau (Canada) |
| Production Company: | LIFT |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Two kung fu sisters fight over the lipstick they find in the laundry. (Mishann Lau) |
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The Shelter (2006) |
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| 14min. Narrative, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Julian Tran (France) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | After a tragic event that destroyed human civilization, two survivors wander around a destroyed building. The younger one, full of hope, thinks he can arrange the situation by finding other possible survivors, while the elder waits for his hour to come by making art with the debris of the late Civilization. (CFMDC) |
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Shepherds Pie and Sushi (1998) |
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| 40min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Mieko Ouchi and Craig Anderl (Canada) |
| Production Company: | National Film Board of Canada |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Filmmaker Mieko Ouchi is half Celtic, half Japanese… and all Canadian. In 1993, Mieko, an actor, began researching a documentary about her grandfather, Edward Ouchi, a Japanese immigrant in Canada. Then she was cast to star in The War Between Us, a film on the Second World War internment of 22,000 Japanese Canadians re-enacting a key episode in her own community's history. Part Japanese-Canadian history, part autobiography and family chronicle, Shepherd's Pie and Sushi looks at complex questions of personal and cultural identity with a light touch. Using archival material, dramatic re-enactment, powerful scenes from The War Between Us and moving interviews with members of the Ouchi family, the film relates the early history of Japanese-Canadians and looks at Mieko's and her family's struggles with their own identities. (National Film Board of Canada) |
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Sherry, Like The Drink (2003) |
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| 3min. Animated | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Jonathon Ng (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A charming animated film, narrated by a rhyme, that celebrates the life of Sherry Ng. The title comes from a catch phrase that she used when she introduced herself to people. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
She Was Cuba (2003) |
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| 16min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ho Tam (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Referencing the Soviety masterpiece I Am Cuba, found footage featuring dreamy lanscapes of the Caribbean island adds poetry to thr story of a cuban woman in Canada. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Shiraz 1340… (2009) |
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| 17min. Short Found-Footage Experimental , Colour | |
| Language(s): | Sound |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Shanin Parhami (Iran) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Iran, Canada |
| Summary: | Shiraz 1340… (Shiraz in the 1960s) is a meditation on a now lost era in the history of Shiraz, an ancient city in the south of Iran. (shahinparhami.info) |
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Shirley/Fayrouz (2010) |
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| 6min. Uncategorized, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | Arabic, English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Nahed Mansour (Lebanon) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Egypt |
| Summary: | Shirley/Fayrouz explores the phenomenon of Blackface in early Egyptian cinema, and puts it into conversation with the racist history of American cinema. (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Shiro Yagi (2012) |
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| 12min. Animated | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Cindy Mochizuki (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | An animated film inspired by the last sheet of existing music of the artist's maternal grandfather, Sueo Mori, written in 1927. Mori was a poet, composer and high school teacher based in Yokohama, Japan. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Shooting Indians: A Journey with Jeffrey Thomas (1997) |
|
| 56min. Documentary, Colour, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | English, Kwakiutl |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ali Kazimi (India) |
| Production Company: | Peripheral Film & Video |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Photographer Jeffrey Thomas is Native American Iroquois by descent. In his work, he devotes himself to photographing his own people. The film is both a portrait of Thomas and an examination of the way North American Indians have been portrayed over the years. We follow Thomas during more than ten years of his life, in which he constantly questions his Native American identity and his position as a photographer, relating it to the work of an illustrious predecessor, Edward S. Curtis. The film gets an ironic overtone by the fact that the filmmaker is an Asian Indian, so like Thomas he is a relative outsider in Canada. (idfa.nl) |
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Shopping (1996) |
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| 5min. Experimental | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Melina Young |
| Production Company: | |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | She does what she must in search of 'The Perfect Face' in the faceless 'burbs' by 'shopping'. Between the bathroom mirror and the local pharmacy lives one young Asian-Canadian women in an endless cycle of imperfection. (Vtape) |
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Shopping for Fangs (1997) |
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| 18min. Drama, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Quentin Lee & Justin Lin (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A married woman, who's been getting seductive phone calls from a lesbian, and a man, who believes he might be a werewolf, are about to find out who they deep down really are. (Reel Asian) |
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Shortchanged (1990) |
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| Short | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | mina Shum (Hong Kong) |
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Shrivelly Lives (1999) |
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| 9min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Kevin Sun (USA) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A film that takes viewers to places never even contemplated…even in a soap opera world. Shrivelly Lives is a black comedy about a lovestruck dreamer whose romantic fantasies get the better of him when an attractive womann walks into his life. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Shuet Yang: A Story of My Mother (1998) |
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| 4min. Animation, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Gordon Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | An animated tribute to the artist's mother and her enduring belief in love. (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Sightings (2005) |
|
| 2min. Experimental, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Sound |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ruthann Lee and Anne-Marie Estrada (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | WANTED: Have you seen the Asian Long-Horned Beetle? Help the city of Toronto fight the invasion! (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
The Sihks (1981) |
|
| 21min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Hardev Singh |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | An in-depth study and description of the Sikhs and their faith, focusing on their unique and sometimes misinterpreted way of living. It covers Sikh history and its impact on forming the Sikh Culture. The universal institutions such as the Sangat - the holy congregation open to all - and the Pangat - free refectory or interdining for all, are stressed, and the "Typical Sikh Response" evident throughout their history towards crisis and events is presented. Recommended as a resource material for all public institutions as well as community organizations. (CFMDC) |
| Source: | |
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Silencio (1996) |
|
| 9min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Michael Arago (USA) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyfbCI3Zx_c |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | USA |
| Summary: | A true story about racism against Philippinos in the 1950's, and how it tests one family's beliefs. (IMDB) |
| Source: | |
Silent Men (2005) |
|
| 87min. Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Bashar Shbib (Syria) |
| Production Company: | Oneira Pictures International |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | What's a girl to do when her biological clock is ticking, yet marriage and a husband are the furthest thing from her mind? Silent Men follows the trials and tribulations of one very modern-minded young woman, Patricia (Alexandra Woodward), as she tries to plan out her foray into motherhood. With help she enlists her best friend, Liam (Neil McDonough), with whom she video-interviews dozens of men to find a suitable potential father for her child. But there's a catch: the relationship must only be platonic! In the end she will choose the obvious candidate... (www.oneira.com) |
| Source: | |
Silhouette (2001) |
|
| 4min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ya-Nam Chou (USA) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A wry look at the brisk pace of fashion. Silhouette offers witty commentary and a cover girl, whose simple piece of fabric dares to imagine a personal style of animation. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Simultaneity (1998) |
|
| 16min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Kim Seong-sook (Korea) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | An injured ex factory worker hides in a tiny booth selling lottery tickets and befriends a customer who sells porn videos on the street. While exploiting the plan desires of strangers, the pairs unusual symbiosis comes to an end when they must confront their own. (Reel Asian) |
| Source: | |
Sketchi (2010) |
|
| 3min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Lily Sun (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A girl struggles to revive her beloved dog. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Skin Deep (1994) |
|
| 88min. Avant-garde, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Midi Onodera (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Produced in Association with Studio D, of the National Film Board of Canada and with the participation of Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage: Multiculturalism Program, National Association of Japanese Canadians, Special Projects Fund, Racial Equity Fund – OFDC & LIFT, the Toronto Lesbian & Gay Appeal |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | Best Feature Film: Audience Award, 1995 Hamburg International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, 1995 |
| Setting: | North America |
| Summary: | |
| Source: | |
Sky People (2008) |
|
| 13min. Fiction, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Shanti Thakur (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Lucinda Films |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | Best Experimental Film, Los Angeles International Short Film Festival |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | Scientists discover that the farther you are from earth, the slower time passes and therefore, the longer you'll live. A lyrical satire on class in New York City, the film follows 21 different characters' race to be a "sky-person" —the elite one percent who live above the 13th floor. |
| Source: | |
Sleeping Tigers (2003) |
|
| 50min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Jari Osbourne (Canada) |
| Production Company: | National Film Board of Canada |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | Rockie Award, Banff International Film and Television Festival; Special Jury Prize, Yorkton Film Festival; Jury Award, Best Documentary Feature, San Diego Asian Film Festival, 2003; nominated for two Gemini Awards (Best History Documentary Program, Best Photography in a Documentary Program or Series) |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | In pre-Second World War Vancouver, the Asahi baseball team was unbeatable, outplaying the taller Caucasian teams and winning the prestigious Pacific Northwest Championship for five straight years. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the Canadian government sent every person of Japanese descent, whether born in Canada or not, to internment camps. Faced with hardship and isolation, the former Asahi members survived by playing baseball. Their passion for this quintessential North American game soon attracted other players, including RCMP and local townspeople, and the game of baseball helped to break down racial and cultural barriers. In Sleeping Tigers, award-winning director Jari Osborne skilfully weaves archival film and dramatic re-creations along with candid interviews with the last surviving members of the Asahi baseball team to tell a remarkable true story of Asian Canadians. (National Film Board of Canada) |
| Source: | |
Slice of Primal Pie (1997) |
|
| 5min. Experimental, Colour, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Carolyn Wong |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Slice of Primal Pie takes on the challenge of capturing the excitement and spirituality of the percussion group Primal Rhythm in film. Using mixed mediums (Super 8mm, 16mm, animated 35mm stills, colour, B&W, infrared) the images were first shot and edited, then Primal Rhythm composed live to them in the recording studio. As a result this 'visual rhythm film' has a very organic feel, as opposed to the traditional slick approach to music videos. The video is as much about the universal appeal of their music as it is about these self-proclaimed 'urban primates'. (CFMDC) |
| Source: | |
Slightseer (2001) |
|
| 3min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Midi Onodera (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Commissioned by Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto for their 20th Anniversary |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Some people say that cinema in its present state is on the verge of dying. But cinema is much more than just the magical chemistry concealed within this format. It is imagination, faith and suspension of belief. It is our collective past, a reflection of ourselves. Without this history we are doomed to repeat the past. Without our continued thirst to quench our vision we are simply sightseers in a "global image economy". (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Slow Burn (2011) |
|
| 13min. Comedy, Western, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Christine Chew(Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | In this hyper-stylized western set against a winterscape, a mysterious girl with a criminal past wants to make a fresh start and decides to symbolize this decision by getting her very first tattoo. She meets two tattoo artists who are immediately smitten with her, and in the time-honoured tradition of the western, the artists battle each other in a duel for the right to design the tattoo. (CFMDC) |
| Source: | |
Slow Return (1999) |
|
| 6min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Lin Chiao-fang (Taiwan) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | |
| Source: | |
Slut (1999) |
|
| 5min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ruba Nadda (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A film about the layers of privacy and the labels we create for ourselves and place onto others through our actions in what are traditionally "private" spaces.(www.nmsl.uregina.ca) |
| Source: | |
A Small Misunderstanding (2008) |
|
| 1min. Animation | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Leslie Supnet (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A hungry bird mistakes a piece of yarn for a worm entangled in the hair of a young man, which leads to a terrible accident in this humorous animation. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Small Pleasure (1993) |
|
| 85min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Keith Lock (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Set in Toronto's Chinatown against the background of events taking place in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, this drama shows how recent arrivals and native-born Chinese residents cope with Canadian culture and the country they left behind, and make whatever they can of their lives. (New York Times) |
| Source: | |
Smash: Reflecting Sex (2002) |
|
| 55min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A sexual anthology of Paul Wong's work. (www.5.paulwongprojects.com) |
| Source: | |
Smile (2007) |
|
| 17min. Drama, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English, Cantonese |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Julia Kwan (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Set in Vancouver in the 1980s, a Chinese immigrant family prepares to take their family portrait using their free Sears coupon. (IMDb) |
| Source: | |
Snake's Shadow (2011) |
|
| 5min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Louise Noguchi (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Louise Noguchi's three-channel video installation, Snake's Shadow, fills three walls with an intricately executed sequence of dance and motion composed from high-definition scans of 35mm CinemaScope action films. These archetypal fragments of fight scenes are recomposed with a newly commissioned soundtrack into a dizzying mix of movement and light. The work is divided into four acts across three channels, assembling a sequence of pivotal moments without an end. Noguchi writes of the work: "Maybe having to accept real endings and loss, as opposed to staged drama, which is seductive, is what viewers may perceive of the sequencing; although, others may have another reaction to the ending." |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
So Are You (1995) |
|
| 28min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Once more racial and sexual stereotypes and prejudices are explored in this complex work in which narrative fiction is combines with licentious stories about racism or sexism told directly to the camera. The relationship between appearance and reality comes again into question. Without passing judgment the artist takes us behind the elaborate facade concealing our prejudices. (National Gallery of Canada) |
| Source: | |
So Called Friends (2000) |
|
| 80min. Drama, comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Tai Tai-lung (Taiwan) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A drunk Taiwanese teenager parks his car along the highway by the seashore. When he wakes up, oth his car, a Mercedes Benz, are abondened in China, in an unkown small town in the South. The same day, a Taiwanese man loses his passport in Beijin and is forced to remian there until he is ussed a replacement. A third taiwanese man opens up a coffee shop in Beijinh. There, a young student meets a Japanese girl studying Chinese. The lives of these chracters are mysteriously and unexpectedly connected by a happy go lucky car that trying to get to Taiwan. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
So Far Gone (1998) |
|
| 1min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ruba Nadda (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A domestic altercation. (femfilm.ca) |
| Source: | |
So Far So… (1992) |
|
| 2min. Animation, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Sound |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ann Marie Fleming (Japan) |
| Production Company: | Sleepy Dog Films |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A stick figure portrait of the artist as a young woman. (Sleepy Dog Films) |
| Source: | |
Solo (2003) |
|
| 54min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Atif Y. Siddiqi (Pakistan) |
| Production Company: | National Film Board of Canada |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | England |
| Summary: | Solo begins with a friendly therapy session focusing on intimacy issues. Atif Siddiqi's self examination is both whimsical and funny. As a performance and video artist, he revels in sharing his dreams and fantasies interspersed throughout the real-life dates, tango lessons and speed-dating sessions intended to hone his ability to find Mr. Right. (www.atifsiddiqi.com) |
| Source: | |
Some Kind of Arrangement (1998) |
|
| 46min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ali Kazimi (India) |
| Production Company: | National Film Board of Canada |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | In this short documentary, the age-old tradition of arranged marriages takes a modern twist when three second-generation South Asian women decide to marry. Engaging and refreshingly candid in their opinions, they make it clear that arranged marriages aren't what they used to be. (Ali Kazimi) |
| Source: | |
Some Real Fangs (2004) |
|
| Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Desiree Lim (Malaysia) |
| Production Company: | Moving Pictures Japan |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A multicultural dance-comedy about a vampire wannabe's quest for true love and some real fangs, in the backdrop of Vancouver's bright lights and back streets. (Desiree Lim) |
| Source: | |
Some Was Never Like This (1983) |
|
| 9min. Avant-garde, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Midi Onodera (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Step-printed images of a 'home' -- a suburban house, no people in sight -- combine with a children's story, told in saccarine tones, about the country mouse who discovers that 'there's no place like home.' (femfilm.ca) |
| Source: | |
Sounds like Kubota (2006) |
|
| 10min. Live Performance, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Nobuo Kubota (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Sounds like Kubota is a collaborative video that explores the history of free form sound art in Toronto from the 1960s through to present day as experienced by sound art pioneer Nobuo Kubota. (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Souriya Namaha (2004) |
|
| 9min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Peter Chanthanakone (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Another entry in Peter Chanthanakone's personal diary, reflecting on his family, his culture, and how he fits into the equation. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Souvenirs From Asia (2007) |
|
| 11min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Joyce Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Hanjoo Somerfield is an adopted Korean teenager who is furious with her over- zealous white mother for forcing her to participate in 'Asian Activities.' Feeling alienated, Hanjoo finally decides to do something drastic, but her mother's delusional relationship to Asia only get worse! |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Spankin (2014) |
|
| 13min. Documentary, Experimental, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Stephen Chen (Singapore) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | An anagram of "napkins," Spankin transposes the gay hanky code of the 1970s onto contemporary coffee culture. Inspired by the criminalization of homosexual behaviour in Russia, India, Nigeria and Uganda in 2013, the film revives the handkerchief code formulated during a similar period of suppression in North America to remind audiences of the never-ending struggle, the poignancy of connection and secrecy amidst repression, and the semiotic slide of symbols. (CFMDC) |
| Source: | |
Spring (2006) |
|
| 4min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | The video is about the scattering of Steve Lacy's ashes at Long Island, NY on 21 March 2006 in Smith Point, Long Island, New York, with music by Steve Lacy (1934-2004). Born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, Lacy was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone. (www.5.paulwongprojects.com) |
| Source: | |
Standard Deviation (1998) |
|
| 87min. Drama, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Standard Deviation follows a maze of twists and turns created by five shady characters, all trying to outwit one another to gain the winning numbers for the next big city lottery draw. (Reel Asian) |
| Source: | |
Back to top
Stanley Beloved (1997) |
|
| 20min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Simon Chung (China) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | China |
| Summary: | James and Kevin are friends and live in Hong-Kong. When Kevin finds out that his Chinese father wants to send him away to England to study, he decides to spend a summer day with his friend James. Then something unexpected happens. (IMDB) |
| Source: | |
Star (2001) |
|
| 2min. Uncategorized, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Helen Lee (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | When you wish upon a star. A plaintive, girlish rendition of the childhood classic. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Star Trek Disco Generation (1997) |
|
| 5min. Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Gordon Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | The crew of the Enterprise defeat the Borg invasion with the irresistible power of disco! A fast-paced spoof of space opera music videos, featuring stop action animation and a great retro soundtrack. (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Star Trek Generation Spice (1998) |
|
| 5min. Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Gordon Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Spice up your life with Gordon Wong's sequel to Star Trek: Disco Generation. The crew of the enterprise find themselves on a planet where they are confronted by Girl Power. (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Stationary (2005) |
|
| 5min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Monica Rho (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | In today's dog-eat-dog world, a paper clip makes all the difference if you want to get ahead in your career. Or does it? In this superbly animated short, director Monica Rho draws from everyday occurrences to express the complexity of modern life and the isolation felt in today's crowded yet withdrawn society. Sandra Oh guests as the voice of an everywoman office worker. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Stille.D (2013) |
|
| 3min. Experimental, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Stephen Chen (Singapore) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Stille.D is a meditation on Walter Benjamin's concepts of ruin (as nostalgia, regret, decay, loss) as well as the paradox of the bourgeois interior constituting both refuge and amplification of the alienating impulses of the city. It plays with the different definitions of "stille" such as stillness, to put (in place), a drop (of liquid), finding a corollary with Stephen Chen's musical setting of Philip Larkin's poem. (CFMDC) |
| Source: | |
Stills (2003) |
|
| 4min. Uncategorized, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Luo Li (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Rephotographing stills of empty railways and trains, the filmmaker evokes a sense of restlessness and displaced movement. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Stolen Memories (2010) |
|
| 46min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Kagen Goh (Singapore) |
| Production Company: | Monkeyking Motion Pictures |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Stolen Memories is a detective story about filmmaker Kagan Goh's personal quest to return a photo album "stolen" from a Japanese Canadian family during the Japanese internment. (Kagen Goh) |
| Source: | |
The Stork (original title: Clair-obscur) (1988) |
|
| 76min. Musical, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Bashar Shbib (Syria) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Without dialogue, the film paints the picture of an old farm out in the country, not far from a village that has only one hotel. It is here where Edouard (Jack Spinner) lives with his son, Philippe (Paul Babiak), his austere wife, Anne (Bobo Vian), and their daughter, Stephanie (Barbara Zsigovics). Their daily routine is suddenly interrupted by the enigmatic Pol (Susan Eyton-Jones), a singer who returns to the village after several years' absence. Under her spell, Philippe feels inexorably drawn to the hotel where she is singing. In neglecting his family, tensions begin to arise. (Oneira Pictures) |
| Source: | |
Storm (2009) |
|
| 7min. Video Art, Colour | |
| Language(s): | No Sound |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Paul Wong Projects, B.C. Arts Council, Canada Council Media Arts, National Film Board of Canada |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | Storm is a video recording of a car ride at night in hurricane forces. (paulwongprojects.com) |
| Source: | |
Strawberries and Wine (2015) |
|
| 90min. Drama | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Bashar Shbib (Syria) |
| Production Company: | Oneira Pictures International |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Three siblings, Michael (Mark Houghton), Nicholas (Jordan Henry) and Jean (Abby Zotz) reunite at the vineyard where they grew up, one year after the passing of their parents. Michael's wife Diana (Susan Eyton-Jones), their family and friends, and a couple of uninvited guests (Iona Brindle and Martin Yu), join them as they come together for a final commemoration of the passing of their parents. As new passions set in, choices will be made between integrity and selfishness and about what the future will hold. Not only for the vineyard, but for them as well. (www.oneira.com) |
| Source: | |
Strawberry Fields (1997) |
|
| 90min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Rea Tajiri (USA) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | USA |
| Summary: | Story of a Japanese American teenager goes on a journey from Chicago to California to visite the Poston War Relocation Center zone after seeing a photo of her granfather standing there. |
| Source: | |
Strictly Spanking (1997) |
|
| 80min. Drama, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Bashar Shbib (Syria) |
| Production Company: | Oneira Pictures International |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Strictly Spanking is a gothic, suburban tale about the disastrous sexual awakening of a young woman. (www.oneira.com) |
| Source: | |
Study Sketch (2000) |
|
| Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Louise Noguchi (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Excerpt |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | The videos depict wild-west acts such as trick roping, bullwhipping, knife throwing and trick-riding. This video is a part of the Language of the Rope series (1998-2005), which stemmed from Noguchi's lessons in trick-roping that she received from a wild-west rodeo performer. (louisenoguchi.com) |
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Subrosa (2000) |
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| 22min. Narrative, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Helen Lee (South Korea) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | South Korea |
| Summary: | Subrosa traces a young woman's journey to Korea, the land of her birth, to find the mother she's never known. This exquisitely crafted drama probes the idealized, often false constructions of cultural and maternal identities wrought by the adoptee's return. The film tracks the unnamed heroine from a sterile adoption agency office to seedy bars and motel rooms on neon strips, then to a stark U.S. army camp town and the bustling flower markets of Seoul. (Helen Lee) |
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Sugar Bowl (2011) |
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| 23min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | English (English subtitles) |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Shasha Nakhai & Rich Williamson (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | Winner of the 2010 Reel Asian Charles Street Video So You Think You Can Pitch? Award |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Eccentric and endearing characters takes us through the rise and fall of an island in the Philippines and its sugarcane industry. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Suicide Note (1999) |
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| 15min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Lee Hyung-gon (Korea) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Summary: | When boy meets girl, she tells him, "The camera is my suicide note." An eleiac, essayistic film that takes the form of a video diary to document traumas both physical and psychic. (Reel Asian) |
| Source: | |
Sugar Sweet (2001) |
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| Drama | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Desiree Lim (Malaysia) |
| Production Company: | Sky Perfect TV/Japan |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A fun and sexy romantic comedy of three women caught in a love triangle in the urban Japanese dyke world. (Desiree Lim) |
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Summer Solstice (2013) |
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| 4+8min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Sandra Eileen Lim |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Shot on the longest day of the year, the blending of interior and exterior soundscapes with solar images of the setting sun is projected back into interior space, and forms the material backdrop for this fleeting document about the sometimes contradictory relations of the urban and everyday. (Sandra E. Lim) |
| Source: | |
Sunsets (1997) |
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| 17min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Michael Idemato & Eric Nakamura (USA) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Awards: | |
| Setting: | USA |
| Summary: | Dave (Nicholas Constant) and Mark (Michael Idemoto) are two buddies who have recently graduated from high school in Watsonville, California. Dave works in a comic book store, while Mark is preparing to go to college in the fall. When their friend Gary (Josh Brand) is released from jail, the three spend most of the summer drinking beer, chasing girls, and committing petty crime. As the fall approaches, and with it the first stages of responsible adulthood, the three realize that the days are numbered for their friendship as they know it, with moments of wild energy and adventure facing off against boredom as the summer winds to a close. (Alibris) |
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Super Power Monster Tentacle Club (2007) |
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| 9min. Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Vincent Ternida (Philippines) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Joe Khanie, a popular anime convention singer, comes to terms with his mortality when the evil demon goddess Tentacla has come for his soul, his unnatural popularity and sex appeal brought to him by an ominous wig. (IMDb) |
| Source: | |
Surfer Dick (1997) |
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| 3min. Short, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Wayne Yung (Canada) |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Pool halls, pootters and posers make for a wonky and wonderful dance video on the rituals of courtship. (Reel Asian) |
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Swearnet (2014) |
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| 112min. Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Warren P. Sonoda |
| Production Company: | eOne |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Fed up with being censored in their post-Trailer Park Boys lives, the out-of-work stars/world-reknowned 'swearists' Mike Smith, Robb Wells and John Paul Tremblay decide to start their own uncensored network on the internet, and then have to constantly out-do themselves to drive their memberships up while juggling troubles at home, on the road and in the air. (shootgoodfilms.blogspot.com) |
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Sweater People (2005) |
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| 11min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Nicole Chung (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Summary: | "You go, girl!" Within moments into Nicole Chung's latest short film, we're already cheering for our rambunctious Kate, the no-nonsense protagonist who proves how foolish it is to mess with an Asian grrl. But far from some gung-ho tale of heroism, Sweater People is a realistic portrayal of a poor university student struggling with debt, tuition fees and lovers and friends. A possible lesbian love interest can't keep Kate from spiralling into less savoury means of earning income. Can she survive despite being betrayed by everyone around her? |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Swell (1998) |
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| 5min. Short, Colour/Black & White | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Carolynne Hew (Canada) |
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| Summary: | Desire disorients… and bodily swellings result. "A lovely concotion of hand tinted and scratched film evoking a woman's flight from concrete to nature - spurred on by a kiss". (Reel Asian) |
| Source: | |
Swim With Me (2003) |
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| 18min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Iona Ng & Eva Yao Shan & Liz Lee (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Summary: | A young man faces his own prejudices when he finds out that one of his friends is HIV positive. Written edited and direct by and also starring six youths age 16-24, Swim With Me is a first film that adrresses tough issues in an accessible and endearing manner. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |