Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Blog is Moving onto reelasian.com
It's starting to get busy here with the festival approaching. On the online front, things are changing on the website to make it a little cleaner and easier to update. For one, this blog is in the process of relocating to the reelasian.com site itself. Soon, the new and improved Reel Asian Blog will satisfy, once again, your insatiable curiosity for all things Reel Asian. We'll let you know when it's ready.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Kevin Lim - Online Coordinator
Sadly, this will be my last official posting on the RA blog. I will be passing the torch onto Mr. John Mani who will be taking my position at Reel Asian. I plan on keeping in touch and posting some more pics and Asian North American news but for now I bid you adieu.
I will be moving to the Honolulu to do a doctorate in American Studies. I will be sure to drop in on the RA blog with updates from here (AAAS 2009) and here (HIFF).
It's been fun. Keep it Reelz.
Thanks to all of the RA family who have made my time at Reel Asian wonderful and exciting.
I will be moving to the Honolulu to do a doctorate in American Studies. I will be sure to drop in on the RA blog with updates from here (AAAS 2009) and here (HIFF).
It's been fun. Keep it Reelz.
Thanks to all of the RA family who have made my time at Reel Asian wonderful and exciting.
KL in NYC for the AAIFF. OMG!
Last week I was in NYC for the AAIFF. I had gone the year before for my studies but this year, I went on behalf of RA because I am on the shorts programming committee. I saw a lot of great stuff. Click on the photos below to see the RA flickr account and more pics from NYC.
Grab that booty...
Reel Asian scored a bountiful booty at the Sony Centre yesterday.
"The Sony Centre recently closed for renovations that will keep its stage empty until fall 2009. But its doors briefly re-opened today to offer stuff they don’t want anymore, for free, to anyone crazy enough to take it — first-come, first-served."
Among the treasures, we now have three red carpets, several staunches and a ticket ripping station both garbage can thingy.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Gordon Liu event was a huge success!
The Gordon Liu event was a HUGE success. Kudos to all the volunteers and staff who made it possible. Check out some nice pics over at our flickr.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Screening of "Hereos of the East" with Gordon Liu in Attendance...
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Alliance Films and Kung Fu Fridays present a screening of 'Heroes of the East.'
People who only watch Hollywood movies might know Gordon Liu as Johnny Mo, one of the Crazy 88s from Kill Bill Vol. 1, or the Bride’s kung fu teacher Pai Mei in Kill Bill Vol. 2, with the white hair and bushy eyebrows.
Well, here's your chance to see Gordon Liu in one of his earlier works. Mr. Liu will also be in attendance to answer some of your questions!
SCREENING INFORMATION:
Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008
Time: 2:30 PM
Venue: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue (south of Bloor/St. George)
Sponsored by eye weekly with special co-operation from the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (Canada). Special thanks to Fantasia, Dragon Dynasty and Suspect Video.
Check out the trailer below!
People who only watch Hollywood movies might know Gordon Liu as Johnny Mo, one of the Crazy 88s from Kill Bill Vol. 1, or the Bride’s kung fu teacher Pai Mei in Kill Bill Vol. 2, with the white hair and bushy eyebrows.
Well, here's your chance to see Gordon Liu in one of his earlier works. Mr. Liu will also be in attendance to answer some of your questions!
SCREENING INFORMATION:
Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008
Time: 2:30 PM
Venue: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue (south of Bloor/St. George)
Sponsored by eye weekly with special co-operation from the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (Canada). Special thanks to Fantasia, Dragon Dynasty and Suspect Video.
Check out the trailer below!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Interview with Reel Asian 2007 CSV winner Jennifer Liao...
Last year at the festival, Reel Asian held a pitch competition for emerging filmmakers called The Hear Me! See Me! Pitch Me! Competition. The winners of the competition received prizes from Charles Street Video to help produce their work.
Stay tuned for an interview with Dean Vargas and Lena Lee.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
WSFF: Last Day
The Worldwide Short Film Festival closed today. Click above for some pics from the CFC Picnic event.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
WSFF: Day 2
Director Shinichiro Watanabe saying hello. Click above to see more pictures.
It's been a crazy two days. Yesterday, I attended Reel Asian filmmaker, Joyce Wong's screening of Souvenirs from Asia. In the evening, some of the RA gang and I attended a very amazing Japanese animation double header (1 and 2) program. Personally, I think it was the best anime I have ever seen. Mind blowing.
Today is going to be another packed day. Stay tuned for updates!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Trinity Square Video: ICON
This Thursday, TSV is screening their commissioned program, ICON. Participants have chosen such icons as Werner Hertzog, Astroboy, the fictional Quebecois singer Marie-Minou Miaou Miaou and actor Lou Diamond Phillips. Here's the info. Come on out !
TSV Themed Commissioned Program: ICON
THURSDAY JUNE 5th, 8:00pm
The Theatre Centre
100-1087 Queen Street West (at Dovercourt St.)
Toronto ON
Admission: members $6 / non-members $8
Here is a conversation between TSV filmmakers Jeff Tran and Aram Siu Wai Collier about their films.
Face Off! Jeffrey Tran and Aram Siu Wai Collier
AC: Your video deals largely with the work of Tezuka Osamu, can you speak about the trajectory of his animation and career that intrigued you so much for this project.
JT: I think what really fascinated me about him is how he is considered the 'godfather of manga' . He created Astro Boy at a time when Japan was still recovering after World War II and he experienced hands on what it was like living in a world occupied by strange foreigners. People were looking to try to stay optimistic and look forward to the future, and Astro Boy represented this. In particular he was also the one who popularized the 'doll eyed' style that is in Japanese manga and anime, which was a direct influence from American cartoons. Tezuka Osamu from what I've read about him while primarily a manga artist, he was obsessed with animation and dreamed of venturing into the art, which he did through Astro Boy. With Walt Disney's early films he would apparently watch them countless times over. He actually reproduced Bambi, shot by shot into illustrated form (and reproduced and sold! a la doujinshi), as a way of copying to learn. His place as the creator of many standards in manga and the anime industry today, as well as his being a sort of bridge between Japan and America through style and art makes him so interesting to me.
AC: Your video is kind of an animated animation, please talk about the processes you employed in making this video.
JT: I use a lot of photographs of people and footage of post World War II Japan. I wanted to experiment with the footage and cut it out, stylize and animate some elements from it. For my last animation I worked on 'Dundas n' Bathurst' a lot of footage was taken and reconstructed the street and daily life but in a sort of exaggerated reality. I've incorporated some of those stylistic elements into this one. I would use After Effects to animate some of the simple movements, and when I wanted something more, they would be brought into 3d software and rigged so that I could animate them and move through 3d space. For one sequence I remodeled Astro Boy in 3d since I wanted Gene Kelly and Astro Boy to dance together.
AC: I believe the animation programs you were using take quite a bit of rendering, what is your favorite thing to do while rendering?
JT: Actually if a shot is busy rendering, I try to work on something else, like working in Photoshop for another asset for my film. But that's sometimes is not good 'cause I crash my computer if I try to do too much fancy stuff. Well other than that, I'm most likely on the net. Aren't we all now a days? Then, when all else fails, I doodle away.
AC: There seems to be quite a few Asian Canadian animators (Lillian Chan, Howie Shia, Jonathan Ng, Ann Marie Fleming) what's up with that? Is there some Asian animation chromosome?
JT: Yeah those artists are people I greatly admire and respect for working in the field of animation when most times there's the stereotype of Asian parents wanting kids to do something that is 'secure', and respectable. I think this generation of Asian Canadian artists is having a fortunate position of exploring a rich influence of traditional Asian and Canadian culture. Growing up on wacky Saturday morning cartoons, but also making sure to be respectful, humble and quiet. I think we're repressed! Maybe it's a form of rebellion against tradition and what's deemed accepted as an Asian. I'm not always thinking about my Asian background while pursuing artistic endeavors but I think it definitely is part of my identity as an Asian Canadian artist and I embrace it. Or maybe it's a thought in us thinking, hey how come there isn't any more Asian work out there? I wish there was something that I can identify with more! How can I make it true? I know! I'll make some myself!
AC: what kind of animation did you grow up on? Did/do you identify or even simply respond differently to animation from Asia than the Disney dominance of North America?
JT: I'm part of the generation who watched Transformers, Popples, Care Bears, Smurfs, anything that was a toy first before a toon! I think the turning point for me was watching 'the fist of the north star' for the first time... you know what I mean, it's like you're traumatized for life... but in a good way. LOL. It was a toon.. but then there's blood.. they're bleeding! Death! I think that summed it up for me one of the differences between American animation and anime. Or even manga and western comics. They're pretty much parallel each other. I think both industries have a lot of genres that you can enjoy. It's just that in Japan specifically all of them are more widely accepted. While I was growing up in grade school I loved superheroes, and I got sick of the Disney musicals, and deemed them childish, that's when my friend showed me some Dragonball Z manga, and discovered they had a cartoon of it. The way they showed all the crazy speed lines, and super powers I found out to be crazy exciting and full of action. And the visuals were something I had never seen in American animation, the designs and style was that much more diverse at the time. But I notice things are changing slowly, as seen in the success of the Incredibles but it's not quite there yet. I feel as this generation grows up we're going to be able to make more sophisticated animation and the audience will mature to provide a plausible market for it. That's exactly how anime and manga is so accepted in Japan right now, as older generations maintain that love for the art, but the stories are more sophisticated. Hopefully it will keep moving in that direction from now on.
JT: How did the idea of using Lou Diamond Phillips as your subject for Icon come about?
AC: This video has been a long time coming for me. It started when my mom rented La Bamba for us since she grew up when Ritchie Valens, who was the first Mexican American “crossover” pop star in the 1950’s. That was the first time I saw Lou Diamond Phillips and it was a breakout role for him. Then there was Stand and Deliver where he also played a Mexican American, which was followed by the Young Guns movies. My sisters and I were like, “wow he plays all these different roles!” and then we found out that he was part Asian and we became real fans, even though he never played Asian people. As I got older I began to think about what it meant for him to be a mixed race person playing all these different ethnicities, especially because as he notes in the Young Guns commentary that “I’m not Latino in the least”. That his breakout roles were ones where he played Mexican Americans and he wasn’t of that heritage raised questions of authenticity and ethnicity and how we see and imagine people who look like they could be anything. I mean, as a mixed race person with no Mexican heritage, does he have a right to play Ritchie Valens? When they were casting for Selena the producers got flak from some for casting Jennifer Lopez because she’s Puerto Rican and not Chicano. On the flipside, what options does an ambiguous actor have? Does it mean that he could only play someone who is mixed or relegated to “color-blind” roles, which to me always seem incongruous. These were all questions I had on my mind while working on this and that I hope my video helps raise, though it’s maybe not explicit in the work.
JT: One scene you brilliantly have LDP in a very tense moment holding a gun...at himself. Could you explain the process and the choices in creating these scenes and as well in the video's overall narrative?
AC: The process started by researching all of LDP’s films and noting which ethnicities he played in each. From there I limited the films to a period between the mid 1980’s to early 1990’s because this was when he was getting leading roles as ethnic characters. There were some films I had never seen that provided great material. In particular were two films shot in Canada; Shadow of the Wolf was a Canadian film where LDP plays an Inuit man (and Jennifer Tilly is his love interest and Toshiro Mifune plays his dad!) and the second surprise was Boulevard where he plays a pimp named “Hassan”… This was the first found footage film I’ve done so the video’s narrative was something I struggled with quite a bit. I knew I could construct scenes that kind of worked in themselves—matching action and movements of scenes across different films; I found this easiest with action scenes. But in the end I only had individual scenes. So I took a step back and looked at the plot devices that kept arising in the films I was using and there was a recurring theme of dreams and nightmares nearly across every film. I think this is because “ethnic people” are often portrayed to be more spiritual—like some kind of “spidey sense”. So that’s a theme I went with; it’s a story of an internal struggle, about self-hate and learning to love oneself.
JT: Initially editing for film was done by hand, scissors and tape. Now that technology has advanced, are you extremely happy editing with computers? Any secret thoughts of making an 'homage' of the traditional process?
AC: I’ve made exactly one film and even that I cut on Final Cut pro. Its usually been a cost consideration– and fear! It would be a lot of fun and would like to do it someday, more for the experience of working with the medium than anything else. I do enjoy working on computers quite a bit, except that I can’t help but get distracted sometimes.
JT: Do you feel working 'behind the camera' in any form is the only way for Asians to present Asians in more diverse genres to wider audiences?
AC: I would generally agree with that. I was reminded of this when watching La Bamba over and over again while working on my video. La Bamba was written and directed by Luis Valdez, a Chicano director who grew up in the same era as Ritchie Valens, and that film really hit on issues of being a person of color in America in the 1950’s. It’s quite nuanced with its portrayals and I’m not sure it would have been as much if it were directed by someone not from that community and that experience. Same thing goes for Asians in media. However, I don’t think it means everybody should go out and make a movie. It’s more important to be an active and conscientious viewer of what we see, what stories are told and not to settle for the same old stereotypes and most importantly is to
JT: Like LDP, you are also of a mixed heritage of Asian and European living raised in America, and now you reside in Canada. What is the most unique guess people give you of your nationality?
AC: Its strange, it really changes wherever you are. I noticed since I got here that people generally don’t ask or guess as much as they do in the states. I noticed that on a recent trip to Chicago where it seemed like I was getting asked what I was everywhere -- even at a urinal at a Karaoke club! But I think that’s just because Americans are a little more forthright. A lot of the time people’s guesses are contextual; I volunteered for Imaginenative festival and I was one of the people to greet festival guests at the airport and at least half of the people coming in thought I was Native. The most outrageous was when I was in university and looking to rent a place off campus and the woman who was renting the place asked me if my dad was part of the military and if he was based in the middle east! But again it’s contextual since my first name is Armenian. But I’ve gotten a lot of different guesses from all kinds of people and then you realize most people don’t know what they’re talking about.
___________
Jeffrey Tran is an artist and filmmaker from Toronto, Canada. He received a Fine Arts degree at the University of Waterloo in traditional art and computer studies. Upon graduating from Computer Animation at Sheridan, he completed the short Dundas n' Bathurst (07) where it won top honors at the Toronto Urban Film Festival. Passionate in exploring the combinations of computer technology, the arts, and film, he enjoys taking a 'tongue in cheek' view on the many social and cultural issues present in today’s society many of his works. He is now currently working as an animator at C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures in Toronto.
Aram Siu Wai Collier is Chinese & English/Dutch, born and raised in San Francisco where he studied film, was a community organizer and worked in independent documentary production. He is now a Toronto based filmmaker, editor, and film festival freelancer. In Fall 2008, he will begin pursuing an MFA in film production at York University in Toronto.
TSV Themed Commissioned Program: ICON
THURSDAY JUNE 5th, 8:00pm
The Theatre Centre
100-1087 Queen Street West (at Dovercourt St.)
Toronto ON
Admission: members $6 / non-members $8
Here is a conversation between TSV filmmakers Jeff Tran and Aram Siu Wai Collier about their films.
Face Off! Jeffrey Tran and Aram Siu Wai Collier
AC: Your video deals largely with the work of Tezuka Osamu, can you speak about the trajectory of his animation and career that intrigued you so much for this project.
JT: I think what really fascinated me about him is how he is considered the 'godfather of manga' . He created Astro Boy at a time when Japan was still recovering after World War II and he experienced hands on what it was like living in a world occupied by strange foreigners. People were looking to try to stay optimistic and look forward to the future, and Astro Boy represented this. In particular he was also the one who popularized the 'doll eyed' style that is in Japanese manga and anime, which was a direct influence from American cartoons. Tezuka Osamu from what I've read about him while primarily a manga artist, he was obsessed with animation and dreamed of venturing into the art, which he did through Astro Boy. With Walt Disney's early films he would apparently watch them countless times over. He actually reproduced Bambi, shot by shot into illustrated form (and reproduced and sold! a la doujinshi), as a way of copying to learn. His place as the creator of many standards in manga and the anime industry today, as well as his being a sort of bridge between Japan and America through style and art makes him so interesting to me.
AC: Your video is kind of an animated animation, please talk about the processes you employed in making this video.
JT: I use a lot of photographs of people and footage of post World War II Japan. I wanted to experiment with the footage and cut it out, stylize and animate some elements from it. For my last animation I worked on 'Dundas n' Bathurst' a lot of footage was taken and reconstructed the street and daily life but in a sort of exaggerated reality. I've incorporated some of those stylistic elements into this one. I would use After Effects to animate some of the simple movements, and when I wanted something more, they would be brought into 3d software and rigged so that I could animate them and move through 3d space. For one sequence I remodeled Astro Boy in 3d since I wanted Gene Kelly and Astro Boy to dance together.
AC: I believe the animation programs you were using take quite a bit of rendering, what is your favorite thing to do while rendering?
JT: Actually if a shot is busy rendering, I try to work on something else, like working in Photoshop for another asset for my film. But that's sometimes is not good 'cause I crash my computer if I try to do too much fancy stuff. Well other than that, I'm most likely on the net. Aren't we all now a days? Then, when all else fails, I doodle away.
AC: There seems to be quite a few Asian Canadian animators (Lillian Chan, Howie Shia, Jonathan Ng, Ann Marie Fleming) what's up with that? Is there some Asian animation chromosome?
JT: Yeah those artists are people I greatly admire and respect for working in the field of animation when most times there's the stereotype of Asian parents wanting kids to do something that is 'secure', and respectable. I think this generation of Asian Canadian artists is having a fortunate position of exploring a rich influence of traditional Asian and Canadian culture. Growing up on wacky Saturday morning cartoons, but also making sure to be respectful, humble and quiet. I think we're repressed! Maybe it's a form of rebellion against tradition and what's deemed accepted as an Asian. I'm not always thinking about my Asian background while pursuing artistic endeavors but I think it definitely is part of my identity as an Asian Canadian artist and I embrace it. Or maybe it's a thought in us thinking, hey how come there isn't any more Asian work out there? I wish there was something that I can identify with more! How can I make it true? I know! I'll make some myself!
AC: what kind of animation did you grow up on? Did/do you identify or even simply respond differently to animation from Asia than the Disney dominance of North America?
JT: I'm part of the generation who watched Transformers, Popples, Care Bears, Smurfs, anything that was a toy first before a toon! I think the turning point for me was watching 'the fist of the north star' for the first time... you know what I mean, it's like you're traumatized for life... but in a good way. LOL. It was a toon.. but then there's blood.. they're bleeding! Death! I think that summed it up for me one of the differences between American animation and anime. Or even manga and western comics. They're pretty much parallel each other. I think both industries have a lot of genres that you can enjoy. It's just that in Japan specifically all of them are more widely accepted. While I was growing up in grade school I loved superheroes, and I got sick of the Disney musicals, and deemed them childish, that's when my friend showed me some Dragonball Z manga, and discovered they had a cartoon of it. The way they showed all the crazy speed lines, and super powers I found out to be crazy exciting and full of action. And the visuals were something I had never seen in American animation, the designs and style was that much more diverse at the time. But I notice things are changing slowly, as seen in the success of the Incredibles but it's not quite there yet. I feel as this generation grows up we're going to be able to make more sophisticated animation and the audience will mature to provide a plausible market for it. That's exactly how anime and manga is so accepted in Japan right now, as older generations maintain that love for the art, but the stories are more sophisticated. Hopefully it will keep moving in that direction from now on.
JT: How did the idea of using Lou Diamond Phillips as your subject for Icon come about?
AC: This video has been a long time coming for me. It started when my mom rented La Bamba for us since she grew up when Ritchie Valens, who was the first Mexican American “crossover” pop star in the 1950’s. That was the first time I saw Lou Diamond Phillips and it was a breakout role for him. Then there was Stand and Deliver where he also played a Mexican American, which was followed by the Young Guns movies. My sisters and I were like, “wow he plays all these different roles!” and then we found out that he was part Asian and we became real fans, even though he never played Asian people. As I got older I began to think about what it meant for him to be a mixed race person playing all these different ethnicities, especially because as he notes in the Young Guns commentary that “I’m not Latino in the least”. That his breakout roles were ones where he played Mexican Americans and he wasn’t of that heritage raised questions of authenticity and ethnicity and how we see and imagine people who look like they could be anything. I mean, as a mixed race person with no Mexican heritage, does he have a right to play Ritchie Valens? When they were casting for Selena the producers got flak from some for casting Jennifer Lopez because she’s Puerto Rican and not Chicano. On the flipside, what options does an ambiguous actor have? Does it mean that he could only play someone who is mixed or relegated to “color-blind” roles, which to me always seem incongruous. These were all questions I had on my mind while working on this and that I hope my video helps raise, though it’s maybe not explicit in the work.
JT: One scene you brilliantly have LDP in a very tense moment holding a gun...at himself. Could you explain the process and the choices in creating these scenes and as well in the video's overall narrative?
AC: The process started by researching all of LDP’s films and noting which ethnicities he played in each. From there I limited the films to a period between the mid 1980’s to early 1990’s because this was when he was getting leading roles as ethnic characters. There were some films I had never seen that provided great material. In particular were two films shot in Canada; Shadow of the Wolf was a Canadian film where LDP plays an Inuit man (and Jennifer Tilly is his love interest and Toshiro Mifune plays his dad!) and the second surprise was Boulevard where he plays a pimp named “Hassan”… This was the first found footage film I’ve done so the video’s narrative was something I struggled with quite a bit. I knew I could construct scenes that kind of worked in themselves—matching action and movements of scenes across different films; I found this easiest with action scenes. But in the end I only had individual scenes. So I took a step back and looked at the plot devices that kept arising in the films I was using and there was a recurring theme of dreams and nightmares nearly across every film. I think this is because “ethnic people” are often portrayed to be more spiritual—like some kind of “spidey sense”. So that’s a theme I went with; it’s a story of an internal struggle, about self-hate and learning to love oneself.
JT: Initially editing for film was done by hand, scissors and tape. Now that technology has advanced, are you extremely happy editing with computers? Any secret thoughts of making an 'homage' of the traditional process?
AC: I’ve made exactly one film and even that I cut on Final Cut pro. Its usually been a cost consideration– and fear! It would be a lot of fun and would like to do it someday, more for the experience of working with the medium than anything else. I do enjoy working on computers quite a bit, except that I can’t help but get distracted sometimes.
JT: Do you feel working 'behind the camera' in any form is the only way for Asians to present Asians in more diverse genres to wider audiences?
AC: I would generally agree with that. I was reminded of this when watching La Bamba over and over again while working on my video. La Bamba was written and directed by Luis Valdez, a Chicano director who grew up in the same era as Ritchie Valens, and that film really hit on issues of being a person of color in America in the 1950’s. It’s quite nuanced with its portrayals and I’m not sure it would have been as much if it were directed by someone not from that community and that experience. Same thing goes for Asians in media. However, I don’t think it means everybody should go out and make a movie. It’s more important to be an active and conscientious viewer of what we see, what stories are told and not to settle for the same old stereotypes and most importantly is to
JT: Like LDP, you are also of a mixed heritage of Asian and European living raised in America, and now you reside in Canada. What is the most unique guess people give you of your nationality?
AC: Its strange, it really changes wherever you are. I noticed since I got here that people generally don’t ask or guess as much as they do in the states. I noticed that on a recent trip to Chicago where it seemed like I was getting asked what I was everywhere -- even at a urinal at a Karaoke club! But I think that’s just because Americans are a little more forthright. A lot of the time people’s guesses are contextual; I volunteered for Imaginenative festival and I was one of the people to greet festival guests at the airport and at least half of the people coming in thought I was Native. The most outrageous was when I was in university and looking to rent a place off campus and the woman who was renting the place asked me if my dad was part of the military and if he was based in the middle east! But again it’s contextual since my first name is Armenian. But I’ve gotten a lot of different guesses from all kinds of people and then you realize most people don’t know what they’re talking about.
___________
Jeffrey Tran is an artist and filmmaker from Toronto, Canada. He received a Fine Arts degree at the University of Waterloo in traditional art and computer studies. Upon graduating from Computer Animation at Sheridan, he completed the short Dundas n' Bathurst (07) where it won top honors at the Toronto Urban Film Festival. Passionate in exploring the combinations of computer technology, the arts, and film, he enjoys taking a 'tongue in cheek' view on the many social and cultural issues present in today’s society many of his works. He is now currently working as an animator at C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures in Toronto.
Aram Siu Wai Collier is Chinese & English/Dutch, born and raised in San Francisco where he studied film, was a community organizer and worked in independent documentary production. He is now a Toronto based filmmaker, editor, and film festival freelancer. In Fall 2008, he will begin pursuing an MFA in film production at York University in Toronto.
A BOOK about FILM on TV? Whoa...
WARNING. I ripped this from DVD and the audio level is a bit loud. So...turn down your speakers.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Reel Asian at the CBC...
This weekend's screening of In the Shadow of Gold Mountain and Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story was a great success. Click above to see a few pictures.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Asian Heritage Month Ends...
Join us tomorrow at the CBC building downtown for a free screening of Karen Cho's In the Shadow of Gold Mountain. Reel Asian is pleased to be a community partner for these screenings along with our fellow Asian Canadian organizations MyBindi, the Toronto Sikh Professionals, and the North American Association of Asian Professionals (Toronto Chapter). Admission is FREE, but seating is very limited -- reservations are required. Events will include a pre-screening reception in the CBC Atrium where guests with reservations can register/check-in and relax with light refreshments before being escorted up to the third-floor screening room.* A Q&A panel discussion with filmmakers and invited guests follows each screening.
RA at a Subtle Techonlogies...
The RA crew headed over to Innis to attend the Subtle Technologies festival. That's Patricia Lee on the right. She's the festival manager and RA's former Industry coordinator. Last night it also happen to be Patricia's Birthday! For our tamer pictures, click on the image above!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Reel Asian Spring Showcase Pictures!
WELL, The Reel Asian Spring Showcase happened this weekend at York University. Thanks to all the volunteers for making sure everything went by smoothly. Click on the photo below to see more pics!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The Reel Asian Showcase Line Up!!!
Just two more days!!!
| Friday May 23 | Price Family Cinema Accolade East Building | 6:30 PM | OPENING NIGHT FILM: A BATTLE OF WITS Dir. Jacob Cheung Chi-Leung |
| Saturday May 24 | Room 004 Accolade East Building | 2:00 PM | PANEL: ASIANS IN LATIN AMERICA Moderator: Ted Goossen |
| Nat Taylor Cinema Ross Building N102 | 3:30 PM | CONTINUOUS JOURNEY Dir. Ali Kazimi | |
| 5:30 PM | POWER PLAY Canadian Shorts Programme | ||
| 7:00 PM | THREE TIMES Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien | ||
| Sunday May 25 | Nat Taylor Cinema Ross Building N102 | 2:30 PM | CHINESE RESTAURANTS: LATIN PASSIONS Dir. Cheuk Kwan |
| 4:30 PM | THE OTHER HALF Dir: Ying Liang | ||
| 7:00 PM | CLOSING NIGHT FILM: KIEU Dir. Vu T. Thu Ha |
Thursday, May 15, 2008
China Earthquake and Myanmar Cyclone...
On May 3rd, a cyclone hit Myanmar killing over 100,000 people. Myanmar is in desperate need for help from the global community.
On May 12th, a 7.9 earthquake hit the Sichuan region of China. The Chinese government has reported the death toll at 50,000, but my guess as the salvage and rescue operations continue, we're likely to see a lot more fatalities.
Please click on the banners to find out how you can help. You don't always have to help out by giving money. Volunteer your time, spread the word, donate old clothes. We can all do a little to help out a lot.
On May 12th, a 7.9 earthquake hit the Sichuan region of China. The Chinese government has reported the death toll at 50,000, but my guess as the salvage and rescue operations continue, we're likely to see a lot more fatalities.
Please click on the banners to find out how you can help. You don't always have to help out by giving money. Volunteer your time, spread the word, donate old clothes. We can all do a little to help out a lot.
Pittsburgh: Silkscreen Film Festival
Check out photos from Reel Asian's trip to Pittsburgh for the Silk Screen Film Festival!
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