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To celebrate Manitoba’s Asian Heritage Month, Cinematheque presents the best from the REEL ASIAN FESTIVAL in Toronto, assembled by Heather Keung, Programming Director.
“Backed by soundtracks as varied as the powerful sounds of the symphony orchestra and the dance beats of the nightclub are this year’s most loved Canadian shorts. With works by artists from coast to coast (B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia), this selection presents a variety of unique animation and conceptual videos. Focusing on the rich cinematic movements of robotic machines, the Sharpie of a self-obsessed artist or the antics of a weird, naked creature up a rabbit hole, each short creatively draws attention to the world around it.
The screening of this best of program in collaboration with the Winnipeg Film Group, marks Reel Asian’s first presentation in Winnipeg. FULL BOAT presents the best Asian Canadian shorts of the season and for this special presentation will include recent award winners, Canadian Spotlight artists Paul Wong and Lesley Loksi Chan. For more information please go to www.reelasian.com
PERFECT DAY
Dir. Paul Wong | Canada 2008 | 7:30 |
Paul Wong was the winner of the Bell Canada Award in Video Art and Canada’s Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. Perfect Day focuses on Paul Wong, alone in his studio trying to find inspiration. Revealing insecure moments in the everyday life of a mature artist, Wong searches for the roots of his creative process. Perfect Day is part of Wong’s UNPLUGGED series which focuses on contemplative, visceral and closely intimate experiences.
RUNNING (HEART, MIND, BODY, SPIRIT)
Dir: Ann Marie Fleming | Canada | 2008 | 5:23 |
Based on acupuncture theory, Fleming’s new animation features her infamous character Stick on another adventure through the body and beyond. This new short was commissioned by the Victoria Symphony Orchestra for their Reel Music series and features an original score by French Canadian composer Maxime Goulet.
SELF PORTRAIT
Dir: Khanhthuan Tran | Canada | 2007 | 2:05 |
In a study on himself, Tran concentrates on drawing to illustrate the process of self-reflection. Khanhthuan Tran was born in Vietnam.This was Tran's first project during his residency at the Canadian Film Centre. Residents were asked to make introduction films about themselves so he decided to literally film himself making a drawing of himself. In watching the film, viewers are taken through the process as the artists's face gradually became masked by his own delineated image.
TRANSFER POINT
Dir: Jenny Lin | Canada | 2007 | 5:23 |
This quirky, animated work looks at the unique fashion and character of daily commuters in an urban transit system. Using rhythmic repetition and humour, Lin takes everyday observations and turns them into a dreaming state of mind.
DISCOPEDIA
Dir: Ho Tam | Canada | 2007 | 8:15 |
“All my life I’ve been looking for someone like you”. With the hypnotic ambience of a nightclub scene and the dreamy images of boys dancing, Tam’s analysis of how we identify with the language of love and desire takes classic pickup lines and uses them in oddly poetic subtexts.
CATALOGUE
Dir: Blair Fukumura | Canada | 2008 | 4:00 |
Former Winnipegger Blair Fukumura’s Catalogue is a playful collage of mid-1970s fashion and catalogue items. CATALOGUE makes a comparison between shopping through retro magazines and searching through contemporary personal advertisements online. With the convenience of social websites such as Facebook, Fukumura questions whether or not it is any easier to find what we want today.
MACHINE WITH A WISHBONE
Dir: Randall Okita | Canada 2007 | 5:00 |
In a live-action film featuring the work of Arthur Ganson, Okita uses innovative camera choreography, photo sculpture, and kinetic sculpture to tell the tale of a mechanical wishbone that has come to life. Through bewitching landscapes and impossible interactions, machines and objects become characters in a spellbinding experience like nothing you have ever seen before.
AROUND THE CORNER FROM SOLITUDE
Dir: Stefanie Wong | Canada 2008 | 3:15 |
Sweet raindrop shapes, growing leaves, and dandelions in the wind are amazingly animated through embroidery. While Wong’s needle and thread follow an intense labour process, this animation delicately contemplates the passage of time.
UP THE RABBIT HOLE
Dir: Asa Mori | Canada 2008 | 4:20 |
A surreal Super 8 dream sequence unravels as a six-nippled creature finds herself trapped in a capsule with a dead rabbit and a bloody hole. With trusty rabbit ears, she taps her way through bizarre TV scenes: Japanese men on carousels, people in chickens suits with balloons, and disturbing garbage bags in bathtubs.
Asa Mori was born in Nagano, Japan, and currently lives in Vancouver. She acquired her first pet at the age of six, a rabbit called "House". House died a week later. She has a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, primarily working with media installation and animation.
WANDA & MILES
Dir. Lesley Loksi Chan | Canada 2007 | 12:25 |
In a narrative based on Chan’s grandmother and mother, Wanda & Miles is about carrying the weight of heavy histories from one home to the next. Told from a child’s hopeful perspective, the film continues to remind us that when times are difficult, we must always look for new ways to hold on to things. Building personal stories into eternal metaphors, these sweet anecdotes of love dig deeply into the heart.