Cine-Asie will showcase eight short films from up and coming Canadian and Asian filmmakers in conjunction with the Jeon Soo-il retrospective in Montreal, on December 2, at the Cinémathèque Québécoise from 6 pm to 7:00 pm. This is a rare occasion to highlight rising Canadian talents in an international context as part of the Jeon Soo-Il Retrospective. Some highlights include: a non-verbal, poignant short film on Inuit life, TUNGIJUQ (35 mm, 7 minutes, Igloolik Isuma Productions) by Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël with Zhacharias Kunuk (Director of “Atanarjuat’) as leading performer; award-winning director Helen Lee’s (THE ART OF WOO – 2001) video shot in her hometown in Korea, HERS AT LAST (2008); a stop-motion animation film by a Alexandra Lemay, graduate film student at Concordia University, THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY (2008); and Jason Karman’s STATE OF YO (2007), which was one of the best Canadian independent short films at Cine-Asie’s annual National Portrait Contest 2009.
Short Films
Tungijuq (2009) by Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël
7min., no dialogue
The cycle of life is revealed in a pulsing rhythm as Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq turns from animal to human to seal and then back again. Tungijuq, which co-stars Zacharias Kunuk, is a charged meditation on the Inuit seal hunt and the claim for sovereignty over traditional practices.
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Hers at Last (2008) by Helen Lee
18min., English
Solongo is a Mongolian expatriate living in Seoul with her American husband. Myungjin, recently returned to her native country after 10 years abroad studying painting, feels equally displaced. Through the mysterious connection of a 10 year old girl riding past on a kick scooter, the two women find unexpected solace and hope for the future as they confront the choices they made in their lives.
Who Killed the Goldfish? (2009) by Jin Hong
11min., English & Korean w/English subtitles
Power dynamic between a mother and a daughter in a Korean immigrant family whose members vote to speak only English at home. The daughter takes advantage of her fluency in English to overpower her mother’s authority. The geological and psychological separation of a family is amplified by the obstacles of communication. Through the cracks caused by individual transition and adaptation, we can glimpse the domestic struggles of an immigrant family.
This is not a love story (2008) by Alexandra Lemay
11.11min., without dialogue,
Driven by his infatuations, a young man demonstrates the conundrums of relationships by gambling with the game of seduction.
Tall Tale (2008) by Kelly-Anne Riess and Kirk Loveland
4min 55sec., English
Synopsis: Niko, a teenage boy, struggles with drug abuse and the pressures of finishing high school. The stresses in his life cause him to have a strange dream. Niko is half-Chinese and has difficulty in high school and doesn’t feel he belongs because of his mixed heritage. Even teachers seem to be against him.
State of Yo (2007) by Jason Karman
4.28min., English
Harvey Lowe won the first yo-yo championship in 1932. He experienced the early loss of his father, political and economic unrest, and a brain tumor. The yo-yo, which made him famous, helped him regain his identity.
Awards: Grand Prize at the Kitsilano Film Festival 2009
Harvest Moon (2009) by Mina Vladimir
4.28min., English
A young women and her lover, separated on different continents, struggle to preserve their connection. She is afraid that the distance will weaken his love and that foreign culture will change him. From both ends of the world, they are afraid that they are losing each other.
Mon nom est Tuan (2008) by Ngyuen-Anh Ngyuen
6.30min., French
A Vietnamese boy is adjusting in subtle ways to western life. He meets a girl at his new school and befriends her.
Festivals: in competition at Chicago International Children’s Film Festival and the ReelAsian Film Festival in Toronto 2009.
