Fuad

ODE TO THE PAST

WED NOV 10, 11AM VAFF ON DEMAND

AVAILABLE TO WATCH FOR THE DURATION OF THE FESTIVAL (NOV 10 – NOV 13, 2021)

BUT YOU ARE NOT BLACK

VANCOUVER PREMIERE

19 min • 2019 • Canada • English • Short Documentary

But You’re Not Black opens on Toronto’s Caribana, a festival Danielle Ayow has attended for most of her life . The festival represents her parents’ Trinidadian culture, but Danielle is also visibly Chinese . With heart and humour, she struggles with how people see her background and how she sees herself .

DANIELLE AYOW is a Toronto-based writer, actor and comedian . As a writer, she focuses primarily on stand-up and sketch comedy drawing from her personal life . Her dry wit and humour played an integral role in writing BUT YOU’RE NOT BLACK . This is her first time directing and writing a documentary .

DIRECTOR Danielle Ayow WRITER Danielle Ayow PRODUCERS Danielle Ayow, Emma Ward

LOOKING BACK

11 min • 2020 • Canada • English, No subtitle • Drama, Musical

A lonely mother and an angry daughter are forced to come to terms with their individual regrets within their relationship . Will they ever be able to forgive themselves, or each other?

ANNA ANAKA is a Filipina-Canadian writer and director and a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where she received the Chancellor Emeritus Award for Excellence in Media Arts . With a cinematic style that plays with space and time, her character-driven stories explore themes of identity, memory and morality .

DIRECTOR Anna Anaka WRITER Lyrics & Screenplay by Anna Anaka, Music by Shane Raman PRODUCER Anna Anaka

THE GODDARD KIT

6 min • 2021 • Canada • English • N/A

VANCOUVER PREMIERE

In the hospital waiting for her rape kit test, Ellie disassociates and finds herself trapped in one of Marty Goddard’s dioramas . There, she finds clues left by Marty, the true creator of the rape kit whose work went unrecognized, while deciding whether to file the police report or not .

ALICE WANG is a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter based in Toronto . Keeping their parents happy with a degree in psychology, they have now transitioned to filmmaking, and enjoy writing stories she has always wanted to tell . Passionate about representation in media, she gravitates towards stories about loss, acceptance, and belonging .

DIRECTOR | WRITER Alice Wang PRODUCERS Niko Acob, Alice Wang, Amanda Ariganello-Araujo

MR JAMES IS DEAD

15 min • 2021 • Canada • English • Action, Comedy

Tom attends his estranged father's funeral only to find out that his father was a spy all along, and that his funeral is full of villains — of all shapes and sizes — from his past .

DANIEL IRVING is a Vancouver director hailing from Salt Spring Island . His comedy and drama films explore physical and visual movement, and refuse to stand still . JOSH ARIES is a Filipino-Canadian director who creates audiencefavourite films . Originally from Thailand, Josh’s appreciation for martial arts, dance, and comedy shines in his kinetic work .

DIRECTOR Daniel Irving, Josh Aries WRITERS Peter Hoskins PRODUCER Luisa Muniz

RECLAIM YOUR NAME CAMPAIGN: FUAD

5 minutes "Fuad" is a depiction of Fuad Ahmed’s acting career in a post 9/11 world, challenges he faced with his name in the Film industry, the success that came after changing it to Gabe Grey, and what made him decide to reclaim his name .

DIRECTOR Anand Pavamani

FIRST CHILD

JUNGJAE HUR

Jung-ah has returned to work after a year-long maternity leave taking care of her first child . Within a few days of her return, her mother collapses from hypertension . Now, Jung-ah desperately needs to find a nanny to watch her daughter in her mother's place . As Jung-ah tries her best to balance childrearing and rebuilding her career, harsh obstacles of reality push her endurance to the limit .

Graduated from Dongguk university, South Korea . He has made number of acclaimed short films including ''BRIGHT FUTURE'' (2017) and ''SLEEPLESS NIGHT'' (2016) . ''FIRST CHILD'' is his first feature film . WED NOV 10, 11AM

VAFF ON DEMAND

AVAILABLE TO WATCH FOR THE DURATION OF THE FESTIVAL (NOV 10 – NOV 13, 2021)

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE 93 minutes • 2021 • South Korea • Korean, English

DIRECTOR Jungjae Hur

PRODUCERS Kim Sungjin

WRITER Jungjae Hur

IN SEARCH OF PURPOSE AND VALUE

THU NOV 11, 11AM

VAFF ON DEMAND

AVAILABLE TO WATCH FOR THE DURATION OF THE FESTIVAL (NOV 11 – NOV 13, 2021)

TANAGOKORO: A CULINARY PORTRAIT

CANADIAN PREMIERE

32 min • 2021 • UK, Japan • English • Documentary

When Japanese chef Yoshinori Ishii is dismayed by the quality of fresh fish in London, he takes it upon himself to investigate and transform local fishing practices . His skill, ethics and passion spark a fishing revolution in the United Kingdom .

VICTORIA FISTES is a film producer and director who has worked on commercials, short films and documentaries . She is curious about human nature and believes that stories worth telling often seem simple at first glance . Her last project, ‘Being Ernest,’ was an animated documentary narrated by a blind boy . MASASHI NOZAKI is a producer based in Japan . His interest is to convey Japanese culture and the culture of other countries through films . He now lives in a rural area of Japan and works to connect the rural area with the world .

DIRECTOR | WRITERS Victoria Fistes, Masashi Nozaki PRODUCERS Victoria Fistes, Masashi Nozaki

SOLO TREKKER

25 min • 2021 • Taiwan • Chinese • Narrative

CANADIAN PREMIERE

Up in the mountains at night, a young logger who illegally cuts down Formosan cypress trees meets a middle-aged solo trekker who broke his leg after falling off a cliff . The trekker offers the young man ten times the price of a Formosan cypress to carry him down the mountain .

CHANG JING YE’S previous work, THE TUNNEL (2007), has been screened at several international film festivals and won a number of accolades . In 2014 she directed The Period for PTS’ Innovative Story programme . SOLO TREKKER (2021) is her latest work, funded by the Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development of Taiwan .

DIRECTOR | WRITER Chang Jing Ye PRODUCER Wang Yi Hua

SNEEZE!

8 min • 2021 • Japan • Japanese with English subtitle • Crime

A few years have passed since society collapsed due to the coronavirus . Gang members living in an abandoned building along a railway are barely scraping by, and they obtain medical-grade N95 masks with the intention of selling them at a high price . Just when they are about to put them up for sale, they get an unexpected visitor . . .

YUKI TAKASHIMA studied theatre and film arts at Waseda University . His experience spans work in television, animation and original content production . He has produced and directed YouTube videos with over 500 million combined total views . His movies have screened internationally, including at the Hawaii International Film Festival and Japan Cuts Hollywood .

DIRECTOR | WRITER Yuki Takashima PRODUCER N/A

TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR

12 min • 2019 • China • N/A • Drama

VANCOUVER PREMIERE

Blessed with discovering his love for music, Tommy grew up with a passion . “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” was the first song that he learned . Easy to learn and can be adapted to fit the different tones that are the different phases of Tommy’s life . This melody accompanied Tommy's life from the beginning until it becomes Di Di Di… .

SHIYUE XU was born in Tianjin, China . She is a documentary director, best known for Left-Behind Children, made in collaboration with the Red Cross Society of China . She attended New York Film Academy in 2017 to learn about live-action movies . TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR is her first live-action short film .

DIRECTOR | WRITER Shiyue Xu PRODUCERS Shiyue Xu, Bin Wang

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FAMILY PORTRAIT

THU NOV 11, 11AM

VAFF ON DEMAND

AVAILABLE TO WATCH FOR THE DURATION OF THE FESTIVAL (NOV 11 – NOV 13, 2021)

THE TASTE OF GINGER

34 min • 2021 • France / Taiwan • Chinese, English • Musical Drama

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Zhi-Wei and Shu-Fen are a Taiwanese couple in their late forties, whose lives are marked by routine and sadness . Zhi-Wei meets with Amanda, a former lover visiting Taiwan, on a night during which the suffering he carries deep within himself is revealed .

JEAN-ROBERT THOMANN is a French-Taiwanese filmmaker . Based in Taiwan since 2010, he has directed a number of movies related to the country, including the feature film SHORT STORY at the West Gate, released both in Taiwan and China . He is also the winner of the 2017 Prix franco-taïwanais .

HANSL VON KWON was born in 1993 in Incheon, South Korea . He is currently on a leave of absence from Chung-Ang University, where he majors in film . He has directed several short films . The King of Backyard is his 8th film .

EMI YASUMURA was born in Gunma

Prefecture in 1985, and currently lives in Tokyo .

She is a director working on films, commercials, TV and music videos .

DIRECTOR | WRITER Jean-Robert Thomann PRODUCERS Bertrand Normand, Laurent Normand, Garance Huang

THE KING OF BACKYARD

30 min • 2019 • South Korea • Korean, English • Fiction

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Jinho lives in misery . His boss torments him, and doesn’t pay his salary for months . The one thing he takes pride in is being the champion of his backyard wrestling crew . Desperate for a change, he challenges his boss to a no-holds-barred wrestling match to win his paycheck .

DIRECTOR | WRITER | PRODUCER Hansl von Kwon

EVERYTHING STAYS

26 min • 2021 • USA • English • Drama

VANCOUVER PREMIERE

This is a story about what it’s like to be the first in a big Filipino family to leave home . Gabe has always been a big brother to his cousins; now they are trying to convince him to stay in Illinois . Gabe must decide what’s more important: his family, or his future?

COLE BACANI is a Filipino-American writer/director . He grew up in the Chicago suburbs and recently graduated from USC . His directing work has been featured on Netflix, YouTube Originals, and more . He is currently working on his first feature film and his production company Violet Hill Pictures . .

DIRECTOR | WRITER Cole Bacani PRODUCERS Norrie Palmer, Lily Norris, Akshay Ravi, Cole Bacani

WAO

25 min • 2020 • Japan • Japanese, English • Sci-fi, Family

VANCOUVER PREMIERE

Wao encounters three strange people: they are aliens, and Wao is told that he must return to his home planet with them . He’s worried about leaving behind his parents, who do not get along, so he enlists the aliens’ help to repair their relationship before he leaves .

DIRECTOR Emi Yasumura WRITER Atsushi Asada PRODUCER Kazuhide Adachi

SPONSOR

COMMUNITY SUPPORTER

ANIMATION

THU NOV 11, 11AM

VAFF ON DEMAND

AVAILABLE TO WATCH FOR THE DURATION OF THE FESTIVAL (NOV 11 – NOV 13, 2021)

DAISIES AND SPARROWS

11 min • 2020 • Singapore • Non-dialogue • Animation

CANADIAN PREMIERE

At each step of this boy’s life, his mother is always there, providing love and support even when he doesn’t see it . When he becomes a parent, he tries to be the best father he can be for his son, but learns that it is not an easy journey .

DIRECTOR | WRITER Ervin Han PRODUCER Elaine Chan SHIRO, THE GIANT, AND THE CASTLE OF ICE

9 min • 2021 • Japan • Japanese with English subtitle • Sci-fi

The story takes place in Minamishimabara City, Nagasaki Prefecture . Shiro, a third-year junior high school student, was spending ordinary days with his school friends in an area known for being the birthplace of the "Shimabara Rebellion," which shook the country during the early Edo period . One summer day, his older childhood friend Akane returns home from Tokyo . Alongside Tokiya, another childhood friend, Shiro and his friends take a walk around the city . As they were having mixed feelings while looking back in time, a mysterious creature named Goron suddenly appears in front of them .

DIRECTOR Okamoto WRITER N/A PRODUCER N/A FIRE CRAFT

VANCOUVER PREMIERE 25 min • 2021 • Japan • Japanese with English subtitle • Fantasy

In a certain world, a boy finds scissors left as a memento of his father who has died . He learns from his mother that those scissors were made by a craftsman named Sasuke who lives in another country . The boy goes to see Sasuke to fix the scissors .

DIRECTOR | WRITER NAOKI MATSUURA PRODUCER WAKANA ISOYAMA

HOVERMAN

12 min • 2021 • USA • English • Animation

WORLD PREMIERE

In the pleasant town of Harmony City, Carl becomes a useless superhero with limited powers, known as Hoverman . With the help of a talented, beautiful scientist and black-belt martial artist named Jane, Hoverman fights crime against an equally unimpressive villain: the mysterious X .

DIRECTOR | WRITER Vincent Lin PRODUCERS Matthew Damato, Vincent Lin DINO BONE

CANADIAN PREMIERE

2 min • 2021 • USA • English • Animation, Comedy

After seeing a suggestive fossil of two dinosaurs "getting it on," an anxious father tells his curious son a series of little white lies to avoid having The Talk . Ultimately the son believes his father's last excuse, then reveals what he thought they were doing all along .

DIRECTORS | WRITERS | PRODUCERS Jordan Powers, Sam Durkin FLOWING HOME (NHU MÔT DÒNG SÔNG)

15 min • 2021 • France, Canada • French wit English sub-titles • Short Animation

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Thao leaves Vietnam with her uncle . Her sister Saoi Maï remains with their parents, hoping they will soon be reunited . But their separation lasts nearly 20 years . Thao and Sao Maï exchange letters about their everyday lives, their memories, the war, and its ghosts .

DIRECTOR | WRITER Sandra Desmazières PRODUCERS Dora Benousilio, Julie Roy

SPLISH SPLASH

9 min • 2021 • Indonesia • Indonesian, English • Fantasy

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Two bickering siblings unite to fight pirates who want to steal the precious Sun Pearl necklace that’s needed for their family ritual .

DIRECTORS | WRITERS | PRODUCERS Andra Fembriarto NANAKOROBI (SEVEN FALLS)

VANCOUVER PREMIERE

7 min • 2021 • USA • Canada, English • Animated Short

A young girl in Hokkaido undergoes seven challenges to save a lost orphan .

DIRECTORS Glenna Burmer, Gaby Breiter WRITER | PRODUCER Glenna Burmer SPONSOR

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