FAMILIES OF ORIGIN, FAMILIES OF CHOICES: CANADIAN SHORTS PROGRAM

VAFF ON DEMAND (AVAILABLE ONLY AS OF MONDAY NOV 7 AND CAN BE VIEWED UNTIL NOV 13)

WE DON’T NEED YOUR KIND

12:30 min • 2022 • Canada • English • Drama

B.C. PREMIERE

Sara, an Asian-Canadian Youtuber, likes to eat interesting food on camera. When she wakes up to a slur spray painted on her wall, Sara's forced to deal with the hate crime. Sara finds solace in her YouTube platform and realizes how social media can be used to amend her situation.

KENNEDY KAO is a Toronto-based filmmaker who crafts stories about Asian-Canadian diaspora. His film “DANICA’S MOM” won the Grand Prix Prize at Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema 2020 and was screened at Canadian Film Fest in 2021. His film “WE DON’T NEED YOUR KIND” is currently making its festival run.

EMMA is a writer and actor based in Toronto, Canada. She attended Ryerson University for film studies and trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York. She contributes to youth programming at the TIFF as a part of the Next Wave Committee.

DIRECTOR | WRITER Kennedy Kao PRODUCER Dina Dong

LATE BLOOMER

13:01 min • 2021 • Canada • English • Drama, Comedy

A naive and wide-eyed girl moves into a dorm with her best friend. As her friend grows up and moves on, she fights to maintain her relationship with her, while also struggling to come of age on her own terms.

DIRECTOR Emma Cheuk WRITERS Ashton Boyle, Emma Cheuk PRODUCERS Luke Avoledo, Caroline Biedka

COPELESS

17:09 min • 2022 • Canada • English, Punjabi • Drama

B.C. PREMIERE

A young man struggles to find peace at his father’s funeral. He meets an unassuming guest who understands what it’s like to lose a parent. Together, they must reconcile past, present, and future to overcome their losses and prepare to make tough choices to close this loop in life.

JERSEY grown and raised, but now

Toronto-based, Jaskaran has been a filmmaker since he was fifteen. In the last five years, he’s written, directed, and produced multiple short films, and won the 2020 Whistler Film Festival’s Power Pitch Competition.

AMY’S a Toronto based Taiwanese-

Canadian journalist that makes award-winning podcasts, films and writes about food, culture and the

Asian American experience.

INDUK LEE is an emerging Korean Canadian filmmaker from Halifax, Nova Scotia. BADUK is her debut short film that has screened internationally and is the recipient of the Best Atlantic Short award at the Atlantic International Film Festival.

DIRECTOR | WRITER Jaskaran Singh PRODUCERS Virinderpaul Singh, IFFSA Talent Fund

MY MOTHER’S HOME

15:00 min • 2021 • Canada • English, Tagalog • Drama

WORLD PREMIERE

After not contacting his mother for many years, Gino returns home after her funeral and decides to sell the house he grew up in. His distasteful demeanour towards the home and his mother changes as he begins to recognize and remember who he once was.

REGINALD is a Filipino/Canadian filmmaker with a passion for strong visuals and meaningful narratives.

Always challenging the limits of his creativity but never losing focus of the big picture.

DIRECTOR | WRITER Reginald Bernandino PRODUCERS Robin Macabulos, Allen Xu

THREADS OF LOVE

WESTERN CANADA PREMIERE

17:21 min • 2022 • Canada • English, Vienamese • Documentary

Started by mural artist Tina Nguyen, the Ontario based scrunchie business XXL & CO exploded after going viral on Tik Tok during the pandemic with more than 2 million views. Tina and XXL & CO beat the odds and highlights acts of service, the love language of East Asian parents.

DIRECTOR | WRITER | PRODUCER Amy Chyan

BADUK

WESTERN CANADA PREMIERE

5:40 min • 2021 • Canada• English, Korean • Drama

Haejin rediscovers the game ‘baduk’ that she played with her mother in her youth, and revisits the moments that shaped their relationship.

DIRECTOR | WRITER Induk Lee PRODUCER Kelsey Power