Toronto’s biggest little film festival

Brendan Rowe
Staff Writer
The entrance to Bloor Cinema lit up for the premiere of the 14th annual Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival this month, kicking off an event that manages to be a big time presence wrapped up in a delightfully intimate package.
Selling out Bloor Cinema or The Royal is no easy feat, but Reel Asian did on several occasions while maintaining its small festival feel.
Founded in 1997, Reel Asian works toward promoting Asian cinema, culture and identity with an emphasis on Asian-Canadian filmmakers and local Toronto artists. This year’s festival ran from Nov. 9 to 15, showcased over 40 films as well as several special events, and was one of the best industry series in the Toronto area.
Gallants, a feature co-directed by Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Clement Cheng, opened the festival. Gallants is a kung-fu film that bridges the gap between ’70s martial arts movies and modern culture by casting older actors – something rarely done in Hong Kong cinema – and placing their old-fashioned mannerisms and ways of thinking into modern Hong Kong, where the noble martial artist has given way to tournament fighters with a softer edge.
Cheng, in his panel on Hong Kong cinema, related how the film came together: Cheng interviewed his actors, who were cast before the script’s completion, about their philosophies on martial arts and wrote these views into the script. Laughing, he explained how the older actors did their own stunts with none of the CGI, wires or aids that tend to be used in today’s cinema. Stunt actors were on set for every scene but the old actors would wave them off, saying, “You’re not me; you can’t do what I do.”
Days of Rain (Tage des Regens), directed by German director Andreas Hartmann, documents the life of a Vietnamese family as they try to build a new home outside of the local flood lands. Hartmann’s film shows its uniqueness through his approach to communication in documentary filmmaking, where the camera was used to communicate as well as record. Hartmann revealed in a post-screening question-and-answer session that he had spent four weeks shooting in Vietnam without an interpreter. Furthermore, when he returned to Germany, his translator wouldn’t go through all of the footage because of time constraints. This left Hartmann in a strange position, forcing him to cut his footage in half, from 30 to 15 hours, without being able to understand the language spoken in each scene. Ultimately, he used his memories of feelings at the time and his subjects’ facial expressions in order to make judgements about content and importance.
York grad Meelad Moaphi’s Film Concerto in Hanging Major is an exploration of suicide, filmmaking and life in an allusion to Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Developed out of the third act of Mozart’s opera, when most of the main characters attempt suicide, the film is also paired with a Mozart concerto and uses lines of dialogue from Wataru Tsurumi’s The Complete Manual of Suicide, a book published in Japan explaining the methods and lethality of different types of suicide.
Two other York grads won awards at the festival: Jane Kim won the WIFT-T Award for Women in Film for her short Through the Spider’s Edge, and Lesley Loski Chan, director of Redress Remix, won the Trinity Square Video Visionary Video Award.
One of Reel Asian’s strengths is how the festival brings together its audience and the creators behind its works. The festival held question-and-answer periods after most screenings, featured panels for industry and festival attendees and set up the Reel Asian lounge, where pass and badge holders could mingle with staff and guests.
The festival’s industry series also encouraged interaction between industry professionals and independent creators through panels, workshops and special presentations. The panels included discussions on documentary filmmaking, martial arts and Hong Kong cinema, and what’s next in the industry. The festival’s two major workshops were an animation master class with Japanese animator Koji Yamamura and a scriptwriting workshop with story editor and writer Elke Town.
Reel Asian claims to be the only festival in Toronto to host a live pitching competition for independent filmmakers. Pitching is the first step in getting a film made and is integral for getting ideas across to producers, companies or potential staff so that a project can begin to take shape. Reel Asian’s competition pitted teams of local filmmakers in two categories – emerging and established – against each other to see who could give the best pitch.
Over the course of the festival, conversations were had, films were watched and friends were made. It seems like some of the bigger festivals often forget that the audience is just as important as the films themselves. Reel Asian kept this thought at the forefront all week, and should definitely make everyone’s calendar next year.

5 MORE ASIAN FILMS YOU CAN’T MISS
Au Revoir Taipei
Gangsters, kidnappings and gags imbue Taipei with the qualities of Paris in this romantic comedy.
Bi, Don’t Be Afraid
Follow six-year old Bi’s family as they learn about themselves, their sexuality and their family roles.
The Mountain Thief
A meta-documentary that tells the story of the real and fictional lives of garbage-collectors in Payates, Philippines.
Golden Slumber
A man framed for murder goes on the run in this clever Japanese film based on the Beatles song of the same name.
A Dragged Out Affair
Winners of last year’s pitch competition, this trio set out to provide a larger stage for some of Toronto’s talented drag queens.