Asian Film Database
Haiku (2009) |
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| 1min. Animation, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ann Marie Fleming (Japan) |
| Production Company: | Sleepy Dog Films |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | An animation of the winning haiku of Sleepy Dog Films' haiku contest as interpreted by Ann Marie Fleming. (Sleepy Dog Films) |
| Source: | |
The Haj (1994) |
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| 43min. Experimental, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Kagen Goh (Singapore) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A beatnik love story about two strangers who meet through the internet and embark upon an unorthodox date that turns into an unexpected spiritual adventure. (Kagen Goh) |
| Source: | |
Ham & Cheese (2004) |
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| 88min. Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Warren P. Sonoda |
| Production Company: | Black Walk/Industry Works/Kaboom |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | Two talentless actors (Jason Jones and Mike Beaver) attempt to make it in the cruel world of showbiz. Without an ounce of talent between them, and the only strength they have being persistence, they'll do anything to attain their dream. Except let it go. (IMDb) |
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Handstand (2006) |
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| 4min. Video Art, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Heather Keung |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Handstand is part of a series of performance art videos whereby the artist submits herself to several physical endurance challenges. (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Hanging (2006) |
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| 3min. Video Art, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Heather Keung |
| Production Company: | |
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| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Hanging is part of a series of performance art videos whereby the artist submits herself to several physical endurance challenges. (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Hang In There (2009) |
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| 3min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Leslie Supnet(Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A nightmarish short about a young couple and a troubled bear. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Hannah (2005) |
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| 16min. Experimental, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Samuel Kiehon Lee (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | The story of a woman with an anxiety disorder going out on a blind date. This film was commissioned for Trinity Square Video, Toronto. (Vimeo) |
| Source: | |
The Hawker (2012) |
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| 2min. Experimental, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Elisha Lim with Coco Riot (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | |
| Source: | |
Hazardous (2011) |
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| min. Drama, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ali Kazimi (India) |
| Production Company: | Ontario Arts Council |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Hazardous is one of the first independent S3D films produced in Canada. It follows Zak, a young Canadian filmmaker of South Asian descent as he sets out to make a film for Father's Day. In a post-911 security paranoia permeates Toronto and on this day the ordinary becomes extraordinary. (York University) |
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Heartbreak Hoteru (1990) |
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| Documentary | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Midi Onodera (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | This programme was produced for the Canadian television series, "Inside Stories" that showcased stories from Canada's diverse multicultural communities. Heartbreak Hoteru is about two Japanese-Canadian brothers and their struggle to hang onto the family-run motel after their father dies. One of the brothers is an Elvis fanatic and champion bowler while the other is a down and out gambler. (midionodera.com) |
| Source: | |
Heaven on Earth (2008) |
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| 106min. Fiction, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Hindi |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Deepa Mehta (India) |
| Production Company: | Hamilton-Mehta Productions, National Film Board of Canada |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Chand leaves her home and loving family behind in India to build a new life in Canada. She moves to Brampton, Ontario and marries Rocky, a man she has never met. Rocky is overwhelmed by the burden of his family: a controlling mother and confused father, and the sister, her husband and two children that he is obliged to support. Bright and well-educated, Chand feels trapped in a world with which she cannot connect. Estranged and mistreated by her new family, homesick and missing her family in India, Chand becomes the brunt of Rocky's frustrations as the pressures of life wear down his basic decency. Having no one to turn to, Chand begins to fantasize another version of her life, based on an indian fable. (Telefilm Canada) |
| Source: | |
Helena: Helen's Journey Through Mexico (2003) |
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| 17min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Helen Cho (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | American high school student Helen Cho spent one summer travelling to remote regions of Mexico, learning about the lives of ingenous peoples - and herself - in the process. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
The Hill (2004) |
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| 12min. Fiction, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Deborah Chow (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | A couple, Jack and Jill, meet at a hill to recount the events of an earlier evening spent together. Their recollections are interspersed with animated sequences that illustrate how differently they each experienced the night in question. The Hill is a taut and compelling drama about friendship betrayed. (femfilm.ca) |
| Source: | |
Hell Money (2010) |
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| 12min. Video Art, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Paul Wong Projects |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Excerpts featuring Paul Wong as the Wiry Man in Season 3, Episode 19 of the X-Files (1996). This video is part of Paul Wong's '5', a series of site-specific events and installations commissioned by the City of Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Programs. (www.5.paulwongprojects.com) |
| Source: | |
Her (-) |
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| 10min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Kai-Ling Hsueh (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Memories overlap with fantasy. Isolated and closeted desires give way to a shadow play of secret passion. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
The High Cost of Living (2011) |
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| 95min. Fiction, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English, French, Cantonese |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Deborah Chow (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Suki Films |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | This is the story of Nathalie, a young pregnant woman whose world falls apart when she loses her baby in a hit-and-run accident. As her life unravels, she stumbles across Henry who has been searching for his victim. Unaware of what he has done, Nathalie sees him as an unlikely guardian angel. (Telefilm Canada) |
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High Yellow (2010) |
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| 5min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Nahed Mansour (Lebanon) |
| Production Company: | |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | High Yellow draws attention to forms of mimicry through dance, costume, voice and gestures. The video weaves together four characters: the artist, Savion Glover, Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, to explore the relationship between the figure of the tap-dancer and the negotiation of racial identities in popular entertainment. (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Hing Dai And the Man (1997) |
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| 14min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Patrick Yu & Kevin Fukanaga (USA) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A moral tale about two drug runners, one Chinese, the other white who are confronted by a motorcycle cop. The pig turns out to be a Chinese brotherman. Now what? (Reel Asian) |
| Source: | |
Hip Hop Mom (2011) |
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| 4min. Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | mina Shum (Hong Kong) |
| Production Company: | Thoughts from the Asylum, Union of B.C. Performers |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A comedic take on how moms of the world can stay true to themselves while raising a family. (IMDb) |
| Source: | |
The Hitchhiker Project (2008) |
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| min. Crime, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Cuong Ngo, (Vietnam) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Sparks fly when Sophie, a cover-model, and Clair, an ambitious young designer, decide to let lose and party after a fashion shoot. They invite Clair's boyfriend Josh along for the ride. When the idea of easy money is broached, Josh suggests a friend who could be of use. Everything goes as planned until an unexpected knock on Josh's door changes sets sinister series of events in motion. Desperate, the trio hatch a plan. (Igor Szczurko) |
| Source: | |
Hitting Zero (2004) |
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| 16min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Darlene Lim (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Four friends, four stories, one dilemma. Forget about the finish line; Trevor, Elaine, Mark and Melissa just want to get to the starting mark. Hitting Zero is a comical look at the small tragedies of life encountered on the way to achieving the goals we strive for. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Hogtown: The Politics of Policing (2005) |
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| 96min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | min Sook Lee (South Korea) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | Best Feature-length Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival (2005) |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | An analysis of the intersection of policing and municipal politics in Toronto, Ontario. |
| Source: | |
Hollywood Role Models (2001) |
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| 5min. Short, Colour, Black and White | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Julia Cowing (USA) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A performative tongue in cheeky deconstruction on the representation of Asian women in Hollywood and its unintentionally hilarious effects on one woman. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Homage to Les Paul (2010) |
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| 20min. Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Paul Wong Projects |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | This video features Joey Shithead Keithley of D.O.A.on guitar. Les Paul (1915-2009) was the foremost influence on 20C sound and responsible for the world famous Gibson model electric guitar. This video is part of Paul Wong's '5', a series of site-specific events and installations commissioned by the City of Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Programs. (www.5.paulwongprojects.com) |
| Source: | |
Home (2009) |
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| 48min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Burmese, English, Malay |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Desiree Lim (Malaysia) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Malaysia |
| Summary: | Home is a documentary of Burmese refugees displaced in Malaysia and is part of Project HOME – an effort to bring refugees and their allies together to raise awareness on this grave issue through the power of visual storytelling. (Desiree Lim) |
| Source: | |
HOME (2009) |
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| 21min. Drama, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Burmese, English, Malay |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Desiree Lim (Malaysia) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Malaysia |
| Summary: | Home is a short drama inspired by the true stories of Burmese refugees displaced in Malaysia. HOME is part of Project HOME – an effort to bring refugees and their allies together to raise awareness on this grave issue through the power of visual storytelling. (Desiree Lim) |
| Source: | |
Home Movies (1981) |
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| min. Film Installation, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Midi Onodera (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A three projector film installation which consisted of three 50 foot film loops hung through a room. Memories of childhood constantly shift as time progresses. (midionodera.com) |
| Source: | |
The Home Promised (2014) |
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| min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Taiwanese |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Betty Xie |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Taiwan |
| Summary: | The Home Promised is a short documentary film that takes us to the heart of one of the last 'illegally-constructe' neighbourhoods in downtown Taipei soon to be torn down. With its earliest buildings dating back to the Japanese colonial period, the neighbourhood was later settled by loyal Kuomintang soldiers who fled mainland China after 1949, as well as rural migrants. Through its architecture, people, history and collective memory, the Shaoxing neighbourhood is not only a reflection of Taipei's current growth and urban history, but also a self-enclosed world within the city centre. (http://thehomepromised.com) |
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Homesickness (2002) |
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| 8min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Hohyun Joung (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | After her father passes away director Hohyun Joung returns to Korea to visit her mother, who decides to move out of the house where Hohyun was born and where her father and mother lived for 25 years. Her mother also fails to observe a sacrificial rite to the father's family. Because of this, she is subjected to an astonishing barrage of verbal abuse from them. A deeply moving film. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Homestay (2007) |
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| 90min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ian Kenji Barbour & Joshua Yuji Olson (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
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| Setting: | |
| Summary: | Homestay is a documentary that has the look and feel of a dramatic narrative. The fictional structure is used as a means to set-up the real experiences of the film's two protagonists: Skeena Reece and Yasuki Mukai. Tokyo comedy school graduate Yasuki Mukai leaves his moribund post-school life for his first taste of the world outside Japan. In Vancouver, Tsimshian performance artist Skeena Reece plots a passive summer income by applying as a billet for a Japanese/Canadian homestay program. Upon Yasuki's arrival, Skeena's impromptu accommodation plans are dashed as her step dad (played by Gary Farmer) explains that he's expecting a romantic guest. Lacking a plan B, Skeena decides to embark on a journey to her ancestral lands, dragging Yasuki along with her. Homestay is a gothic take on the road and buddy movie genres, traversing the lines of fiction and documentary while exploring cultural exchange through compromised circumstance. |
| Source: | Reel Asian |
Home Was Never Like This (1983) |
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| Short | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Midi Onodera (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | |
| Source: | |
The Horror of Kindergarten (2001) |
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| 5min. Animation, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Jeff Chiba Stearn (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Meditating Bunny Studio |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | The Horror of Kindergarten is a whimsical collage of a little boy's first day of Kindergarten. The 2D/3D animated film revolves around the philosophical Conrad who tells of his experiences as he journeys into Kindergarten's heart of darkness all while knowing of the impending horror that lay ahead. Frightened by his strange surroundings, Conrad finds refuge in his imagination. (www.bitlanders.com/) |
| Source: | |
Hot Sauce (1998) |
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| 81min. Comedy, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Bashar Shbib (Syria) |
| Production Company: | Oneira Pictures International |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Following the adventures of the B-movie director, Bill Gabriel Young (Bashar Shbib), Hot Sauce explores the sensation of taste. Suffering from amnesia after being mugged and knocked unconscious, Bill attempts to piece his life together. With the help of his friend Bella (Susan Eyton-Jones), he inadvertently discovers that spicy foods help him to regain his early memories bit by bit. His subsequent hot-food binges, however, only serve to reveal that his forgotten life may not be worth remembering. (www.oneira.com) |
| Source: | |
The Hotel (2011) |
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| 17min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Paul Wong (Canada) |
| Production Company: | Paul Wong Projects |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | United States |
| Summary: | For the grand opening of The Waldorf Hotel on Halloween 2010, Paul Wong created The Hotel, inviting participants to wander the hallways and enter 'guest rooms', blurring the boundaries of public and private space. Expect nothing/will happen, and it did. (paulwongprojects.com) |
| Source: | |
The House (2011) |
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| 109min. Drama, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Desiree Lim (Malaysia) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Trailer |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Jean Kaneko (Natalie Skye) - swept away by the tsunami of the catastrophic financial meltdown - just quit her coveted job as an investment banker on Wall Street. After a soul-searching journey traveling around the world, she returns home to Vancouver, still floating in limbo. Instead of settling down, she camps out in an empty home owned by a friend's rich family who never lived there. To her surprise, she's actually not the only occupant in the house. She finds out that if she wanted to stay, she'd have to share the place with some former occupants who've turned into bad squatters -- all of whom are not even supposed to be there, because they're actually dead. As Jean reluctantly confronts these souls as tormented as herself, they inevitably end up in an entangled mass of secrets and lies... (Desiree Lim) |
| Source: | |
How To Be More Chinese (1997) |
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| 7min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Jane Luk (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | |
| Summary: | A hilarious mock infomercial selling hin home consumers AsiaTech's How to Be More Chinese kits. After all, Asians are taking over the world and everybodys got a touch of yellow fever. (Reel Asian) |
| Source: | |
How to Make Kimchi: According to my Kun Umma (2002) |
|
| 18min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Samuel Kiehon Lee (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A documentary about Korean-Canadian immigrant life, and how to make the famous Korean dish starring Bong Ja Lee. (Samuel Kiehon Lee) |
| Source: | |
Howard (2012) |
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| 19min. Documentary, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Colour, Black and White |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Carolyn Wong |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | Best Canadian Short Award Winner, Vancouver Asian Film Festival (2013); Best LGBT Short Film, Honourable Mention, Cleveland International Film Festival (2013); Nomination for Excellence in Documentary Short Filmmaking, Asian American International Film Festival (NYC, 2013) |
| Setting: | Canada, United States |
| Summary: | Howard is a documentary about the filmmaker's estranged Uncle Howard who was murdered in Yonkers in 1995. The film uncovers his complex and conflicted life as a gay man troubled with piety and self worth, which drove him to success, yet, ultimately led to self-destructive behaviour and death. The story is intertwined with the filmmaker's musings about the life/death of the Uncle she did not know in an attempt to comprehend what it means to have an estranged relative murdered. (CFMDC) |
| Source: | |
Hundred Percent (1998) |
|
| 102min. Drama, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Eric Koyanagi (USA) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | USA |
| Summary: | Three Asian men live in L.A. Isaac is a romantic coffee shop worker, who waits for the woman of his dreams, and loses his balance after meeting a femme fatale called Thaise. Slim is a Rastafarian smoking pot all the time, who is trying to elude a local mobster. Troy is an actor, who has to choose between his career and his girlfriend. (IMDB) |
| Source: | |
Hunger (2014) |
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| Uncategorized | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | mina Shum (Hong Kong) |
| Production Company: | Cineworks Omnibus |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Part of Cinework's Co-op film Breaking Up In Three minutes |
| Source: | |
Hungry Kitty (2011) |
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| 30min Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Alison S.M Kobayashi (Canada) |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Hungry Kitty is the first installment of A.S.M. Kobayashi's YouTube Diptych series. By carefully reshooting YouTube videos from the perspectives of animals, babies and other beings, Kobayashi experiments and playfully reinterprets the gaze of YouTube videos. (Alison S.M. Kobayashi) |
| Source: | |
Hurtling Herself Into the Centre (2000) |
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| 5min. Uncategorized, Colour | |
| Language(s): | English |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Susanda Yee |
| Production Company: | |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | Hurtling herself into the centre experiments with storytelling, this video shows how the interpretation of story is as much about storytelling as the actual events within the story. It also plays with the relationship of the storyteller and the story, and how the story can grow and become its own entity. (Vtape) |
| Source: | |
Hysterical: The Musical (2000) |
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| 2min. Animation, Colour | |
| Language(s): | Sound |
| Director/Filmmaker: | Ann Marie Fleming (Japan) |
| Production Company: | Sleepy Dog Films |
| Trailer/Excerpt/Film: | Film |
| Awards: | |
| Setting: | Canada |
| Summary: | A musical look at reproductive technologies circa 1962. (Sleepy Dog Films) |
| Source: | |
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