Asian Film Database

Tapestry (2009)
5min. Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Sharlene Bamboat (Pakistan)
Production Company:
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Film
Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Tapestry is a short experimental documentary depicting the fragmentation of identity in Parsi culture. Filmed at a fertility ceremony during a Parsi wedding, this piece examines the nature of a diasporic culture and the appropriated traditions that accompany it. (Vtape)
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Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam (2009)
80min. Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Omar Majeed (Pakistan)
Production Company:	Eye Steel Film
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Trailer
Awards:	Best World Documentary, Harlem International Film Festival; Top Ten Music Documentaries 2009, Spin Magazine Online; Top 10 Documentaries, Audience Poll, Warsaw International Film Festival
Setting:	World
Summary:	Three years in the making, this feature documentary follows the progression of the Muslim Punk scene: from its imaginary inception in a novel written by a white-convert named Michael Muhammad Knight to a full-blown, real-life scene of Muslim punk bands and their fans. (www.taqwacore.com)
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Taxi to L.A. (1997)
78min. Drama, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Bashar Shbib (Syria)
Production Company:	Oneira Pictures International
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
Awards:
Setting:	Canada, United States
Summary:	Grief-stricken after her fiancé calls off their wedding, Sam (Alexandra Woodward), an impetuous Montréal socialite, impulsively hires Jack (Mark Houghton), a taxi driver with voyeuristic tendencies, to drive her from Montréal to Los Angeles. (www.oneira.com)
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Teddy Bear (2008)
4min. Uncategorized
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Director/Filmmaker:	Stephanie Comilang (Canada)
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Summary:	"Since my dad is an Elvis impersonator – or tribute artist, as he likes to say – I call any project I do in collaboration with my father 'Children of the King'. It started as a 'zine, wherein I would tell embarrassing stories from childhood involving my father – stories like friends coming over to hang out and my dad dressing up like Elvis and singing and me always ending up behind the couch really, really embarrassed. I would include photos of him, photos of me, Elvis paraphernalia, etc. The project kept rolling and branched out to mini-films, accompaniments to Collingwood, performances, puppet shows, and now this karaoke thing for Empty Orchestra."
Source:	Reel Asian

Telefunk8 (1998)
12min. Drama, Black & White
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Director/Filmmaker:	Nicole Chung (Canada)
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Summary:	A modern day love story of lesbian slackers and superhero lovers. Shor in grainy black and white, the film struggles with the questions of desire, sexual identity, and, you know, whatever. (Reel Asian)
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Temple of My Familiar (1995)
20min. Uncategorized, Colour
Language(s):
Director/Filmmaker:	Paul Wong (Canada)
Production Company:	Flax Art/Locus +/On Edge Production
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
Awards:
Setting:	Northern Ireland
Summary:	Temple of My Familiar is the name of a mural painted in Belfast by Canadian artist Nhan Duc Nguyen. This documentary situates Nguyen's art within the political context of war-torn Northern Ireland, and explores the artist's own cross-cultural search for an identity spanning East and West. (www.5.paulwongprojects.com)
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Temple of My Family (1994)
Uncategorized
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Director/Filmmaker:	Brenda Joy Lem (Canada)
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Ten Cents a Dance (Parallax) (1985)
28min. Avant-garde, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Midi Onodera (Canada)
Production Company:
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
Awards:	Best Short Film: Special Judge's Award, Hamburg International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, 1995
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	'"Parallax is the apparent change in position of an object resulting from the change in direction or position from which it is viewed." Confusion, underlying meaning, and unspoken truths are often associated with the dialectic of sexual communication. mingled with the intensity and unpredictability of a 'one night stand,' they generate unique sensations -- mixed emotion, risk, excitement. The film employs formal devices in a manner which is simple yet effective. Its subject matter - sexuality and communication - gains depth and poignancy through the artist's decision to shoot the film's three scenes for projection in a double-screen configuration, providing an elegant solution to deal with potentially sensationalist subject matter. The separation which the two screens impose on the film's viewing evokes the aloneness which is the common experience of all human beings and the spaces we hope to bridge. (femfilm.ca)
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Ten Little Dumplings (1995)
8min. Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Larissa Fan (Canada)
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Summary:	Told through a variety of visual techniques, including stop-motion animation, puppets and still photos, the film explores the invisibility of women in a Chinese family. (CFMDC)
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Textuality (2011)
90min. Comedy, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Warren P. Sonoda
Production Company:	eOne/Seville Pictures
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Trailer
Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:s	Two romantically-challenged people attempt to get into a relationship, while exiting the multiple relationships they were each managing through their Blackberries before they met. This fresh, inventive and wildly romantic look at the modern dating scene was the number one English Language Canadian Film during its opening theatrical run with the highest per-theatre-average and was hailed as "A bit of cinematic wizardry" by the Globe & Mail. (shootgoodfilms.blogspot.com)
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That's the way the ball bounces - 세상은 원래 그런거야 (2013)
6min. Short, Black and White
Language(s):	Korean
Director/Filmmaker:	Samuel Kiehon Lee (Canada)
Production Company:
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Film
Awards:	Audience and third place award winner, 48 Hour Film Project, Seoul, 2013
Setting:	Korea
Summary:	A 20-something jobless woman in Seoul is suddenly mistaken for a model during a photo shoot. (Samuel Kiehon Lee)
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Then/Now (1988)
Documentary
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Midi Onodera (Canada)
Production Company:
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
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Setting:	Canada
Summary:	This program was produced for the Canadian television series, Inside Stories that showcased stories from Canada's diverse multicultural communities. Then/Now is the story of a young Japanese-Canadian woman who is torn between her father's desire for her to take over the family flower shop business and her dreams of being a writer. This show went through extensive censorship from the network due to the inclusion of an on-screen lesbian kiss during prime time television. (midionodera.com)
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These Shoes Weren't Made for Walking (1995)
27min. Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	Cantonese and English
Director/Filmmaker:	Paul Lee (Hong Kong)
Production Company:	Ganymedia
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
Awards:	6 Awards
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	The filmmaker documents the lives of four women in his family, using their shoes as a common reference and as a springboard for thoughtful and provocative contemplations about their experiences. These four women (paternal grandmother, mother, paternal aunt, sister) recount and discuss the cultural and socio-economic forces that have shaped their lives. (CFMDC)
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Thick Lips Thin Lips (1994)
5min. Narrative, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Paul Lee (Hong Kong)
Production Company:	Ganymedia
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
Awards:	Nine awards
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Through the meeting of lips, this film explores the parallels between racist and homophobic violence. (Paul Lee)
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Things I Can't Tell You (2012)
25min. Uncategorized, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Randall Lloyd Okita (Canada)
Production Company:
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Film
Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Things I can't Tell You is a 25-minute video loop of two human bodies ablaze, falling toward one another. The two figures reach for contact but fall short and are pulled away. This motion repeats as the bodies again come close, and almost touch before being pulled away. The images were recorded live. The artist was set on fire and performed a 30-foot wire-assisted jump, which was recorded at over 1,000 frames per second in order to achieve the decelerated pace of the final piece. (vimeo.com)
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Thin Walls (2005)
11min. Uncategorized
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Director/Filmmaker:	Taien Ng-Chan (Canada)
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Summary:	There's nothing worse than living in an apartment with zero sound proofing. Really, do you need to know every detail that goes on in your neighbours' lives? For insomniac Lil, the sound of nightly sobbing becomes more than just an irritation. And when crying turns to screams, curiosity gets the better of her...
Source:	Reel Asian

Thirsty (1997)
20min. Short, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	mina Shum (Hong Kong)
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Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
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Setting:	Canada
Summary:
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Three Sisters on Moon Lake (2001)
22min. Drama, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Julia Kwan (Canada)
Production Company:	Canadian Film Centre
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Three Sisters on Moon Lake combines the lyricism of Chinese myths with the heartbreaking imagination of young girls. When the mother of three Chinese-Canadian sisters kills a rat, they raise the rodent to the status of Rat Goddess to whom they offer gifts. But the Rat Goddess is unable to protect the girls from imminent tragedy.(femfilm.ca)
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Tiger Spirit (2008)
73min. Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	min Sook Lee (South Korea)
Production Company:	National Film Board of Canada
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Film
Awards:	Donald Brittain Gemini Award for Best Social/Political Documentary
Setting:	South Korea, Democratic Republic of Korea
Summary:	This full-length documentary tells the story of modern Korea, a nation divided in half. The psychic scar shared by families divided during the Korean War in the 1950s is symbolized by the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing communist North from capitalist South. Along this infamous border, filmmaker min Sook Lee begins an emotion-charged journey into Korea's broken heart, exploring the rhetoric and realism of reunification through the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. (National Film Board of Canada)
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Tilted (2003)
3min. Uncategorized, Colour
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Director/Filmmaker:	Kai Ling Xue (Canada)
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Summary:	Director Kai Ling Xue has a medical condition - it seems her hands are stragenly tilted. Using found footage from medical films from the 1970s tilted tells the tragic story of her diagnosis by a team of doctors, rejection by her parents and acceptance by a sibling. As an observation of ignorance towards queer issues, Tilted is at once hilarious and sombre.
Source:	Reel Asian

A Time is a Terrible Thing to Waste (2012)
3min. Animation
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Director/Filmmaker:	Leslie Supnet (Canada)
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Summary:	This wonderful collaborative animation with Winnipeg storyteller Glen Johnson is a contemplative comic fantasy about a time-obsessed squirrel.
Source:	Reel Asian

Totte Mitsu, Let's Go To Russia (2005)
9min. Uncategorized
Language(s):	Japanese (English subtitles)
Director/Filmmaker:	Brian Lye (Canada)
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Summary:	Two women fight over a camera in this spontaneous film made with the director's Japanese host mother and her friend.
Source:	Reel Asian

To The Teeth (2011)
11min. Comedy, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Samuel Kiehon Lee (Canada)
Production Company:
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
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Setting:	Canada
Summary:	A zany comedy about love and teeth, this film was created as an exercise for the Canadian Film Centre Director's Lab 2011. (Canadian Film Centre)
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Tokusen: Japan's Secret Arsenal (2004)
Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Desiree Lim (Malaysia)
Production Company:	Discovery Channel
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Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:
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Too Colourful for the League (2001)
52min. Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Mila Aung-Thwin with Daniel Cross (Canada)
Production Company:	Diversus Productions
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Film
Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	This documentary examines the struggle of blacks in hockey in Canada from the 1930s to the present day, telling the story of black players' courage and determination to play in a white-dominated sport. It focuses on an effort by former Montreal citizenship judge Richard Lord to nominate legendary black hockey player Herb Carnegie into the Hockey Hall of Fame. (Rotating Planet)
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Too Much … You Go Blind (1998)
8min. Uncategorized, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Patrick Wong (Canada)
Production Company:
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
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Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Dev-lin Phillips likes control. He gets off on it. Some people happen to like his control too. In fact, they might get off on it too. Personally, I hate him… (Vtape)
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Toronto Stories (2008)
86min. Fiction, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Sook-Yin Lee, Sudz Sutherland, David Weaver and Aaron Woodly (Canada)
Production Company:	New Real Films
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Trailer
Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	In the chaos of Pearson International Airport, a boy arrives in Toronto, not speaking a word of English. Before the authorities can pin down his origins, the boy disappears, and an amber alert reverberates through the city. Meanwhile, the boy finds his way into town where he accidentally witnesses a budding romance, an escaped convict reconnecting with an old friend, and two kids on a quest to find the Cabbagetown Monster -- all the while remaining undiscovered. Finally, a one-time university professor, now on the streets, spots the lost boy. But, when the man approaches the authorities, his mental illness casts doubt on his credibility. (Telefilm Canada)
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Tough Bananas (1997)
23min. Fiction, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Keith Lock (Canada)
Production Company:
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Trailer
Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Bob Lin and Ted Wang meet in their schoolyard on a fateful day when Bob is bullied by bigger boys. It is Ted who heroically comes to his rescue, and after that Bob and Ted become close friends. Together they share a string of goofy, dead end misadventures. (Keith Lock)
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Tourist For a Day (1999)
3min. Short, Colour
Language(s):
Director/Filmmaker:	Steven Bai (USA)
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Summary:	A young man finds vibrancy and community in a Chinatown he barely knows, just visits. His shifting perceptions are conveyed through blurred digital effects and layered soundscapes.
Source:	Reel Asian

Tracing Soul (2001)
7min. Experimental, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Michelle Mohabeer (Guyana)
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Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
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Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Tracing Soul is a poetic bodyscape where the sacred, sensual, primordial and profane female form imagines and evokes the possibilities of the soul through the coalescing of the fragments, intimate gestures, oblique angles, disintegrating lines and shadows, music and text enveloping the bodily compositions. (CFMDC)
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Transmission (2010)
19min. Drama, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Randall Lloyd Okita (Canada)
Production Company:	Canadian Film Centre
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
Awards:	Golden Remi Award, Houston Worldfest Film Festival; Shorts Fest Screenwriting Award
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Gale is a tow truck driver working to keep a grip on a decent life when a call to a suburban neighbourhood drags him into a violent nightmare. (http://randallokita.com)
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Travelling Light (1985)
50min. Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Deepa Mehta (India)
Production Company:	Sunrise Films
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
Awards:	Nominated for three Gemini awards; finalist award at the 1987 New York International Film and Television Festival.
Setting:	India
Summary:	This is a documentary about photographer Dilip Mehta whose work came to international attention with his record of the disaster in Bhopal, and the assassination of Rajiv Ghandi. (femfilm.ca)
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Travels With My Brother (2009)
16min. Uncategorized
Language(s):
Director/Filmmaker:	Christine Alexiou & June Chua (Canada)
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Summary:	A live-action/animated short documentary examines the unique perceptions of Vas, an autistic man, and the complex relationship he has with his sister, Christine, through a series of conversations and clashes about love, art, family, existence and destiny.
Source:	Reel Asian

Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (2009)
min. Experimental, Colour
Language(s):	Sound
Director/Filmmaker:	Daichi Saito (Japan)
Production Company:	Double Negative Collective
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Film
Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	The film explores familiar landscape imagery Saïto and Goldstein share in their neighbourhood at the foot of Mount-Royal Park in Montréal, Canada. Using the images of maple trees in the park as main visual motif, Saïto creates a film in which the formations of the trees and their subtle interrelation with the space around them act as an agent to transform viewer's sensorial perception of the space portrayed. Entirely hand-processed by the filmmaker, Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis, with the contrapuntal violin by Malcolm Goldstein, is a poem of vision and sounding that seeks certain perceptual insight and revelation through a syntactical structure based on patterns, variations and repetition. (www.vitheque.com)
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The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia (2002)
75min. Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Jennifer Baichwal (Canada)
Production Company:	Mercury Films Inc.
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	Ecerpt
Awards:
Setting:	United States
Summary:	For over 30 years, the controversial Shelby Lee Adams has been photographing the mountain people living in a rural region of eastern Kentucky where he grew up. Through interviews, photos and Adams's archival videos, we see how he orchestrates the theatrical quality of his images; we realize that his attraction to what he calls environmental portraits comes from his identification with the suffering and pain of the human condition. His intent is not to idealize or romanticize the people he photographs -- in his view, they accept themselves for who they are. (femfilm.ca)
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Trying To Be Some Kind of Hero (2001)
37min. Uncategorized, Colour
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Director/Filmmaker:	Lester Alfonso (Canada)
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Summary:	To discover the true identtity of his grandfather, the filmmaker goes back to the Philippines, where he uncovers the hidden story of lives complicated by war.
Source:	Reel Asian

Trying to Keep Concentrate (2004)
8min. Documentary, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Ruthann Lee (Canada)
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Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Featuring footage from an in-store surveillance camera and interviews with the video-maker's father (an owner of a convenience store in downtown Toronto), the short documentary presents personal and systematic views of Korean immigrant experiences in Canada. (Vtape)
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Tubig for a Small World (2006)
8min. Uncategorized
Language(s):
Director/Filmmaker:	Dean Vargas (Canada)
Production Company:
Trailer/Excerpt/Film:	https://myspace.com/348284115/video/tubig-for-a-small-world/6914031
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Setting:
Summary:	Tubig (pronounced TOO-big) in the Filipino dialect of Tagalog means "water". Through the currents of water and the actions of two young women at opposite ends of the world, this video examines global inequalities to natural resources.
Source:	Reel Asian

Tuesday Be My Friend (2006)
9min. Narrative, Colour
Language(s):	Mandarin
Director/Filmmaker:	Chris Chong Chan Fui (Malaysian Borneo)
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Setting:	Malaysia
Summary:	When a young Chinese Malaysian girl is lost for friends who understands, she finds a group that is more to her liking - a rock band with 'edge'?! (www.chongchanfui.com)
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Tuesday Trombone (2001)
5min. Uncategorized, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Patrick Wong (Canada)
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Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Tasty Tasty Fishy. Where is my Joses! Where is my Joses? Praise be to thine Joses! RIP Jordy... Jealous of Good Mother Earth... poor, poor! Jordy. (Vtape)
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Twelve (2008)
42min. Uncategorized
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Director/Filmmaker:	Lester Alfonso (Canada)
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Summary:	What would you tell your 12-year-old self if you had the chance? Philippine-born filmmaker Lester Alfonso attempts to answer this question by interviewing 12 diverse subjects, each of whom – like he did himself – moved to Canada at the age of 12. Due to raging teenage hormones, 12-year-olds often experience emotions with more intensity; adapting to a new country during this already-confusing age can be an overwhelming experience.
Source:	Reel Asian

Twin Cities
38min. Uncategorized, Colour
Language(s):	Sound
Director/Filmmaker:	Chris Fung
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Setting:	Canada
Summary:	A lonely Chinese cutie goes to the twin cities of Welland and Niagara for a food festival. (Vimeo)
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Two Forms (1998
4min. Experimental, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Shanti Thakur (Canada)
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Setting:	United States
Summary:	Two Forms is a sensual and meditative study of two interlocking hands, ambiguous in gender. Black and white extreme close-ups suggests other corporal forms and textures. Reminiscent of the photography of Weston, this film explores communion as the site where the ambiguity of gender roles and identity can be embraced. (shantithakur.com)
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Two/Doh (1996)
5min. Experimental, Colour
Language(s):	English
Director/Filmmaker:	Michelle Mohabeer (Guyana)
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Trailer/Excerpt/Film:
Awards:
Setting:	Canada
Summary:	Two/Doh is an evocative poetic pastiche exploring the public and private spaces of desire, and its intersection with the cultural and erotic connections between two women of different origins: Persian Armenian and South Asian/Sri Lankan. (CFMDC)
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