Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2008

TIGER SPIRIT Filmmaker Min Sook Lee is six months pregnant when she joins Lim Sun Nam’s obsessive quest to find a legendary tiger in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates millions of North and South Koreans. Tracking the great beast, she looks for the courage that inspires those willing to travel beyond political borders to be reunited with loved ones. In Korea, video conferencing is allowed to take place between families in the North and South on rare occasions, but with the exception of these government-controlled conditions, all communication remains illegal. Names are selected by lottery, but with tens of thousands of survivors on the waiting list, the odds of communicating with family on the other side are incredibly slim. For the first time, in 2007, the government announces face-to-face cross boarder reunions, and Lee asks the crucial question ‘Can Korea ever be united?’ In a series of interviews with survivors who have waited over 50 years to find out about their families across the river, Lee gives some insight into each of their lives – their memories of home, fears experienced during their departures, frustrations with not knowing the fate of family members, and hopes for reunification. At a war memorial site Lee is surprised to discover that there are thousands of defectors from the north who have recently crossed the border illegally to live in Seoul. Crossing into North Korea, Lee then takes us to an inter-Korean factory whereby we get a rare look at female factory workers working in North Korea. Finally, after several unpredictable reunion cancellations, a state-sanctioned family reunion is held, and Lee is one of first allowed into the high security "resort." Inspired by her desire to find connections to the country she left as a child, Tiger Spirit is a memorable portrait of Korea at a crossroads. Uncovering extraordinary stories of national tragedy, heartbreak, and perseverance, Lee symbolically searches for the mythical tiger that will one day reconnect Koreans in spirit. Min Sook Lee is a writer, broadcaster, and an award-winning documentary film director/producer. Her first feature, El Contrato , was presented with the Cesar E. Chavez Black Eagle Award for El Contrato’s impact on the rights of migrant workers. It was nominated for the Gemini Award for Best Social/Political Documentary in 2005. Hogtown: The Politics of Policing won Best Feature-Length Canadian Documentary at the Hot Docs film festival in 2005. In 2008, she premiered Tiger Sprit at Hot Docs, and is currently planning to release her new documentary Badge of Pride, the story of queer cops in Canada. Please note: allow extra time to arrive at venues due to Santa Claus Parade related to road closures. COMMUNITY PARTNERS: Korean Canadian Women's Association, Canadian Auto Workers Union

WEST 32ND The ascendance of South Korea’s film industry has flowed beyond its borders toward Koreans overseas. A production of CJ Entertainment, Korea’s largest entertainment company, West 32nd represents yet another exciting aspect of Korean cinema that includes the talent of overseas Koreans like director Michael Kang. After exploring adolescence in the backwaters of rural America in his first feature, The Motel (Reel Asian Opening Night, 2005), Kang segues to a contemporary tale of survival from the streets of New York City in West 32nd . What results is an ambitious and stylish mix of Korean new wave and New York grit. When a Korean teenager is accused of a gang-style murder, an ambitious young lawyer, John Kim (John Cho from the Harold and Kumar franchise), takes on the controversial case pro bono to raise his profile within his firm. John finds added incentive in his client’s sweet and attractive older sister Lila (Grace Park of Battlestar Galactica and CBC’s Edgemont ). As he delves into the case John finds an underground Korean community worlds away from his own 2nd generation, all-American ivy-league upbringing. Blindly navigating the community John meets Mike (the magnetic Jun Kim), a rising mid-level gangster who guides him through the neon underworld of hostesses, room salons, and gangs of New York’s Koreatown so that John may better serve his client; or, so it seems. Soon, however, John and Mike’s respective ambitions come to a head with Lila caught in the middle, with volatile results. Kang takes a firm hold of the New York crime drama genre and plants it firmly on the streets of Koreatown in West 32nd . It shows the sordid side of the immigrant experience; equally violent and exploitative towards its own members in the name of fast money and survival. Furthermore, like its Italian American mob movie analogues, the immigrant and 2nd generation’s relationship to the mean streets of America forms the core of the film and its characters. John, Mike, and Lila steer through their own ambivalence towards the community and find that they can never truly escape it. Along the way Kang has crafted a stylishly entertaining crime drama but also a statement about the pushes and pulls of one’s own community. Michael Kang’s first feature film, The Motel , premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and garnered several awards including the Humanitas Prize, and San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival Jury prize. Most recently, Michael was awarded a fellowship with the ABC/DGA New Talent Television Directing Program. - Aram Collier COMMUNITY PARTNERS: North American Association of Asian Professionals, Korean Canadian Lawyers Association