Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2008

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 and like himself, moved to Canada at the age of 12. Due to raging? developing? 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. In exploring issues of identity and belonging through other people’s stories, Lester is forced to examine the demons from his own past. Will this journey finally set him free? Lester Alfonso is a filmmaker, writer, and video artist whose work has appeared on CBC’s Zed TV, Nickelodeon Asia, and Salon.com. Trying to be Some Kind of Hero (2001), his award-winning documentary tracing the footsteps of his missing grandfather, was the official selection for more than a dozen film festivals across North America, including Reel Asian in 2003. Alfonso’s concept for Twelve won the National Film Board of Canada’s Reel Diversity competition in 2007.

A surreal Super 8 dream sequence unravels as a six-nippled creature finds herself trapped in a capsule with a dead rabbit and a bloody hole. With trusty rabbit ears, she taps her way through bizarre TV scenes: Japanese men on carousels, people in chickens suits with balloons, and disturbing garbage bags in bathtubs. Asa Mori was born in Nagano, Japan, and currently lives in Vancouver. She acquired her first pet at the age of six, a rabbit called "House". House died a week later. She has a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, primarily working with media installation and animation.

Watch Porn Learn English is an experimental video that humorously teaches us how to learning English from the cult classic porn Deep Throat. Playfully dissecting slang used to describe sexual play from a non-English speaking perspective, the video examines gender roles in delightfully timeless scenarios. As a woman seeks her doctor’s help in explaining the pleasures of her anatomy, two lovers run out of gasoline, but realize they don’t really need to go to the station to fill up. Zheng Bo grew up in Beijing, and has studied in the U.S. (he received a BA from Amherst College), Spain and Hong Kong (he received a MFA from the Chinese University). In his art projects, he uses video, sound, and text to discuss issues of freedom and equality from the perspective of sexual and ethnic minorities. He is currently pursuing a PhD in visual and cultural studies at Rochester, NY.

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

Morality has a sharp aftertaste in this tale of growing up in the Canadian woods. A boy contends with his domineering father who believes that whatever you kill, you must also eat. Jennifer Liao wrote, directed, and co-produced the short films Pride War and What You Eat , for which she won the HEAR ME, SEE ME, PITCH ME CSV competition (‘Emerging’ category) at Reel Asian in 2007 and received grants from Bravo!FACT and the Ontario Arts Council to produce.

WONDERFUL TOWN It has been nearly four years since the devastating tsunami in Asia that took more than 200,000 lives. In Southern Thailand, one of the areas hardest hit by the tragedy, most towns and resorts have since been rebuilt and restored to their original idyllic state. On the surface, there are few traces left of the destruction that took place, but the tranquil beauty cannot hide the underlying sadness that is still palpable today. This is the environment that serves as the inspiration behind Wonderful Town , the highly acclaimed solo first feature by director Aditya Assarat. Though the film’s sociopolitical subtext is evident from the setting alone, what is remarkable is how the director has shaped a tender romance amidst the hardship. The story is mostly a two-hander between Ton, a Bangkok architect, and Na, an inn keeper, who allows Ton to stay at her deserted inn. At first, Na appears uninterested in the outsider, but through sensitive and measured direction the filmmaker is able to show how she gradually gives in to love. Little touches, such as Na listening to Ton singing in the shower as well as the caressing of his clothes, give the film a sweetly innocent undertone. Still, the disquieting atmosphere following the tragedy lingers, from a building haunted by the spirits of those who perished in the waves, to the youths who roam in circles, killing time due to lack of employment. As word of Ton and Na’s secret love affair leaks, the locals begin their gossiping. This sets the tone for the dark final act, in which an altogether different type of wave threatens to overtake this wounded town. This signifies how the trauma of four years ago still continues to perpetuate itself to this day. Subdued yet assured, this remarkable feature film balances deftly between genres without ever falling into stereotypes. It marks an auspicious debut for one of Asia’s hottest new directors. “It’s no small feat to pull off as sweet and sensitive a romance as that between Na and Ton, and something rarer yet to suffuse such affections into a poem of wounded landscape.” – Nathan Lee, The New York Times -Raymond Phathanavirangoon Aditya Assarat completed his Master’s degree at the University of Southern California. Soon after, his short films were invited to many prestigious film festivals, including Sundance, Clermont-Ferrand, and the New York Film Festival. He was invited to join the Sundance Director’s Lab in 2004, and was chosen, a year later, to work with acclaimed director Mira Nair as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. His first feature was 3 Friends (2005), a documentary he co-directed that was invited to the Toronto International Film Festival. Two years later, he finished his solo feature Wonderful Town (2007), which went on to win over nine awards worldwide. COMMUNITY PARTNER: University of Toronto Thai Student Association