Vancouver Asian Film Festival: Day 3

Day 3 | Program 6

Tuesday October 4, 2011

DAY 3 – SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5

PROGRAM 6 – LIFE IN TRANSIT

1:30 PM
CINEPLEX ODEON INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE CINEMAS

Whether you’re leaving home or coming home, life in transit can be a very stressful and unsettling time. In RESIDENT ALIENS, refugees are deported back to Cambodia, forced to make a life in a country they barely know. In HUAN DAO, A-Zhi returns to Taiwan and struggles to reconnect with his brother and deal with family issues. In CANOPY CROSSING, market vendors have grown tired of the daily interruptions to business by a passing train that all they want to do is leave. “Life in Transit” – are you coming or going?

This program is co-presented with DOXA. DOXA is Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival. DOXA presents outstanding and challenging films audiences can’t see anywhere else.

RESIDENT ALIENS

Canadian Premiere
Director in Attendance

DIRECTOR / PRODUCER / WRITER: Ross Tuttle
Documentary | BetaSP | Colour | 2011 | 52 min | USA | English & Khmer with English subtitles

Previous Screenings/Awards: San Francisco Int’l Asian American Film Festival 2011

Resident Aliens is a powerful documentary that follows KK, China and Looney – all former gang members, ex-cons and Cambodian refugees – whose families survived a genocide that wiped out nearly a fifth of the country’s population. They grew up in the United States but were deported along with hundreds of others – after felony convictions – to a country they hardly knew. With few skills, little money and no family to fall back on, they face new obstacles as they follow different paths towards reconciliation and redemption. While China and Looney erect emotional walls to keep the world at bay, KK, through breakdancing, takes on the challenge of helping kids in even more desperate circumstances than him.

PRECEDED BY

DEAR MOM AND DAD

Part of VAFF’s Love Letters to Vancouver series

Director in Attendance

Previous Screenings/Awards: VAFF Love Letters to Vancouver Presentation 2011; Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon 2011 Gala Screening

Dear Mom and Dad follows the narration of a girl who has moved to Vancouver and is writing a letter back home to her parents. It sports a few comedic lines here and there, but mainly focuses on how the girl sees Vancouver with new eyes.

HUAN DAO

Canadian Premiere
Director & Producer in Attendance

Previous Screenings/Awards: Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2011

A-Zhi returns home to Taiwan for the first time in many years just as his younger brother, A-Yong, is leaving with friends for “huan dao,” or a round-the-island scooter trip. As the brothers reconnect, an old neighbor asks about their family home, which has been falling into disrepair. This looming issue forces the brothers to confront each other about their past, the responsibilities to their ancestors, and the realities they face.

CANOPY CROSSINGS

Canadian Premiere

Previous Screenings/Awards: Glasgow Film Festival; Tampere Film Festival; International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

Penappa wants only to return to Bangkok. Arthid wants to leave his fruit stall behind and become an actor. But change is hard to come by in their market, where the vendors have grown accustomed to their unusual routine – eight times a day, they must abruptly halt business and pull in the market’s low canopy to give way to the passing train.

Day 3 | Program 5 Day 3 | Program 7