amerasia film festival 2012 line-up

8/2/2019 AmerAsia Film Festival 2012 Line-Up

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AmrAsia announces exciting 2012 lineup of categories

(Montreal, February 15, 2012) The AmrAsia Film Festival is proud to announce the five principle

subcategories Asian Treasures, Animation Spotlight, WeDistribute, Qubcois Special and

AmerAsia (AA) Shorts for this third edition of Montreals premiere festival celebrating the latest

Asian and Asian-Canadian cinema, taking place on the first two weekends of March.

Asian Treasure

The full line-up of blockbuster Asian films that will screen over the course of the festival has been

chosen from the best of the continents creative talent. Oscar-nominated Chinese blockbuster

Aftershock, the international premiere of Kyung-soons Red Maria, funny and moving major festival

selection The Day He Arrives by director Hong Sangsoo, the Cannes award-winning Arirang by

renowned Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk, Best Newcomer nominee at the 2012 Asian Film Awards I Wish,

and Vietnamese director Cuong Ngos captivating personal portraits in Pearls of the Far Eastwill all

feature.

Also included is 24th Tokyo International Film Festival selection Power of Two, a Japan/U.S. co-

production about organ donation, and the directorial debut of Academy Award-nominated producer

Marc Smolowitz (The Weather Underground), who will be attending the festival.

The festival opens with the Canadian premiere of Korean box office hit Leafie, a Hen into the Wild,

based on the best-selling Korean childrens novel, and to be distributed across Canada by 108 Media.

It will pair alongside Muybridges String, a Japanese-Canadian animation from Academy Award

Nominee Koji Yamamura and current 2012 Genie Best Animated Short contender.

Animation Spotlight

Curated by internationally renowned animation writer and researcher Joon Yang Kim, who will guest

appear throughout the festival, the Spotlight section showcases seven animated features. These

family-oriented films shine a light on recent trends in Asian animation.

Of particular note is adventure film Yona Yona Penguin, the first fully 3D CGI film from famed

Japanese anime studio Madhouse, and the story of a lost and lonely, penguin-suited street urchin who

saves a mysterious subterranean town, and the North American premiere of Green Days (Korea), a

hand-drawn feature animationawarded the jury special prize at the Seoul International Cartoon and

Animation Festival and nominated at Annecy in 2011.


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AmrAsia is also pleased to host the massively popular, twisted Romeo and Juliet animation story,

Roadside Romeo (India), independent Israeli movie Lost in Tel-Aviv, featuring Asian animation, and

spotlight viewings of 9 short films by Chinese animation artist Sun Xun.

WeDistribute

This category is dedicated to Canadian film companies that distribute significant Asian art house filmsin Canada.

The category includes Korean film Poetry the 2010 winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes from

director Lee Chang-Dong and distributor Metropole, and Chinese documentary film I Wish I Knew, by

acclaimed director Jia Zhangke and distributed by filmswelike. Also from filmswelike is The Light Thief

(about an electrician with far greater effect on the people around him than his job defines) by

Kazakhstan director Aktan Arym Kubat. And of special interest to sushi lovers, E1 EntertainmentsJiro

Dreams of Sushi, a Japanese doc about a famous sushi chef.

Quebecois Special

This section focuses on outstanding Asian-Quebeois filmmaking and the distribution companies that

support the work. Of particular significance is the feature-length The Vanishing Spring Light, winner atthe 24th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Shot in China by debuting director Yu

Xun, The Vanishing Spring Lightchronicles the candid conversations a Chinese grandmother has with

the filmmaker about her health and children, conversations that turn out to have a tragic subtext.

Canadian distributors EyeSteelFilm will receive an AmrAsia recognition award for supporting rich

Asian content.

Also on deck is short film House for Sale, from Montreal-born director Eisha Marjara as well as Our

Subject is Hair(which blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction), by Quebec director Vincent Toi.

AA Shorts(AmerAsia Shorts)

This unique two-part category focuses on both documentaries and dramas representing the best of

Asian or Asian-inspired short films from around the world.

The documentary component will feature a number of riveting works, including The Real M*A*S*H,

inspired by the TV series M*A*S*H but filtered through the harsh realities of the Korean War, by

Toronto-based director Min Sook Lee. Coconut is the story of a struggling Indian college student in

Pittsburgh who tries to get into the entertainment business. The Sugar Bowlis about the failure of the

sugar industry in the Philippines, and mixed doc/drama Canopy Crossings tells the tale of the colourful

Maeklong railway market in Thailand.

The drama componentleads off with the fun and Vancouver-set Square Dance Storyby director Jason

Karman, and is followed by Within our Darkness (an experimental film about young love in Korea),

Young Ligaw (a young Winnipeg man fantasizes about wooing his love interest by performing an

indigenous Philippine courtship dance) and Cheonggyecheon (experimental animation about a once-

controversial stream flowing through central Seoul).

About the AmrAsia Film Festival

The third edition of the AmrAsia Film Festival takes place March 1-4 and 9-11 over two weekends atthe SAT, CinRobothque (NFB), the Cinma du Parc, Cinmathque qubcoise and Hotel Zero 1.Tickets at $10, events at $15, available from all venues on 20 February. AmerAsia will be appearingon La Nuit Blanche (February 25) at La SAT with a show from its K-Pop Phoenix Dance Group.


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The AmrAsia Film Festival is organized by Cin-Asie, a non-profit organization based in Montrealwhich has worked for more than 16 years in the promotion of Asian and Asian-Canadian cultureand cinema. The festival will also feature the Smartphone Film Challenge, a chance for filmmakers tomake a 4-minute film entirely on a smartphone, as well as the 4th National Video Portrait Competition.A series of seminars on financing and the Asian diaspora on screen, as well as a K-Pop Dance andFashion Show, will complete the festival.

Please email [email protected] for invitations to the film press screening on February 20-21. For allother information, please call 514 564 0838 or visit www.amerasiafestival.com

amerasia film festival 2012 line-up

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