Vancouver Asian Film Festival celebrates 20 years of diversity
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Sick of the lack of diversity on the silver screen? Well this week, the Vancouver Asian Film Festival returns, embracing diversity and inclusion with today’s leading Asian filmmakers.
From November 3 to 6, the festival will take over Tinseltown’s International Village Cinemas and celebrate the vibrancy and creativity of Asians in film.
The festival will screen 35 features and shorts over four days, and also boasts more than 40 filmmakers and special guests in attendance.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of VAFF, and “Homecoming” is the central theme of the festival.
Featuring both local and international talent, VAFF’s roster includes important issues affecting the Asian diaspora.
A scene from All Our Fathers’ Relations (VAFF)
Film highlights
- Pali Road: An award-winning romantic thriller starring Chinese superstar Michelle Chen. A doctor wakes up from a car accident and discovers she is married to another man, and living a life she can’t remember ever having.
- The Bleeding Edge: A Leo Award-winning Canadian drama starring Anastasia Lin, the current Miss World Canada. Lin was banned from entering China due to her political activism, which feeds into the film’s heady depiction of organ harvesting in the east.
- All Our Father’s Relations: A BC documentary relating the interconnected histories of Chinese-Canadians and Musqueam First Nations through the eyes of a mixed ancestry family.
- Mixed Match: Another BC doc that sheds a light on the hidden role that multiracial genetics has on health—the film follows mixed race blood cancer patients on the struggle to find compatible bone marrow donors.
Image: VAFF
AIM³ Summit
AIM³ Summit stands for Asians in Movies + Media + Music, and champions increasing diversity and representation in mainstream media, in front of and behind, the camera.
The lack of Asians in leading roles has certainly been coming under scrutiny of late, with movements like #StarringJohnCho and #OscarsSoWhite.
And VAFF continues the diversity discussion at panels during the day, where speakers will share their own stories and experiences in the industry:
- Asians in Comics: Genesis for Future Screenplays
- Asians in Music: In Search of Asian Rockstars in North America
- Asians in Movies: Casting for Asian Leads and Standing up for Change
Vancouver Asian Film Festival 2016
Where: Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas – 88 W Pender Street, Vancouver
When: From Thursday, November 3 to Sunday, November 6
Tickets: Available at VAFF Box Office or online, more information here; $8 matinees / $10 evening screenings
Daily Hive is a proud media partner of the Vancouver Asian Film Festival
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