Time          7pm – 10pm 

Venue       Richmond Cultural Centre (7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond BC) 

中文介紹

Double Bill by Vancouver-based production company Holiday Pictures.

About Holiday Pictures
Holiday Pictures Ltd. is an independent production company based in Canada. Its forte is its strong connection to the Asian film communities while also establishing strategic alliance with a variety of international producers and distributors.

Hong Kong Express – The Fast Track to Fame and Fortune
(Documentary/Cantonese, Mandarin, English / 47 min)

“The more you dare me, the more you define me, I’m just going to prove you wrong.” — Christy Chung

“I was this 24-year-old woman in a bikini, standing on stage, talking like a 6-year-old.” –Theresa Lee

In Hong Kong, beauty pageants are big business. Winners often become overnight sensations and are offered starring roles in film and television. Surprisingly, many winners of these pageants come from Canada… but why?

Hong Kong Express playfully explores the phenomenon of Chinese-Canadian women winning international Chinese beauty pageants and their subsequent meteoric rise to fame in the Asian entertainment world.

Featured subjects

Christy Chung

Voted Asia’s Sexiest Woman by readers of FHM in 2000, and “Most Beautiful Eyes” by Marie Claire Magazine, Christy Chung’s (Chung Lai- Tai’s) diverse talent as an actress is recognised not only in her home city of Hong Kong, but internationally. Her beauty, sensuality and personable nature have won her the hearts of fans around the world, young and old. To date, she has led in over 30 feature films, many of which have won numerous awards around the world.

Theresa Lee

After winning the 2nd runner up and The Media’s Favourite Award of the Miss Hong Kong Pageant in 1994, Alberta native Lee started her career in the entertainment industry. In 1997 Lee was nominated as one of the candidates for “Best New Performer” and “Best Supporting Actress” of The 16th Hong Kong Film Awards and “Best Supporting Actress” of The 2nd Golden Bauhinia Awards.

Linda Chung

Winner of the Miss Chinese Vancouver 2003 pageant, Linda Chung went on to compete in and win the Miss Chinese International 2004 pageant. A former UBC student, Linda has now moved to Hong Kong to pursue a career in entertainment. She has recently signed a performers contract with TVB and is starring in the network’s long running series “Virtues of Harmony”.

Lunch With Charles
(Comedy/ Cantonese & English with English subtitles)

Filmed at a various locations in Vancouver, Banff and Asia, Lunch with Charles is a co-production of Hong Kong and Canada.

Three years ago, April’s career allowed her to immigrate to Canada. She has been working happily ever since. Her personal life, however, is in turmoil. Her husband, Tong, remains in Hong Kong, where he struggles to make it as a singer/songwriter. Since marrying, he has had to eke out a living as a realtor. Unfulfilled, and increasingly insecure about his talents, he is terrified to immigrate to Canada. If he cannot succeed in his own country, in his own language…how can he possibly attain fulfillment in Canada? When Tong finally comes to Canada, hoping to appease his wife, he meets another woman…

LUNCH WITH CHARLES features Hong Kong star Lau Ching-Wan as Tong, the dreamer who is forced to choose between his wife and his dreams. Nicholas Lea stars as the resolutely idealistic Matthew, who has discarded his career for the love of a woman, only to find himself abandoned. Theresa Lee plays as Tong’s wife, April, a career-minded workaholic whose drive has alienated her from love. Bif Naked stars in her first feature film as Natasha, an uninhibited elfin creature who struggles with her dependency on male companionship.

About the filmmakers

  Michael Parker (writer / director)
  Michael Parker is an award-winning Vancouver-based writer/director/producer who has been    involved in the production of feature films and documentaries for the past 20 years. Michael’s films  have been celebrated in festivals and commercially released around the world.

 President of the independent production company, Holiday Pictures, Michael is writer and producer for   the first-ever Canada – Hong Kong co-production, Young Offenders. Michael then wrote, produced and directed Lunch with Charles. The Genie Award nominated film won 3 Leo Awards (Best Director, Best Screenwriter, Best Music) out of 7 nominations and was voted by Shanghai Daily as one of the 10 “must-see” films at the Shanghai International Film Festival and sold to numerous countries world-wide.

Michael is the executive producer of the Gemini-Award winning documentary, Made in China. Nationally broadcast in Canada the film was the recipient of The Canada Award; Best Feature Documentary in the San Diego Asian Film Festival; and was nominated for a Golden Sheaf Award. Michael is the producer and writer of the Whistler Film Festival Best Adventure Film winner and Leo Award nominee Call it Karma a documentary that recounts a monk’s remarkable pilgrimage from a remote village in Tibet, across the Himalayas, through Nepal and India to a world apart in Vancouver. He has also written and directed Hong Kong Express. Nominated for a Best Program Leo Award, the one-hour documentary is a playful look at the phenomenon of Canadian-born ethnically Chinese women winning international Chinese beauty pageants and their subsequent meteoric rise to fame in the Asian entertainment world.

In addition, Michael is co-owner of the service production company Maple Ridge Films whose line-producing credits include numerous feature films and television series including the Jackie Chan blockbuster Rumble in the Bronx and Andy Lau’s Saviour of the Soul II.

He has recently received the inaugural Daryl Duke Scholarship from the British Columbia Film Foundation to pursue his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Film Production at the University of British Columbia.

  Shan Tam (producer)
  Born in Hong Kong and living in Canada, producer Shan Tam has been active in film and television    on both sides of the Pacific for two decades. Her work has earned her multiple awards and numerous  nominations, including a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and a Claude Jutra Award    for director Julia Kwan on Eve & the Fire Horse as well as a Gemini and number of international and Canadian awards for other features and documentaries.

A solid working relationship with Asian producers afforded Tam the opportunity to produce two feature co-productions between Canada and Hong Kong, Young Offenders and Lunch with Charles. She has further expanded her production experience in China, one of the fastest growing film centers, where she has produced several mini-series for American television with a large international cast and crew. Over the years, Tam has line-produced dozens of international film productions. Her projects have taken her to numerous countries in Europe, Asia, North and Central America, working extensively with crew from the East and West.

Tam continues to promote film cultures across the Pacific. She has organized a number of film festivals showcasing Chinese language films in Canada and Canadian films in China with great success.

Ms. Tam is currently on the board of directors with BC Film. She is a past board member of Women in Film and Video Vancouver and the Vancouver Film and Television Artist Society. She is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English.

Japanese Animation Night 

Time:    7pm – 10:00pm

Venue:  Richmond Cultural Centre (7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond BC) 

Following last year’s extreme success, Japanese Animation Night will be back this year at the October event of the Monthly Film Series.

We will show one internationally acclaimed Japanese animated science fiction film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. This light hearted, inspiring, and craftily excellent film tells a story of a high school girl who inadvertently gains the power to travel through time and begins using it frivolously to fix problems. Ever since its release, the film has won numerous awards, including the Japan Academy Prize for Animation in 2006.

For detailed production information, please check www.animenewsnetwork.com

A complete dubbed English version of the film will be screened on the night. The English version was produced in Vancouver by Canadian company Ocean Productions Inc.

Confirmed Staff and the voice actors to be attending the screening: 

Voice Actors:
Andrew Francis – CHIAKI
Emily Hirst – MAKOTO
Saffron Henderson – MAKOTO’S AUNT

Ocean Productions staff:
Diana Gage – Producer
Keith Goddard – Audio supervisor and mixer of the show

About Ocean Productions:
Ocean is a pre and post production company specializing in animation. Since 1992, Ocean has worked on over 6,000 ½ hour episodes, 40 feature films, 20 video games, and countless specials and promos, and provides services such as translation, script writing, English adaptations, voice recording, original music scores, sound FX and video production.
Some of the dubbing animation properties we’ve worked on include Ranma ½, InuYasha, the Dragonball series, Death Note, Pretty Cure, Ghost in the Shell, the many Gundam series and of course The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.



Ocean also does voice recording and post production for some original North American projects such as the recent Marvel Lions Gate DVD specials Next Avengers: Heros of Tomorrow, Hulk vs Thor, Hulk vs Wolverine, and TV series such as The Fantastic Four, X-Men Evolution and Iron Man. Recently Ocean had the opportunity to work on the two live action Death Note movies.

 This event will be hosted by Edmund Yee.

Edmund Yee is a staff member for Anime Evolution , Vancouver’s annual Japanese animation convention and Asian pop cultural festival. He has been in interested in animation ever since he was a child watching Disney and Warner Brothers shows. Edmund encountered animation from Japan when he was a teenager which expanded his interest in the possibilities of animation. Edmund has discovered that animation doesn’t have to be for children. It can be aimed at different age groups and cover a wide range of stories.

Time:     7pm – 9:30pm 

Venue:   Richmond Cultural Centre (7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond BC) 

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU 家好月圓

Short | Taiwan | 2009 | 30 mins | Dir. CHOU She-Wei | Mandarin, Taiwanese & Eng Subtitles  劇情短片 ｜台灣 ｜2009 ｜30 mins | 導演：周旭薇｜ 國、台語、英文字幕

  A daughter sees her recently deceased mother in a dream. The mother does not want to be buried beside   her husband. But why? There turns out to be a reason.

 During a funeral ceremony, a not all that bright young man seems to fall asleep, but in fact he’s more    involved than the rest. Through his body, a soul makes contact with life and the hidden past of the  family is finally revealed.

 The maker wanted to focus attention on the position of women in her mother’s generation

Awards & Festival Selection:
Asia Short Film Jury Award, International Women’s Film Festival in Seoul, 2009, International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2009

劇情簡介：

兄弟姊妹回到鄉下，處理母親的後事，商量著要不要和父親合葬，么妹卻連續數夜夢到母親託夢拒絕與父親合葬。回首往事，再度浮現母親生前在家中，所承受父親的男性暴力陰影。

參展／得獎記錄：

2009 鹿特丹影展入圍
2009 首爾女性影展亞洲短片競賽評審團大獎

關於導演：

紐約大學藝術碩士，目前為自由影像紀錄工作者。曾擔任影評專欄作家、紀錄片雙年展評審、文化大學、實踐大學講師、電影《推手》（1991）副導等。

GRANDMA’S HAIRPIN 銀簪子

Documentary | Taiwan | 2000 | 90 mins | Dir. HSIAO Chu-Chen | Madarine & Eng subtitles  紀錄片 ｜台灣 ｜2000 ｜90 mins | 導演：蕭菊貞 ｜ 國語、英文字幕

  This stunning documentary captures the unique life stories of veterans who are among some    500,000 soldiers who left their families and followed Chiang Kai-shek’s retreat to Taiwan in  1949, while in their early 20s or late teens. When the government finally lifted the ban on  private visits to China about 40 years later, they found themselves in an awkward limbo where  they could no longer adapt themselves to living in China, while putting down their roots in  Taiwan also proved to be challenging.

Awards & Festival Selection:
Best Documentary, Golden Horse Awards, 2000. Taiwan Awards, Taiwan International Documentary Festival, 2000, Seoul International Film Festival, Asian Pacific Film Festival, Amsterdam International Documentary Festival, The 51st Asian Pacific Film Festival.

劇情簡介：

1949年前後，國民政府從大陸撤退來台，帶了六十萬大軍，他們以為不久之後就可以反攻大陸回家了，沒想到一待四十年，兩岸才開放。於是，這群老兵成為台灣與大陸間最尷尬的一群人！家，歸不得，不可求。 作者的父親也是老兵。奶奶的一支銀簪子，讓作者走進了父親的世界，和許多老兵伯伯們的深深思念…。

參展／得獎記錄：

台灣國際紀錄片雙年展台灣獎、金馬獎最佳紀錄片入圍
2000 日本山形紀錄片、亞太影展入圍

關於導演：

1994年畢業於清華大學經濟系。作品有《端午》（台灣一次盲人划龍丹的紀錄片）、《博盛，這孩子》、《陽光愛情》、《火鶴》、《血染的青春》、《短片成年禮》。曾任台灣二十年短片回顧展總策劃。

Make Friends / Make Fun / Make Trouble 

Date:     Wed, Sept. 23, 2009

Time:     7pm – 9:30pm

Venue:  Langara College, 100 West 49th Ave, Vancouver 

Presented by:   Vancouver Peak Oil,   Village Vancouver
Sponsored by:   Cinevolution Media Arts Society 

 About the Film (www.howtoboilafrog.com):

 “How to Boil a Frog” is a comedic documentary about a dad trying to save civilization for his daughter, that presents an overview of the Big Mess we’re in as well as a set of personal solutions that will actually make a difference, and make your life better now.

About the Director:  

 Jon Cooksey is a writer/producer for TV and movies; his most recent work as a showrunner was on the dramedy series “The Best Years”, which will air on Global beginning April 21, 2009. He’s currently working with Rob Stewart (director/writer/producer of the film “Sharkwater”) on the development of two new theatrical features. Jon’s focus on environmental, energy and economic issues began in 2006, when he decided he was going to have to take personal action to make sure his daughter didn’t end up living on a raft with the last polar bear. He set out to make the documentary “How to Boil a Frog”, which has evolved into an eco-comedy about overshoot, and its various symptoms (global warming, peak oil, overpopulation, the war on nature, income inequality, and so on).

 In the process of making the documentary (currently in the rough cut phase), Jon has interviewed dozens of experts in climatology, sustainability, economics, energy, journalism and many other areas, and also started the movement to save civilization online with the How to Boil a Frog website, at www.howtoboilafrog.com. In addition to offering up youtube-sized mini-documentaries and chunks of his interviews, the website offers a variety of entertaining resources and a chance for people to participate by sharing their own feelings about the mess we’re in and what they think our chances are.

 The process has also led Jon into various kinds of activism; at present he’s focused on getting Vancouver prepared for peak oil with the formation of the Vancouver Peak Oil Executive, which will be working with UBC, other NGO’s, and the Vancouver city government on a variety of projects.