Interview
Thursday, March 16 / 7:00 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Mina Shum in conversation with Tom McSorley, CFI Executive Director

Screening
Friday, March 17 / 4:00 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: Meditation Park
Guest: Mina Shum, director and writer

Note: Click ‘Order Ticket’ for either event and see the option to order tickets to both for $20.

Interview \

In the three decades since her award-winning 1993 short documentary, Me, Mom and Mona, Vancouver-based director, writer, and producer Mina Shum has created some of Canadian cinema’s most endearing and enduring feature films. From her first feature, Double Happiness (featuring the big screen debut of Sandra Oh and winner of the Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival) in 1994 through to the present, her vision and versatility have taken her from fiction features to documentary to extensive work in series television. We are proud to have Mina Shum as one of IFFO’s Canadian Masters. We look forward to welcoming her to Ottawa to discuss her career and to present a special screening of one of her works.  

Canadian Film Institute Executive Director Tom McSorley wil conduct an extensive, career-spanning onstage conversation with Mina Shum, looking at her film works, her approach to filmaking and screenwriting, and her experiences in a career that has spanned over three decades in making short films, feature drama, documentary, and series television.

Feature presentation \

Meditation Park

2017 / 94 minutes / Canada
Director: Mina Shum
Writer: Mina Shum
Language: English

seniors / identity / new beginnings

Mina Shum’s fifth feature film is a touching, amusing, and finely observed tale of Maria, an Asian-Canadian grandmother who arrives at her own declaration of personal independence after discovering that her longstanding husband may not be as worthy of her reverential treatment as she once believed. A dedicated homebody utterly devoted to her husband, Maria’s life is tossed into disarray when she finds another woman’s underwear in amongst his clothes. Her initial shock, sadness, and fear propel her life in unexpected directions involving her daughter, her neighbours, and the world beyond the confines of her own home. Facing her fears, Maria soon discovers that these new life directions just might make things better. Deftly directed and brilliantly acted, Meditation Park stars Cheng Pei Pei and Sandra Oh.

“Shum mines her favourite theme – immigrant experience in Canada – in what seems at first to be a gentle slice of life but eventually develops a powerful emotional force.” - Now Magazine

- Tom McSorley

Le cinquième long métrage de Mina Shum est l’histoire touchante, amusante et minutieusement observée de Maria, une grand-mère canadienne d’origine asiatique, qui arrive à sa propre déclaration d’indépendance après avoir découvert que son mari de longue date n’est peut-être pas aussi digne de son traitement révérenciel qu’elle le croyait auparavant. La vie de Maria, qui est casanière et entièrement dévouée à son mari, est bouleversée lorsqu’elle trouve la culotte d’une autre femme dans les vêtements de son mari. Son choc, sa tristesse et sa peur du début propulsent sa vie dans des directions inattendues qui impliqueront sa fille, ses voisins et le monde au-delà du confinement de son propre foyer. En affrontant ses peurs, Maria découvre bientôt que ces nouvelles directions pourraient la mener à une vie meilleure. Adroitement réalisé et interprété avec brio, Meditation Park met en vedette Cheng Pei Pei et Sandra Oh. 

- Tom McSorley (traduit par Jacinthe Grenier-Albert)

This program is presented in partnership with Canada Media Fund.