Asia captures the eye on stage and screen

Straight.com
Publish Date: May 1, 2008

Before becoming Knowledge Network’s president and CEO last year, Rudy Buttignol had to decide to move from Toronto to either Montreal or Vancouver. “For me,” Buttignol says by phone from Toronto during a business trip, “Vancouver was far more interesting because I see that it’s a picture of the future of Canada, that the immigration from Asia-Pacific is fundamentally changing both British Columbia and Canada.”

Buttignol says that what impressed him after moving to Vancouver was seeing so much interracial interaction. What inspires him is “the sense that you’re in a historic period”.

According to 2006 Statistics Canada data, Asian Canadians now comprise one-third of Vancouver’s population. Throughout May, Asian Heritage Month events ( www.explorasian.org/ ) will give Vancouverites the opportunity to reflect upon these demographic and cultural shifts that are transforming our social landscape. Featured during the month are films, dance performances, visual-arts displays, workshops, musical shows, and more.

Big-screen AHM offerings include the Hong Kong crime thriller Mad Detective (Sun Taam ) (May 10, 7:30 p.m., Pacific Cinémathèque), about an inspector who must resort to consulting his now-insane former boss. The screening will be followed by a discussion led by Hiram Mok, from UBC’s department of psychiatry.

Tailor Made: Chinatown’s Last Tailors chronicles the attempts by brothers Bill and Jack Wong, in their 80s, to save their father’s tailor shop, which opened in Vancouver’s Chinatown in 1913. (Straight contributor J. J. Lee appears as an apprentice.) All four screenings (May 13, 14, 16, 28) are free and will be shown at various community centres (check the explorASIAN Web site for time and venue details).

To complement Mohammad Reza Shajarian’s concert, Vancity Theatre is screening The Voice of Iran: Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Santouri (The Music Man ) from May 12 to 14 (see www.vifc.org/ for details).

On TV, Shaw Multicultural Channel and explorASIAN will present the Filmmaker Showcase (May 11, 18, and 25; 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.), featuring shorts and feature films on Asian Canadian subjects ( www.vancouver.shawtv.com/smc/smc_filmmakers.htm ). Three collections will address the themes of identity, relationships, and history.

At Knowledge Network, Buttignol, who studied Chinese and Indian cinema and history in university, says he is committed to increasing Asia-Pacific programming to “reflect change in British Columbia”. Thirteen AHM TV programs to be shown by the public broadcaster during May and June are a part of that commitment.

Lai Man Wai: The Father of Chinese Cinema (May 9, 10 p.m.; May 14, midnight) will examine the life and work of the accomplished Chinese film pioneer. The Slanted Screen (Friday [May 2], 10 p.m.; Wednesday [May 7], midnight; May 15, 10 p.m.) analyzes—by surveying more than four dozen movie clips—how Asian men have been stereotyped in Hollywood productions. “Those documentaries,” Buttignol says, “are always a great measure to see how far society has moved forward towards some kind of enlightenment.”

Although Hollywood may seem internationally ubiquitous, the world’s number-one film-producing country is India. Close behind Hollywood is China, at number three. The five-part Cinema Asia on the Knowledge Network will examine these cinematic powerhouses with spotlights on China (May 16), India (May 23), Iran (May 30), South Korea (June 6), and Taiwan (June 13). The series will air on Fridays at 10 p.m. and Wednesdays at midnight.

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