Description

3 days of readings, seminars, music and dance

FSALA is a Canadian arts festival with a difference, promoting writers from South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, and those not writing in English, who are major figures in their own countries though not always known to the global “mainstream.” FSALA also invites many Canadian writers to the Festival, as well as musicians and other artists. In the past we have had dramatists Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani from India, novelist Bapsi Sidhwa from Pakistan/USA, and classical dancer Hari Krishnan from Canada. Important features of FSALA are panel discussions on various aspects of the arts, and opportunities for members of the public to meet the artists. In 2011 we celebrated anniversaries of Rabindranath Tagore and Faiz Ahmad Faiz. The keynote address was by Adrienne Clarkson, former Governor General of Canada and a writer.

For FSALA13, more than 25 Canadian writers and musicians will be present. Admission is free except for the Saturday concert. It is advisable but not essential to pre-register at http://www.fsalatoronto.com/FSALA2013_register.html

FRIDAY, MAY 3

Session 1: 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Combination Room, Trinity College
Enter through 6 Hoskin Ave

Panel discussion: Thinking across Regions
Cheran, Selina Hossain, Dannabang Kuwabong, Dawn Promislow

Session 2: 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Combination Room, Trinity College
Enter through 6 Hoskin Ave

Panel Discussion: South Asian Theatre in Canada

7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Seeley Hall, Trinity College, University of Toronto

Reception
Introduction and Welcome
Keynote Address: Professor Deep Saini, Principal, University of Toronto Mississauga
Readings: Anosh Irani, Christian Campbell, Pamela Mordecai
Musical recital

SATURDAY, May 4

Session 4: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Room 108N, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Growing Diversity, Emerging Media: Looking at the Future
Readings and Discussion: Tasneem Jamal, Sheniz Janmohamed, Randy Boyagoda, Anand Mahadevan
Moderator: Donna Bailey Nurse

Session 5: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

One World, One English, the Many Languages of the Imagination
Readings and Discussion: Sadhu Binning (Punjabi) Valerie Joan Tagwira (Shona) Sharankumar Limbale (Marathi), Meena Chopra (Hindi), Humaira Rahman (Urdu)
Moderator: Arun Prabha Mukherjee

Session 6: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Room 108N, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Art, Popular Culture, & Aesthetics
Readings and Discussion: Oonya Kempadoo, Michelle Muir, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Madeline Coopsammy
Moderator: Mariam Pirbhai

Session 7: 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Thinking Locally, Writing Globally
Readings and Discussion: Manjushree Thapa, Dannabang Kuwabong, Arnold Itwaru, H Nigel Thomas

Tea/Coffee: 3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Session 9: 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Al Green Theatre, 750 Spadina Ave

Readings: Valerie Joan Tagwira, George Elliott Clarke, Selina Hossain
Musical Recital: Kiran Ahluwalia & Co

SUNDAY, MAY 5: SOUTH ASIAN SUNDAY

Session 10: 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Worlds Within Canada
A session with Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu writers Munir Pervaiz, Shailaja Saxena, Jasbir Kalrwai, Tahir Gora, Rasheed Nadeem and Surjit Kaur

Musical Recital: 1:40 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Carnatic Vocal Recital by Kamini Dandapani

Session 11: 2:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Film (Sinhala): Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka (With You, Without You) with Shyam Fernando, Anjali Patil, Wasantha Moragoda, Maheshwarie Ratnam
Produced by: Lasantha Nawarathna and Mohamed Adamaly
Written and Directed by: Prasanna Vithanage
Followed by a discussion with Prasanna Vithanage

Description

3 days of readings, seminars, music and dance

FSALA is a Canadian arts festival with a difference, promoting writers from South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, and those not writing in English, who are major figures in their own countries though not always known to the global “mainstream.” FSALA also invites many Canadian writers to the Festival, as well as musicians and other artists. In the past we have had dramatists Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani from India, novelist Bapsi Sidhwa from Pakistan/USA, and classical dancer Hari Krishnan from Canada. Important features of FSALA are panel discussions on various aspects of the arts, and opportunities for members of the public to meet the artists. In 2011 we celebrated anniversaries of Rabindranath Tagore and Faiz Ahmad Faiz. The keynote address was by Adrienne Clarkson, former Governor General of Canada and a writer.

For FSALA13, more than 25 Canadian writers and musicians will be present. Admission is free except for the Saturday concert. It is advisable but not essential to pre-register at http://www.fsalatoronto.com/FSALA2013_register.html

FRIDAY, MAY 3

Session 1: 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Combination Room, Trinity College
Enter through 6 Hoskin Ave

Panel discussion: Thinking across Regions
Cheran, Selina Hossain, Dannabang Kuwabong, Dawn Promislow

Session 2: 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Combination Room, Trinity College
Enter through 6 Hoskin Ave

Panel Discussion: South Asian Theatre in Canada

7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Seeley Hall, Trinity College, University of Toronto

Reception
Introduction and Welcome
Keynote Address: Professor Deep Saini, Principal, University of Toronto Mississauga
Readings: Anosh Irani, Christian Campbell, Pamela Mordecai
Musical recital

SATURDAY, May 4

Session 4: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Room 108N, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Growing Diversity, Emerging Media: Looking at the Future
Readings and Discussion: Tasneem Jamal, Sheniz Janmohamed, Randy Boyagoda, Anand Mahadevan
Moderator: Donna Bailey Nurse

Session 5: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

One World, One English, the Many Languages of the Imagination
Readings and Discussion: Sadhu Binning (Punjabi) Valerie Joan Tagwira (Shona) Sharankumar Limbale (Marathi), Meena Chopra (Hindi), Humaira Rahman (Urdu)
Moderator: Arun Prabha Mukherjee

Session 6: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Room 108N, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Art, Popular Culture, & Aesthetics
Readings and Discussion: Oonya Kempadoo, Michelle Muir, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Madeline Coopsammy
Moderator: Mariam Pirbhai

Session 7: 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Thinking Locally, Writing Globally
Readings and Discussion: Manjushree Thapa, Dannabang Kuwabong, Arnold Itwaru, H Nigel Thomas

Tea/Coffee: 3:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Session 9: 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Al Green Theatre, 750 Spadina Ave

Readings: Valerie Joan Tagwira, George Elliott Clarke, Selina Hossain
Musical Recital: Kiran Ahluwalia & Co

SUNDAY, MAY 5: SOUTH ASIAN SUNDAY

Session 10: 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Worlds Within Canada
A session with Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu writers Munir Pervaiz, Shailaja Saxena, Jasbir Kalrwai, Tahir Gora, Rasheed Nadeem and Surjit Kaur

Musical Recital: 1:40 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Carnatic Vocal Recital by Kamini Dandapani

Session 11: 2:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place

Film (Sinhala): Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka (With You, Without You) with Shyam Fernando, Anjali Patil, Wasantha Moragoda, Maheshwarie Ratnam
Produced by: Lasantha Nawarathna and Mohamed Adamaly
Written and Directed by: Prasanna Vithanage
Followed by a discussion with Prasanna Vithanage

Description

REGISTRATION DETAILS: Free event. Tickets to this event are available day-of at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West. For all registration questions, please contact TIFF at 1.888.599.8433 or www.tiff.net/century

TIFF Bell Lightbox Artistic Director Noah Cowan moderates this roundtable discussion that brings together filmmakers, film scholars and programmers to explore both the connections and divergences between the Fourth and Fifth Generations of Chinese filmmakers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Chen Kaige has long been regarded as a cinematic keeper of China’s cultural heritage for his string of elegant, masterful period dramas. After graduating from Beijing Film Academy in 1982, he made his feature film debut with Yellow Earth (84), and established himself as a leading figure of Fifth Generation filmmaking. His most acclaimed film, Farewell My Concubine (93), was nominated for two Academy Awards and won the Palme d’Or as well as the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. His numerous features include Together (02) and To Each His Own (07), both of which have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, in addition to Temptress Moon (96), Killing Me Softly (02), The Promise (05), Forever Enthralled (08), Sacrifice (10), and Chen’s latest film, Caught in the Web (12), which also screened with the Festival. As part of the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, Chen was commissioned to take part in the anthology film To Each His Own Cinema, creating his short Zhanxiou Village (07). He has served as a judge for the Cannes, Berlin and Venice film festivals and several other prestigious film festivals in Shanghai, Japan and Italy.

Xie Fei, one of the most notable leaders of Fourth Generation filmmaking, first made waves with his celebrated feature A Girl from Hunan (86). He went on to direct the groundbreaking drama Black Snow (90), The Women from the Lake of Scented Souls (92), a winner of the Golden Bear at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival, and Song of Tibet (00). He has served as a professor at the Beijing Film Academy since 1965, and counts among his of students some of the best Chinese filmmakers of today, including Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, and Jia Zhangke. He previously served as the vice-president of Beijing Film Academy from 1980-88 and has been a jury member at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Montreal World Film Festival, and a number of other international film festivals.

Film scholar Bart Testa is senior lecturer at the Cinema Studies Institute, Innis College, University of Toronto. His courses cover a wide range of topics, including Chinese Cinema, European, Asian and European auteurs, narrative theory and cinema, urbanism and film, experimental cinema, science fiction movies and other popular genres. Testa has served on the advisory council of TIFF Cinematheque and has organized several conferences and film festivals with the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto in an ongoing association. He is the author of two books on experimental films: Back and Forth: Early Cinema and the Avant-Garde (1993) and Spirit in the Landscape (1989). In addition, he served as co-editor of the anthology Pier Paolo Pasolini in Contemporary Perspectives (1994), and has published journal articles and anthologized essays, many of them devoted to Canadian films and experimental cinema.

Chen Biqiang, pen name Chen Mo, is a Senior Research Fellow at the China Film Archive. He specializes in Chinese martial arts films (wuxia pian), Chinese film history and oral historiography. His publications include On Films of Zhang Yimou, History of Chinese Wuxia Pian, A Century of Snapshots from Chinese Film History, and Route to Oral Historiography.

Description

REGISTRATION DETAILS: Buy tickets at http://tkff2013.eventbrite.ca/#

Address Unknown
D: KIM Ki-duk / 2001 / 117 min / Friday, June 7 / 7:00 PM

In a South Korean town near a American military base, local residents are struggling with post-war lives. As one of the most famous South Korean directors, Kim Ki-duk is known for his unique style and art-house works. His The Isle (2000) was the first South Korean film shown in the competition category of the Venice Film Festival. Additionally, Kim has won the Silver Bear Award for best dirctor at the Berlin International Film Festival for his Samartian Girl in 2004. Recently, his Pieta (2012) won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Co-presenter: Reel World Film Festival
Distribution: 9ers Entertainment

Description

REGISTRATION DETAILS: Free event. Tickets to this event are available day-of at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West. For all registration questions, please contact TIFF at 1.888.599.8433 or www.tiff.net/century

This special free screening and discussion event, centred on an exceedingly rare screening of three of the earliest Chinese films still in existence, offers an invaluable glimpse into China’s largely vanished silent film heritage.

ALL ARCHIVAL PRINTS!

Between and following the screenings of Laborer’s Love, Romance of the Western Chamber and Red Heroine, a roundtable discussion between Chen Biqiang, Senior Research Fellow of the China Film Archive, University of Toronto scholar Bart Testa, Hong Kong film scholar and programmer Sam Ho, and TIFF Bell Lightbox Artistic Director Noah Cowan will place these films in greater context.

Films presented with live piano accompaniment by Laura Silberberg.

Film scholar Bart Testa is senior lecturer at the Cinema Studies Institute, Innis College, University of Toronto. His courses cover a wide range of topics, including Chinese Cinema, European, Asian and European auteurs, narrative theory and cinema, urbanism and film, experimental cinema, science fiction movies and other popular genres. Testa has served on the advisory council of TIFF Cinematheque and has organized several conferences and film festivals with the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto in an ongoing association. He is the author of two books on experimental films: Back and Forth: Early Cinema and the Avant-Garde (1993) and Spirit in the Landscape (1989). In addition, he served as co-editor of the anthology Pier Paolo Pasolini in Contemporary Perspectives (1994), and has published journal articles and anthologized essays, many of them devoted to Canadian films and experimental cinema.

Chen Biqiang, pen name Chen Mo, is a Senior Research Fellow at the China Film Archive. He specializes in Chinese martial arts films (wuxia pian), Chinese film history and oral historiography. His publications include On Films of Zhang Yimou, History of Chinese Wuxia Pian, A Century of Snapshots from Chinese Film History, and Route to Oral Historiography.

Sam Ho is a film critic, curator and researcher. Splitting his time between Hong Kong and the United States, he specializes in the study of Hong Kong cinema but had also written extensively and curated programs on other aspects of cinema. He served as Programmer at the Hong Kong Film Archive from 2005 to 2012, and has taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Laura Silberberg is a Doctoral student in music composition at the University of Toronto and a nine-time winner of the International Amadeus Songwriting Competition. She has composed music in a variety of genres, including orchestral, chamber, choral, electroacoustic and top 40/popular music, and her compositions and piano improvisations have been featured live on CBC Radio’s Here and Now and Metro Morning. Laura has performed as a professional accompanist for silent films screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF Cinematheque and the Toronto Silent Film Festival, and was honoured by Maclean’s as one of fifty up-and-coming young Canadians under the age of thirty.

Films in Buried Treasures of Chinese Silent Cinema:

Romance of the Western Chamber
Li Minwei
Less than an hour of footage remains of this sumptuous silent costume epic, at the time one of the most lavish Chinese productions ever made.

Laborer’s Love
Zhang Shichuan
This charming combination of Harold Lloyd-like silent comedy and progressive social drama is one of the earliest surviving Chinese films.

Red Heroine
Wen Yimin
The only surviving section of the thirteen-part serial Red Knight Errant, this barn-burner of an action epic is a prime specimen of the wuxia (martial-arts/fantasy) film explosion of the late 1920s.

Description

REGISTRATION DETAILS: Buy tickets at http://tkff2013.eventbrite.ca/#

Ryang-kang-do: Merry Chrismas, North!
D: KIM Sung-hoon / 2011 / 95 min / Saturday, June 8 / 4:30 PM

Jong-soo is a boy living in rural North Korea, his biggest dream is to go to Pyongyang. One day, he discovers a balloon from South Korea. Along with the balloon, there are some christmas gifts and a toy robot. The robot makes Jong-soo popular among the local kids...

*This is a family-friendly program

Co-presenter: Jayu
Distribution: 9ers Entertainment

Description

REGISTRATION DETAILS: Buy tickets at http://tkff2013.eventbrite.ca/#

Peppermint Candy
D: LEE Chang-dong / 1999 / 130 min / Saturday, June 8 / 7:30 PM

With a reverse chronology, Peppermint Candy traces the life of a young man, and the series of historical incidents in the 1980s that contribute to his ultimate suicide.

Director Lee Chang-dong is an internatonally acclaimed director , his is known for his Oasis (2002), Secret Sunshine (2007) , and most recently, Potery (2010, best screenplay at Cannes Film Festival). Lee was also a jury number of the 61st Cannes Film Festival in 2009. Peppermint Candy has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Grand Bell Awards for best film, best director, and best screenplay.

Co-presenter: Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Distributor: Fine Cut

Description

REGISTRATION DETAILS: Free event. Tickets to this event are available day-of at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West. For all registration questions, please contact TIFF at 1.888.599.8433 or www.tiff.net/century

Following the screening of Dust in the Wind, Bart Testa, Senior Lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Institute, moderates this roundtable discussion on the vastly influential oeuvre of Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien with noted film scholars David Bordwell and James Udden.

Renowned film scholar and film historian David Bordwell has written numerous books on the history and aesthetics of film, most recently Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (second edition), The Way Hollywood Tells It, Poetics of Cinema, and Pandora’s Digital Box: Films, Files, and the Future of Movies. He is the Jacques Ledoux Emeritus Professor of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he won a Distinguished Teaching Award. With his wife Kristin Thompson he is the author of Film Art: An Introduction and Film History: An Introduction. He maintains a website at www.davidbordwell.net, where he and Thompson write a weekly blog on films and film culture.

James Udden is Associate Professor of Film Studies at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania. He has lived and researched in Taiwan, resulting in his book, No Man an Island: The Cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien (Hong Kong University Press, 2009), the first English-language book on the filmmaker. Udden has also published widely on Asian cinema in various journals and anthologies, including two in separate upcoming volumes on Chinese cinema to be published by BFI and Blackwell Press. His current book project focuses on the rise of the cinemas of Taiwan and Iran in the international festival circuit.

Film scholar Bart Testa is senior lecturer at the Cinema Studies Institute, Innis College, University of Toronto. His courses cover a wide range of topics, including Chinese Cinema, European, Asian and European auteurs, narrative theory and cinema, urbanism and film, experimental cinema, science fiction movies and other popular genres. Testa has served on the advisory council of TIFF Cinematheque and has organized several conferences and film festivals with the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto in an ongoing association. He is the author of two books on experimental films: Back and Forth: Early Cinema and the Avant-Garde (1993) and Spirit in the Landscape (1989). In addition, he served as co-editor of the anthology Pier Paolo Pasolini in Contemporary Perspectives (1994), and has published journal articles and anthologized essays, many of them devoted to Canadian films and experimental cinema.

Hou Hsiao-Hsien Panel following screening of Dust in the Wind
Both a heartbreaking coming-of-age tale and a quiet revolution in film style, Dust in the Wind was a crucial transitional film for Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Description

REGISTRATION DETAILS: Tickets: $12. Buy tickets at www.tiff.net/century

Distinguished film scholar and author of the essential Planet Hong Kong, David Bordwell presents this illustrated talk on the dynamic cinematic language of martial-arts cinema and its evolution throughout the genre’s nearly hundred-year history.

Renowned film scholar and film historian David Bordwell has written numerous books on the history and aesthetics of film, most recently Planet Hong Kong: Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment (second edition), The Way Hollywood Tells It, Poetics of Cinema, and Pandora’s Digital Box: Films, Files, and the Future of Movies. He is the Jacques Ledoux Emeritus Professor of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he won a Distinguished Teaching Award. With his wife Kristin Thompson he is the author of Film Art: An Introduction and Film History: An Introduction. He maintains a website at www.davidbordwell.net, where he and Thompson write a weekly blog on films and film culture.

Description

REGISTRATION DETAILS: Tickets: $12. Buy tickets at www.tiff.net/century

Bart Testa, film scholar and Senior Lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies Institute, gives an introductory talk prior to our screening of Ann Hui’s 1982 masterpiece of the Hong Kong New Wave.

Film scholar Bart Testa is senior lecturer at the Cinema Studies Institute, Innis College, University of Toronto. His courses cover a wide range of topics, including Chinese Cinema, European, Asian and European auteurs, narrative theory and cinema, urbanism and film, experimental cinema, science fiction movies and other popular genres. Testa has served on the advisory council of TIFF Cinematheque and has organized several conferences and film festivals with the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto in an ongoing association. He is the author of two books on experimental films: Back and Forth: Early Cinema and the Avant-Garde (1993) and Spirit in the Landscape (1989). In addition, he served as co-editor of the anthology Pier Paolo Pasolini in Contemporary Perspectives (1994), and has published journal articles and anthologized essays, many of them devoted to Canadian films and experimental cinema.

Boat People
Ann Hui

Ann Hui’s brutal, beautiful and impossibly moving political drama about the dire straits of postwar Vietnam was a key work of the Hong Kong New Wave and is frequently named as the best Hong Kong film of all time by both critics and audiences.