The first Toronto Reel International Film Festival showcasing Asian-North American filmmakers unspools Nov. 20-23 at The Bloor Cinema. Organizers are anticipating around 4,000 in attendance.

Fifty percent of the funding for the festival was made available by way of a Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific grant while the remainder will be picked up mostly in the form of contra deals with local independent businesses. The Chinese Canadian National Council is the community sponsor.

Nine programs

The non-competitive festival will feature nine different programs, seven of which are feature films, a short and a mid-length program. Ninety percent of the films are Toronto premieres and many are being seen in Canada for the first time.

In assembling what festival executive director Anita Lee describes as a ‘very exciting lineup,’ she was particularly interested in films that had a fresh, hip and edgy tone by North American directors of East Asian descent.

Lee says the titles represent a new, or second wave of Asian directors as she was more interested in a youthful program dealing with the issues of North American life than in reflections of the old country.

Two of the films making their Canadian premieres are Strawberry Fields by Rea Tajiri and Yellow, the first Korean-American dramatic feature by Chris Chan Lee.

Strawberry Fields

Set in the 1970s, Strawberry Fields explores the history of the Japanese internment in America and revolves around a teenage girl whose sister has recently passed away. Yellow follows the course of eight Korean-American friends about to graduate from high school through the course of one difficult night.

The shorts program includes Canadian works Tough Bananas by Keith Locke, Ten Little Dumplings by Larissa Fan and Cowgirl by Sunny Lee starring Canadian actress Sandra Oh.

A workshop component taking place at The John Spotton theater Nov. 22 features a session on ‘Non-Traditional Casting: Beyond Stereotypes,’ with a panel of film and casting specialists exploring the problems and challenges faced by Asian actors and filmmakers. Later that afternoon, Terence Chang, executive producer of John Woo’s Once A Thief, will lead a discussion on Asian directors and independent filmmaking.