Year-Round Programme

Our Year-Round Programme runs in between our annual August festivals—screenings, talks, art exhibitions and more.

2024

Asian Heritage Month Series: Us Among the Mountains and Rivers

In a world where the pace of life seems to perpetually accelerate, physically or sensually, what grounds us amidst the whirlwind of modernity? We may be able to answer the question by looking at the places we’ve lived in for so long. What do those geographical places mean to us?

Film echoes nostalgia, transcending the constraints of time and space to evoke the essence of our homeland. Perhaps it’s the intangible element. The air we breathe, the dialects we speak, the collective wisdom accumulated over generations that imbue a place with its distinctive character.

As an ancient Chinese proverb poetically suggests, even tangerine trees growing on opposite sides of a river bear different fruits, as shaped by the unique terroir.

When filmmakers anchor their narratives in a specific time and place, they capture the essence of that life, a charm that reverberates through the screen and stirs something deep within us. It’s the unconscious undercurrent of belonging, of recognizing ourselves in the landscapes and stories portrayed.

– Curated by LIU Yuetong

2023

ILLUME x MulanIFF Advance Screening

July

Heroes Fall, The River Endures

In ancient times, the Yangtze River was referred to as the “Great Jiang” and the Yellow River as the “Great He”. Each word points to the one and only River, respectively, even though they are both translated as “river” into English. In the Chinese-speaking world, people learn from an early age about the rivers long extolled by the literati. The lives of people and rivers are intertwined, for better or worse.

Every year around May, the Yangtze River enters its flood season. With the advent of modernity, hydropower plants have been built one after another, altering both the River’s course and the lives of many in small towns along the River.

The River laments, bereft of heroes.

Supported by funding from Telefilm Canada.

2022

The Visionary Series

Thanks to films and film festivals, we’ve had many opportunities to get to know the former generations of Chinese diasporas. From the discriminatory head tax imposed on the Chinese immigrants over a hundred years ago, to the wide-spread anti-Asian violence today, our history and our present tell us the same thing: each generation will have their own contemporary injustice to fight, and none of us could flinch from it… Read More

REGENERATION Special Exhibition

2019

2018