Chris Hampton / en 91łÔąĎ producers set to make their Cannes debut with two films /news/u-t-producers-set-make-their-cannes-debut-two-films <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">91łÔąĎ producers set to make their Cannes debut with two films</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-05/0430DVSCannes002-crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=JMPWFczj 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2024-05/0430DVSCannes002-crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=epUbxqN3 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2024-05/0430DVSCannes002-crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=WR2rn8x1 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-05/0430DVSCannes002-crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=JMPWFczj" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-05-14T09:19:49-04:00" title="Tuesday, May 14, 2024 - 09:19" class="datetime">Tue, 05/14/2024 - 09:19</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>Weijie Lai, left, and&nbsp;Elizabeth Wijaya, right, have two films premiering at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chris-hampton" hreflang="en">Chris Hampton</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/film" hreflang="en">Film</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">91łÔąĎ Mississauga</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Weijie Lai and&nbsp;Elizabeth Wijaya are co-founders of the development and production company E&amp;W Films and teach in 91łÔąĎ Mississauga's department of visual studies</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The 91łÔąĎ’s<strong> Elizabeth Wijaya</strong>&nbsp;and <strong>Weijie Lai</strong>&nbsp;are headed to the French Riviera to see not one, but two films debut at Cannes. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The two scholars –&nbsp;Wijaya is an assistant professor in 91łÔąĎ Mississauga’s department of visual studies, Lai is a Cinema Studies instructor – co-founded the company, E&amp;W Films,&nbsp;that led the production of <em>Mongrel,&nbsp;</em>which is set to premiere as part of the Director’s Fortnight, an independent section that runs in parallel to theCannes Film Festival and is organized by the French Directors’ Guild.&nbsp;</p> <p>The film, which marks the feature debut of co-directors Chiang Wei Liang and&nbsp;You Qiao Yin,&nbsp;tells the story of Oom, an undocumented migrant who works as a caregiver in the mountains of rural Taiwan.</p> <p>Meanwhile, director Trương Minh Quý’s&nbsp;<em>Việt and Nam </em>will compete&nbsp;in Cannes’&nbsp;Un Certain Regard category, which is dedicated to non-traditional stories and styles.&nbsp;The film, also produced by E&amp;W, follows two lovers, one from the north and the other from the south, on a mission that explores the dreams and trauma of the southeast Asian country’s children.&nbsp;</p> <p>“I would say both films this year are heavy, but they have very distinct artistic visions,” Wijaya says. “With everything we work on under E&amp;W Films, we look out for that sense of directorial vision or artistic voice.”&nbsp;</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/scale_image_750_width_/public/2024-05/landing-desktop_mongrel-crop.jpg?itok=CmZfDRdG" width="750" height="500" alt="Main character Oom is seen at a hospital dirty and bruised" class="image-style-scale-image-750-width-"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>A still from the movie&nbsp;Mongrel&nbsp;(Image courtesy E&amp;W Films)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>Wijaya and Lai met in an undergraduate philosophy and film course at the National University of Singapore. They launched E&amp;W Films for practical reasons: they needed somewhere to hold funds while raising money to make Lai’s thesis film project. Later, E&amp;W Films produced a short project for an undergraduate schoolmate: director Kirsten Tan. Next, the pair moved on to produce Tan’s debut feature <em>Pop Aye</em>, which won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Fast forward to today and E&amp;W Films now has more than a dozen productions under its belt.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Wijaya generally defines her roles as development, strategy and co-ordination while Lai is more hands-on, helping facilitate everything from ideation and scripting to fundraising, production, sales and distribution.&nbsp;</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/scale_image_750_width_/public/2024-05/landing-desktop_vietandnam-crop.jpg?itok=PFNGYVY_" width="750" height="451" alt="Main characters Nam and Việt touch hands standing on the shore of a beach" class="image-style-scale-image-750-width-"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>A still from the film&nbsp;Việt and Nam&nbsp;(image courtesy Epicmedia Productions Inc.)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>The couple’s dedication to film media, as well as their teaching and scholarship, has enriched 91łÔąĎ Mississauga’s department of visual studies, where they’ve built the&nbsp;UTM Asian Short Film Collection&nbsp;(accessible to anyone with a 91łÔąĎ library account) and organized the UTM DVS filmmaker-in-residence program, which has welcomed international talents such as&nbsp;Davy Chou,&nbsp;Pimpaka Towira&nbsp;and&nbsp;Anocha Suwichakornpong&nbsp;to campus for workshops, lectures and screenings.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Two projects currently in development by E&amp;W Films have also received 91łÔąĎ Mississauga funding: an eco-horror project directed by Gogularaajan Rajendran was awarded the Black, Indigenous, and/or Racialized Scholar Research Grant, and&nbsp;<em>The Sea is Calm Tonight</em>&nbsp;by filmmaker LĂŞ Bảo was given seed support by the Research and Scholarly Activity Fund.&nbsp;</p> <p>The opportunity presented by the Cannes’ platform is enormous, the producers say.</p> <p>“It's the biggest international market in terms of the number of attendees,” Lai says. “The most number of critics internationally are there. The most number of distributors are there and sales agents and things like that … So if you're there, in theory, more people will watch your film.”&nbsp;</p> <p>While E&amp;W Films has had a presence at the festival for years, this is the first time its work is set to be screened at Cannes.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“I think I’m excited just to see the first reactions,” Wijaya says.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Lai, too, says he’s looking forward to the experience.</p> <p>“By the time we get to the world premi<meta charset="UTF-8">ère, you've seen the film so many times that you’re actually bored stiff,” he says. “But for some reason, when you're sitting there with a fresh audience during the world premi<meta charset="UTF-8">ère … the feeling is always different. You feel the energy of the audience, and fingers crossed the energy is good.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 14 May 2024 13:19:49 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 307848 at Richie Mehta, a 91łÔąĎ alumnus, finds validation in International Emmy win for Delhi Crime /news/richie-mehta-u-t-alumnus-finds-validation-international-emmy-win-delhi-crime <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Richie Mehta, a 91łÔąĎ alumnus, finds validation in International Emmy win for Delhi Crime</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/weblead-2-DELHI_CRIME_2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=-mJ77y9H 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/weblead-2-DELHI_CRIME_2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=uorkiYkp 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/weblead-2-DELHI_CRIME_2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=2qj3esIk 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/weblead-2-DELHI_CRIME_2.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=-mJ77y9H" alt="A scene from the movie Delhi Crime"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2020-12-14T11:10:52-05:00" title="Monday, December 14, 2020 - 11:10" class="datetime">Mon, 12/14/2020 - 11:10</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Richie Mehta's Delhi Crime tells the story of the police investigation that led to the apprehension of the six perpetrators of the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student – a crime that shocked India and the world (image courtesy of Netflix)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chris-hampton" hreflang="en">Chris Hampton</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cinema-studies" hreflang="en">Cinema Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/film" hreflang="en">Film</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/india" hreflang="en">India</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">91łÔąĎ Mississauga</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Filmmaker&nbsp;<strong>Richie Mehta</strong>&nbsp;was finishing a project in Delhi when the Nirbhaya (Hindi for “fearless) case broke out. The 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in the national capital territory shook India to its core, making headlines around the world.&nbsp;</p> <p>As details emerged "over the course of several days&nbsp;your whole understanding of what a human being could do to another human being was altered,” says Mehta, an alumnus of the 91łÔąĎ Mississauga, who recalled the protests, riots and re-writing of laws.</p> <p>“The crime changed the country’s psyche forever. I was there. I was a part of it, experiencing the same frustration and sadness.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Mehta, who is now based in London, won the International Emmy Award for best drama series last month&nbsp;for <em>Delhi Crime</em>, which he wrote and directed. The Netflix series tells the story of the Delhi police investigation that led to the apprehension of the six perpetrators of the gang rape and murder.</p> <p>“The investigation was led by women,” Mehta says, “so essentially, it’s about the women who are trying to solve this incredibly vast problem of violence against women in the most heinous sense.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Mehta began work on the project in 2013. A family friend connected him to a former police commissioner who introduced the filmmaker to the investigation team and to the woman who led it. Mehta got to know the officers over the course of several years.</p> <p>“They were real-life superheroes,” he says. “I thought it just turned the whole story about India on its head. People have this perception of the dangers that women face, which is not unfounded, but at the same time, it’s an environment where you come face-to-face with a kind of courage you’ve never seen before.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/embed-SHOT09-1203.jpg" alt></p> <p><em>Mehta says it was initially tough to find supporters for the project, but that he ultimately found a group of producers and financiers in the U.S. and India – including women – who&nbsp;“took a real stand”&nbsp;(photo by Arsh Sayed/Netflix)</em></p> <p>The majority of the six years Mehta spent making&nbsp;<em>Delhi Crime</em>&nbsp;was devoted to research. Accuracy was crucial to the project – an extremely sensitive subject, still raw in the mind of the nation – so he worked closely with police, interviewing detectives and reviewing their files. “This is not stuff I was going to make up,” he says. “It’s about a real case;&nbsp;real people were affected&nbsp;and there were real victims.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>He proceeded slowly and with trepidation. The horrific detail of the police reports was, of course, disturbing. He was living between Toronto and Delhi then. “I’d spend time with the cops for two or three months, gathering research, go home to Toronto&nbsp;and just sit in a room and cry,” he says. “Then, I’d have to sort everything out.”</p> <p>At times, he doubted the project’s worth. He also worried about the toll it was taking on him. He says it took a few years to&nbsp;finally realize&nbsp;that “something productive could come out of this.”&nbsp;<br> <br> Initial conversations with the film industry were difficult. No one was eager to do a film or a series about gang rape in India, Mehta says. After he’d written the script, however, he found a group of supporters in L.A. and India – including women – who would become&nbsp;<em>Delhi Crime</em>’s producers and financiers. “They took a real stand,” the filmmaker says. “They thought it was relevant, meaningful and that it should be made.”&nbsp;<br> <br> Mehta calls the International Emmy win “a validation.”</p> <p>“I was trying to do something that would not only address deep issues for Indians within the justice system,” he says, “but also patriarchal misogyny, violence against women, class, the caste systems&nbsp;– all these issues swirling together.”</p> <p>At the same time, Mehta says he wanted to show global audiences how this crime, which happened in a country where sexual violence is endemic, was absolutely devastating to India. “Ninety-nine point nine per cent of people there were as hurt and as shocked as we are. They are as ethical as we are and they are trying their best to fix this thing. It is important that people see that.”<br> <br> Delhi Crime&nbsp;will continue as an anthology series, following different crimes set in India’s capital territory in Season 2, though Mehta will not be at the helm. The city makes a compelling backdrop for such a series, he says.</p> <p>“Delhi is a very dark place in a certain manner of speaking. It has the reputation in India of being the hardest city with the hardest type of people … But it’s also the place where you find the most humanity – sometimes it’s just hiding well.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 14 Dec 2020 16:10:52 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 167839 at Students at 91łÔąĎ Mississauga gallery publish collection exploring time and place during COVID-19 /news/students-u-t-mississauga-gallery-publish-collection-exploring-time-and-place-during-covid-19 <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Students at 91łÔąĎ Mississauga gallery publish collection exploring time and place during COVID-19</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/CROP_Roe_Emily_Electrical_Gardens.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=64qI8Q5- 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/CROP_Roe_Emily_Electrical_Gardens.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=YnWGhiXI 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/CROP_Roe_Emily_Electrical_Gardens.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=qRtvh64I 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/CROP_Roe_Emily_Electrical_Gardens.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=64qI8Q5-" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2020-08-26T15:18:45-04:00" title="Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - 15:18" class="datetime">Wed, 08/26/2020 - 15:18</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Emily Roe, Electrical Gardens, mixed media triptych, 20 cm x 20 cm, 2020 (image supplied)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chris-hampton" hreflang="en">Chris Hampton</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/coronavirus" hreflang="en">Coronavirus</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/art" hreflang="en">Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">91łÔąĎ Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/undergraduate-students" hreflang="en">Undergraduate Students</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Work-study students at the 91łÔąĎ Mississauga’s Blackwood Gallery&nbsp;have created a digital publication <a href="https://greenwoodutm.com/Main">called&nbsp;Time Out</a>&nbsp;that explores our relationship with time since the&nbsp;COVID-19 pandemic first struck.&nbsp;</p> <p>The students&nbsp;typically work as gallery attendants, supporting the centre’s offsite programming&nbsp;and conducting outreach and research for upcoming Blackwood programs. But with the physical gallery closed, their work went digital over the summer.</p> <p>With support from Blackwood staff, the&nbsp;work-study participants – <strong>James Legaspi</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Jessica Velasco</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Kaitlin Simpson</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Nancy Hamdy</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Camilla Peng</strong>&nbsp;– sought to collect the perspective of fellow students during a strange time. They put out a call for art and writing that reflects upon the current moment and received submissions from across Canada.&nbsp;Time Out&nbsp;features 13 contributors working in media and methods that range from painting and mechanical installation to reportage.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Casanova_Karina_Garcia_Under_the_high_chair_april_6_2020_breakfast_0.jpg" alt></p> <p><em>Karina Garcia Casanova,&nbsp;Under the High Chair - April 6, 2020 - Breakfast,&nbsp;digital photography, 2020</em></p> <p>“We wanted to engage with how unsatisfactory the ending of the spring semester was,” says Legaspi, who is entering his fifth year in the 91łÔąĎ Mississauga art and art history program and served as one of two curatorial research assistants on the work-study team.</p> <p>“Things like studio spaces, final critique sessions, gallery spaces and scheduled exhibitions, as well as exhibition opportunities themselves and networking opportunities&nbsp;– access to these were all cut or postponed indefinitely, so we wanted to make a space for emerging voices and to amplify these student voices. We wanted to provide an opportunity for peers to see how peers are thinking.”</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Roe_Emily_Electrical_Gardens.jpg" alt></p> <p><em>Emily Roe,&nbsp;Electrical Gardens,&nbsp;mixed media triptych, 20 cm x 20 cm each, 2020&nbsp;(image supplied)</em></p> <p>In a photo series, for instance, Concordia University student Karina Garcia Casanova documents the mess left beneath her 18-month-old’s high chair after each meal – the purple splats and saucey smears like abstract expressionism&nbsp;paintings.</p> <p>“When COVID-19 hit and daycares closed for nearly four months, I struggled with finding ways to work on my artistic projects while taking care of my two young children,” Casanova writes, adding that she cleans the floor three times a day – a regular gesture of care that goes mostly unnoticed. The photographs, she says, make that work visible.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Another project, a digital painting by Toronto artist Troy A. Lawrence, depicts time spent in quarantine and the awesome power&nbsp;of imagination. There is also a list, drafted in the early days of lockdown, counting the activities that its author, Sabryna R. Ekstein, missed: “Having a reason to wear jeans, reading at bars, museum visits, baseball, making out.”&nbsp;</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Poirier_Katy_At_home_yourself-large.jpg" alt></p> <p><em>Katy Poirier,&nbsp;At home, yourself, collaged paper on MDF board, 10 cm x 10 cm, 2020&nbsp;(image supplied)</em></p> <p>The topics broached are numerous: health care, the environment, racism, gentrification, family, identity, capitalism and&nbsp;colonialism. And though accounts may seem isolated and disparate,&nbsp;Time Out&nbsp;illuminates the joints and corners, exposing the larger systems at work. It elegantly maps these many connections.</p> <p>Simpson, a master’s student in 91łÔąĎ’s Faculty&nbsp;of Information and one of the work-study group’s new media assistants, says that’s precisely what she learned focusing so closely on this peculiar suspended period, with all its good and bad.</p> <p>“Everyone is going through something different right now and that’s OK,” Simpson says. “We still have connection and we have community.”&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 26 Aug 2020 19:18:45 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 165536 at