Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity
This cycle showcases the cinematic works of filmmakers from East Asian diasporas, exploring North American identity in their films.
Kin is raising her 12-year-old daughter Mindy alone. Mindy is desperate to find a new partner for her mother, so she uses ancient Chinese magic to achieve her goal. The result is unexpected, to say the least.
Mina Shum
Mina Shum is an independent Canadian filmmaker. She is a writer and director of award-winning feature films, numerous shorts and has created site specific installations and theatre. Her features, Double Happiness and Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity, starring Sandra Oh, premiered in the US at the Sundance Film Festival. The former won the Wolfgang Staudte Prize for Best First Feature at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Torino Film Festival. In her three first feature films, Shum uses a comedic approach to depict the Chinese Canadian family in multicultural Canada. She says that as a Chinese immigrant, she uses humour to characterize society in general. Her films often features ironic, discontented young women that want to leave home for something better; she characterizes home as being a place of conflict, boredom, and disappointment.
