Ling Chiu FILMMAKER / MEDIA ARTIST / EDUCATOR

Biography

Ling Chiu has written, directed, and produced a number of award-winning short dramatic and experimental films and videos, as well as a documentary, From Harling Point, with the National Film Board of Canada.

She believes strongly in the power of films and its place to help enact social change. Films like, Tee Hee Hee, a memorial to the 14 women killed at École Polytechnique in Montreal and Tethers, a film about love, choices and sacrifice as seen through the eyes of a Chinese immigrant family exemplify that sensibility. Stylistically, she engages in varying techniques. A Fortune in Frozen Dim Sum, comprised of bite-sized vignettes, merges a dramatic film with experimental elements and animation.

Ling has spent many years as a festival previewer for the Vancouver International Film Festival for both the International and Canadian selection committees and also for the Spark Animation Festival in Vancouver. She is currently working as a specialist teacher for students with extreme complex cognitive and physical challenges where she developed a media arts program and employed her filmmaking skills to enhance their educational needs both creatively and exceptionally. My World, is a video that was shot by students (with support) and made specifically for them but it is also a video that is hopeful in how it speaks to you (the audience) about who they are and what they are about in a mostly inaccessible world.

Ling is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Radio and Television Arts program and the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education in Toronto. She is also a graduate of the Emily Carr University of Art + Design’s Film and Video program in Vancouver.

Filmography

A Fortune in Frozen Dim Sum 13mins / 35mm / 2004 - Writer, Director, Editor, Producer

A Fortune in Frozen Dim Sum is a film comprised of bite-sized vignettes in the life of a Chinese family that run a frozen dim sum shop. Grandma is the heroine, who turns a squirrel’s accidental death to her family’s gain.

Festivals & Awards

National Screen Institute Film Exchange 2005
Cucalorus Film Festival, North Carolina 2005
R2R International Film Festival for Youth, Vancouver 2005
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival 2005
Vancouver International Film Festival 2004
Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival 2004
Edmonton International Film Festival 2004
Whistler Film Festival 2004
Asian Heritage Month Festival (Vancouver) 2003
National Film Board of Canada Filmmaker Assistance Program 2003
Citytv’s Cinecity: Vancouver’s Stories Iniative 2003
British Columbia Arts Council – Project Assistance for Media Arts 2002 Ontario Arts Council 2000
Canada Council Media Arts First Productions Grant 1999

Once A Fish - 16 min / 35mm / 2005 - Director

Once A Fish is a story about Theresa, a woman whose life revolves around weekly visits to her father’s grave where she performs offerings of love and respect with a piece of smoked salmon. Mourning becomes easier than letting go until she meets Will, whose encounters with Theresa and the fish change everything.

Festivals & Awards

Toronto Reel World Film Festival – 1st prize Outstanding Canadian Short Film Award 2007
Vancouver Asian Film Festival – 3rd Prize in Short Film Category 2007
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2007
IAWRT- International XX Film Festival 2006 – First Prize in Short Film Category
Leo Award Nomination – Best Sound Editing in a Short Drama 2006
Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival 2006
Vancouver International Film Festival 2005
Director’s Guild of Canada & British Columbia Film Kick Start Award 2004
British Columbia Arts Council – Project Assistance for Media Arts 2004
National Film Board of Canada Filmmaker Assistance Program 2004
Citytv’s Cinecity: Vancouver’s Stories Initiative 2002

From Harling Point - 40 mins / Beta SP / 2003 - Writer, Director

From Harling Point, a documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada, tells the story of a Chinese cemetery in British Columbia that became a National Heritage site. For Chinese pioneers who died in Canada, Victoria's Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point was a temporary resting place until their bones could be returned home. (Traditional Chinese belief says that the soul of a person who dies in a foreign place wanders lost until their bones are returned home.) This film traces the rich history of the Vancouver Island cemetery from controversy and neglect to its revival as a historic site. Told by those closest to it, the story of Harling Point is a metaphor for Canada, a country still working on making a home for all who live within its borders.

Festivals & Awards

Leo Award Nomination - Best Documentary History/Biography/Social/Political 2004
R2R International Film Festival for Youth - Most Inspirational Short Film or Video 2004
Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival 2004
Asian Heritage Month (Vancouver) 2003
Edmonton Global Visions Film Festival 2003
Vancouver International Film Festival 2003

Tethers - 6 mins / 16mm / 1998 - Writer, Director, Editor, Producer

In the film Tethers, a young woman recounts her past, describing her family's move from China, to Canada, and how her parents were forced to decide which child to leave behind, their son or daughter.

Festivals & Awards

National Film Board of Canada Filmmaker Assistance Program 1999
BC Festival of the Arts - "Juror's Choice" 1999
Cascadia Festival of Moving Images - best dramatic film 1999
Cascadia Festival of Moving Images - best cinematography 1999
Asia Pacific Grant Recipient 1998
Montreal World Film Festival, 1998
Vancouver International Film Festival, 1998
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - Canadian Reflections, 1998

Tee Hee Hee - 4 mins / 16 mm / 1995 - Writer, Director, Editor, Producer

On December 6, 1989, at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, 14 women were shot and killed. Tee Hee Hee is a memorial to those women and a reminder of the continuing violence women face.

Festivals & Awards

Montreal World Film Festival, Honourable Mention 1995
Vancouver International Film Festival 1995
Reel Change (Support for the Women’s Monument) 1998
Knowledge Network 1996
British Columbia Cultural Scholarship 1996
Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design Scholarship 1996
Women's Television Network - Shameless Shorts, 1995
Asian Heritage Month (Toronto) 1995
Herland International Feminist Film Festival (Calgary) 1995
Northwest Film & Video Festival (Portland, Oregon) 1995
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival 1995
New York Asian Ciné Film & Video Festival 1995
San Francisco Asian Film Showcase 1995
Washington State Arts Commission 1995

Identity - 4 mins / Video / 1992 - Writer, Director, Producer

Identity is part mother-love, part fashion show, disparate cultural sign systems evoke themes of assimilation, displacement and belonging, while wryly teasing out the tenuous relations between the beauty ideal and “Asianess”

Festivals & Awards

Gordon Alderman Award - broadcast award for human values (Toronto) 1993
TV Ontario Telefest - 3rd prize for best experimental (Toronto) 1992
Can Pro Award - best video produced at a post- secondary Institution (Toronto) 1992
New York Asian Ciné Film & Video Festival 1995
San Francisco Asian Film Showcase 1995
Washington State Arts Commission 1995
Images Festival for Independent Film & Video (Toronto) 1992

Media Arts Educator for Special Education

My World

What does it look like, sound like and feel like to be a Special Education student in a Toronto Elementary school...

Let's Go Ride A Rollercoaster! Virtual Reality for Students in Special Education

Working in collaboration with Tetra Society, the creation of The Movement Simulation Platform (MSP) is a call for equity and accessibility for special education students.