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Julia Kwan

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Julia Kwan is a screenwriter, director, and occasional producer of her own short and feature films. She has brought a keen sense of the Chinese-Canadian cultural experience to her films. Several of the films were made in conjunction with the National Film Board of Canada[1] Her feature films include Eve and the Fire Horse, as well as the feature length Documentary film Everything Will Be (2005). She is also known for her short film 10,000 Delusions (1999) which screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival.[2]

Biography

Julia Kwan was raised in Vancouver to Chinese immigrant parents. These childhood experiences would be a strong influence on her feature film Eve and the Fire Horse (2005).[3] Her mother was a garment factory worker[3], while her father was employed as the head waiter at a Vancouver Chinese restaurant.[4] She studied film at Ryerson_Polytechnic_University in Toronto[4]. Kwan was previously employed as a data entry clerk, and it capable of typing 105 words a minute.[5] As of 2006, Kwan is in remission from Cancer.[2] Kwan was born under the Chinese astrological sign of the Fire Horse.[3] Kwan did not start making films until her 20s.[3]








Julia Kwan is a Vancouver-based filmmaker who studied film and minored in psychology at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto. She was also a director resident at Norman Jewison's prestigious Canadian Film Centre, where she made her award-winning short, Three Sisters on Moon Lake. Kwan's short films have traveled extensively and have received many awards, including best film awards in Montreal, New Orleans and Houston, and audience awards in Toronto, Arkansas and São Paulo. In 2005, Kwan made her feature film debut with Eve & the Fire Horse, based on her Writers Guild of Canada award-winning script. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the coveted Special Jury Prize for World Cinema. The film picked up awards at festivals in Vancouver, Calgary, San Diego, Oregon and New York, where it also screened at the MoMA. In 2007, Kwan won the Claude Jutra Award for Best Direction for a First Feature Film[6] and received five nominations, including Best Supporting Actor and Actress, at the Genie Awards. In 2014, she completed her first documentary film, a National Film Board of Canada production about Vancouver's Chinatown, entitled Everything Will Be.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Julia Kwan - NFB." National Film Board of Canada. Accessed October 23, 2016. https://www.nfb.ca/explore-all-directors/julia-kwan/.
  2. ^ a b Leiren-Young, Mark. "Julia Kwan rediscovers Chinatown; Debut documentary Everything Will Be reflects her love for the community of her childhood." Vancouver Sun, September 25, 2014, D.3.
  3. ^ a b c d Walker, Susan. "Canada's Sundance kid; Julia Kwan's film is festival's lone Canadian entry Story focuses on Chinese life in Vancouver." Toronto Star, January 27, 2006. Accessed October 23, 2016.
  4. ^ a b Eisner, Ken. "VIFF 2014: Julia Kwan’s Everything Will Be Captures Vancouver’s Chinatown in Transition | Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly." Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. Last modified September 24, 2014. http://www.straight.com/movies/734976/viff-2014-julia-kwans-everything-will-be-captures-vancouvers-chinatown-transition.
  5. ^ Montagu, Katharine. "Eve and the Horse writer-director may be quiet, but Julia Kwan has plenty of bite." Canadian Screenwriter 9, no. 1 (October 2006), 21.
  6. ^ Claude Jutra Award entry at The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  7. ^ Eisner, Ken (24 September 2014). "VIFF 2014: Julia Kwan's Everything Will Be captures Vancouver's Chinatown in transition". Georgia Straight. Retrieved 11 February 2015.


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