Mina Shum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mina Shum
Shum in 2011
Born	1966 (age 58–59) Hong Kong
Education	University of British Columbia (BA)
Occupation	Filmmaker director writer
Chinese name
Chinese	沈小艾
Hanyu Pinyin	Shěn Xiǎo'aì
Yale Romanization	Sám Síu-ngaaih

Mina Shum (born in 1966) is a Canadian filmmaker. She writes and directs movies that have won awards. She has made many short films and also created art for specific places and theatre shows.

Two of her movies, Double Happiness and Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity, were shown for the first time in the US at the Sundance Film Festival. Double Happiness won a special award called the Wolfgang Staudte Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. It also won the Audience Award at another festival in Torino. Mina Shum was a director in training at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. She was also part of a rock band called Playdoh Republic.

Mina Shum's Early Life

Mina Shum was born in Hong Kong in 1966. She moved to Vancouver, Canada, with her family when she was one year old. Her family had left China during a time of big changes and settled in Vancouver. They were part of the first group of Chinese immigrants to move there.

When she was young, Mina was very interested in acting and theatre. She decided to follow these interests, even though her parents were not sure about it. From 1983 to 1989, Mina went to the University of British Columbia. She earned a degree in theatre and a diploma in filmmaking.

When she was 19, Mina decided she wanted to be a filmmaker. This happened after she watched a movie called Gallipoli by Peter Weir. She learned from this movie that you could make a film that wasn't focused only on America and still find an audience. She also saw that you could mix beautiful pictures with a very personal story. After getting her degree, she briefly joined a director's program at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. Mina Shum is also good friends with another filmmaker, Ann Marie Fleming. They met in 1989 when they were both students.

Mina Shum's Filmmaking Career

Mina Shum is often called a "Chinese-Canadian woman film director." However, she prefers to be known simply as an "independent filmmaker." She believes this helps people watch her movies without judging them based on her background.

When she talks about being linked to feminism (equal rights for women) and multiculturalism (many cultures living together), Mina says: "Because I live in Vancouver, which has many cultures, and I am a woman, people sometimes expect me to make movies about big social problems. But that's not where my ideas start. They start with people and their feelings. I use stories to show things people might not notice."

Mina says she loves to learn from all kinds of things. This includes movies, art, theatre, music, dance, and books. When she talks about what inspires her, she says: "I read interviews with people I've never heard of. And I listen to both friends and strangers. I live fully, try new things, feel sad sometimes, and feel very happy at other times. All of this somehow helps me show how we can be happier. How to live more truly, and how to make the most of this one life."

Short Films by Mina Shum

Mina Shum has made several short films. One of her early short films was Picture Perfect (1989). It was nominated for "Best Short Drama" at the 1989 Yorkton Film Festival.

In 1993, Mina released a 20-minute documentary about her family called Me, Mom and Mona. This film is like a TV talk show about three women. In the film, the women talk about their family history and their sometimes difficult relationship with the father. The film was well-liked. It received a special mention from the jury for the Best Canadian Short Film award at the 1993 Toronto International Film Festival.

Mina Shum has also written and directed other short films. These include Shortchanged, Love In, Hunger, and Thirsty. Her most recent short film, Hip Hop Mom, was released online in 2011. It has been watched thousands of times.

Feature Films by Mina Shum

Mina Shum has directed four full-length movies. Her first feature film, Double Happiness, came out in 1994. It stars Sandra Oh. Double Happiness is partly based on Mina's own life. It tells the story of a young actress who tries to become independent from her Chinese Canadian family's expectations.

Double Happiness won many awards. These include the "Wolfgang Staudte Award" at the Berlin International Film Festival. It also won the "Audience Award" at the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema. And it won "Best Canadian Feature Film" at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Mina's second feature film, Drive, She Said, was shown for the first time at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1997. It was also part of a competition at the Turin Delle Donne Film Festival. Drive, She Said is about a woman who willingly goes with a bank robber. She travels across the country with him to visit his sick mother and her own family, whom she hasn't seen in a long time.

Her third feature film, Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity, was shown at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. This movie is about a young girl who uses special magic to help her mother with money problems and her love life.

In her first three story-based feature films, Double Happiness, Drive, She Said, and Long Life, Happiness, and Prosperity, Mina Shum uses humor. She shows Chinese Canadian families living in Canada, which has many different cultures. She says that as a Chinese immigrant, she uses humor to describe society in general. Mina's films often show young women who are unhappy and want to leave home for something better. In her movies, home is often a place of arguments, boredom, and disappointment. Her stories about family talks often create problems for her main characters.

In February 2014, Mina Shum started filming a documentary in Montreal. It was for the National Film Board of Canada and was called Ninth Floor. This film is about the Sir George Williams Affair, a student protest that happened in 1969. The filming happened around the 45th anniversary of the event. Ninth Floor was first shown at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. It tells the story of students who took over a computer lab at Sir George Williams University (now part of Concordia University). They were protesting how school officials handled a complaint about racism. At the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival, Mina Shum won the Women in Film+Television Artistic Merit Award for Ninth Floor.

Mina Shum's Filmography

Awards Mina Shum Has Won

Mina Shum has received many awards for her work:

• Nominated – "Best Short Film": Yorkton Film Festival
• "Best Canadian Short" – Special Jury Citation: Toronto International Film Festival 1993
• "Best Canadian Feature Film" – Special Jury Citation: Toronto International Film Festival 1994
• "Audience Award": Torino International Festival of Young Cinema 1994
• Nominated – "Best Achievement in Direction": Genie Awards 1994
• Nominated – "Best Original Screenplay": Genie Awards 1994
• "Wolfgang Staudte Award": Berlin Film Festival 1995
• "Best Canadian Screenplay – Special Mention": Vancouver International Film Festival
• Nominated – "DGC Craft Award" Directors Guild of Canada 2007
• Won – Artistic Merit Award, Women in Film and Television Vancouver, 2015: Vancouver International Film Festival

On June 21, 2016, she also received the "Finalé Artistic Achievement Award" from Women in Film + Television Vancouver. This award honors a media artist who has created an excellent recent work or a lot of important work over time.

See also

In Spanish: Mina Shum para niños