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 feature films. She has also created art installations and theatre shows.

Her movies, Double Happiness and Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity, were first shown in the US at the Sundance Film Festival. Double Happiness won the Wolfgang Staudte Prize for Best First Feature at the Berlin Film Festival. It also won the Audience Award at Torino. Mina Shum was a director at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. She was also part of a rock band called Playdoh Republic.

Early Life and Inspiration

Mina Shum was born in Hong Kong in 1966. When she was one year old, her family moved to Vancouver, Canada. Her family was part of the first group of Chinese immigrants to settle in Vancouver.

When she was young, Mina was very interested in acting and theatre. She decided to follow these interests, even though her parents did not fully agree at first. She went to the University of British Columbia from 1983 to 1989. There, she earned a degree in theatre and a diploma in film production.

Mina decided she wanted to be a filmmaker when she was 19. This happened after she watched a movie called Gallipoli by Peter Weir. She learned that movies could be made outside of America and still find an audience. She also saw how beautiful pictures could be combined with a 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.

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 having any ideas about them beforehand.

Mina loves to learn from many different things. She enjoys movies, paintings, theatre, music, dance, and books. She says she listens to friends and strangers talk. She lives life fully, and all her experiences help her create stories. Her goal is to show how people can be happier and live more truly.

Short Films

Mina Shum's first short film was Picture Perfect, released in 1989. It was about a man who was very interested in certain types of media and how it affected his life. This film was nominated for "Best Short Drama" at the 1989 Yorkton Film Festival.

In 1993, she made a 20-minute documentary about her family called Me, Mom and Mona. This film was like a TV talk show about three women. They talked about their family history and their relationship with the father. The film was well-received. It earned a special award from the jury for Best Canadian Short Film 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 and became very popular.

Feature Films

Mina Shum has directed four full-length movies. Her first feature film, Double Happiness, came out in 1994. It starred Sandra Oh. This movie was partly based on Mina's own experiences as a teenager leaving home. It tells the story of a young actress who wants to be independent from her Chinese Canadian family's expectations.

Double Happiness won many awards. These included 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.

Her second feature film, Drive, She Said, was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1997. It was also part of a competition at the Turin Delle Donne Film Festival. This movie is about a woman who goes on a cross-country trip with a bank robber.

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

In her first three story-based feature films, Mina Shum uses comedy to show Chinese Canadian families in Canada. She says that as an immigrant, she uses humor to describe society in general. Her films often show young women who are unhappy and want to leave home for something better. In her movies, home can be a place of arguments, boredom, and disappointment.

In February 2014, Mina Shum started filming a documentary called Ninth Floor in Montreal. This film was about the Sir George Williams Affair student protest. The filming happened around the 45th anniversary of the event. Ninth Floor was first shown at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. It tells about an event in 1969 at Sir George Williams University. Students took over a computer lab to protest how school officials handled a complaint about unfair treatment based on race. At the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival, Mina Shum won the Women in Film+Television Artistic Merit Award for Ninth Floor.

Filmography

Awards and Recognition

Mina Shum has received many awards for her work:

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

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 outstanding recent work or a significant body of work.

See also

In Spanish: Mina Shum para niños