First-time director Anthony Shim lands plum spot in VIFF lineup
Credit to Author: Dana Gee| Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2019 18:00:41 +0000
When: Oct. 5, 7 p.m.; Oct. 8, 6:15 p.m.
Where: Vancouver Playhouse (Oct. 5); Rio Theatre (Oct. 8)
Tickets and info: viff.org
Anthony Shim says if it weren’t for the Vancouver International Film Festival he wouldn’t have seen himself reflected in movies when he was young.
Born in Seoul, the 33-year-old actor, director and writer, who moved to Coquitlam with his parents when he was eight years old, says VIFF gave him access to Korean films.
Now in its 38th year, the film festival continues to be a bright light in terms international fare (70 countries are represented), including a strong Asian line up in The Gateway program, which includes the Dragons & Tigers section — the largest selection of Pacific Asian films outside of Asia.
One of the biggest influences for a young Shim was one of the most famous names in Korean cinema — Bong Joon-Ho.
The acclaimed director has a history with VIFF, and is back this year with his Cannes Palme d’Or winner Parasite. The comic thriller is one of this year’s special presentation films. (Centre for Performing Arts Sept. 27, 29 and Oct. 6).
Cannes Palm d’Or-winning film Parasite is the latest from famed South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho.
“When Bong Joon-Ho’s movie The Host came out at VIFF and he was going to make a special appearance, that was a big deal for me,” says Shim, who was 19 at the time.
“I made sure I was there that night and I was front row. I wanted to see that film. I wanted to see the man because it was just so hard to come by.”
Bong’s work (Memories of Murder, Okja) has continued to be an inspiration to Shim so it is kind of a kismet that Shim’s first feature film Daughter will premiere at VIFF alongside a Bong picture.
John Cassini stars as a father and husband trying to navigate an immense grief in the new feature film Daughter from Vancouver filmmaker Anthony Shim. Photo: Credit Greg Massie.
A dark, drama about a father (John Cassini) trying to survive after a huge family loss, Daughter has earned the coveted B.C. Spotlight position in this year’s festival. It is one of 113 Canadian films (47 features 66 shorts).
“I’ve been saying this is a dream come true. It is nothing short of that. I have literally been dreaming about this,” says Shim.
Shim has been acting for almost 20 years but throughout that time he had filmmaking on his mind.
“It felt like one of those things I could talk about doing forever unless I set a hard goal for myself,” says Shim. “Then … all the filmmakers I grew up admiring, they had all made films by their late 20s early 30s.
“The goal was actually 30 but I’m a couple of years late.”
For the record those filmmakers are Paul Thomas Anderson, Wong Kar Wai, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Berman and Bong.
Director/writer Anthony Shim works with actor Jenn Maclean-Angus during the filming of the new feature Daughter.
At the centre of Daughter is Jim, a middle aged guy who has isolated himself in a self-destructing world. It isn’t until he finds a connection, albeit tenuous and sometimes fantastical, with a prostitute named Nikki (Teagan Vincze) that Jim truly faces his tragic past.
The deeply wounded and at the same time fiercely angry Jim is one of those characters that offers up plenty of room for an actor to work.
“Actors are always looking for roles that they can bring their full selves to,” says Cassini, whose resume is filled with 25 years of theatre, TV and film work.
“Those roles don’t always present themselves frequently because we are sort of doing service industry roles and people are asking us to do what might be in our wheelhouse. So when you read something like this and you see that it is presenting and allowing the possibility of bringing all of your life experience and your craft and your knowledge and your experience to a role, you are attracted to it as an actor. I was licking my chops, for sure.”
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Shim says when he sat down to write, the story for Daughter came quickly. It was a topic and characters that he has been thinking about for a long time.
“I lost my dad in my early 20s. The idea of grief and loss and family tragedy had been something that had been on my mind a lot throughout my young adulthood. So these are characters, relationships and dynamics that I’d been thinking about for a long time,” says Shim.
Once the script was penned, Shim brought it to Railtown Actors Studio, where he also teaches acting, and the studio’s artistic director Cassini.
“It could not have been easier,” says Shim. “We have both gone about the process of acting and storytelling in the same way, so we just had to hash out the basic things. Once the basic formalities were done the creative process was so effortless. We really didn’t butt heads on anything.”
Jenn Maclean-Angus and John Cassini play an estranged husband and wife in the new feature film Daughter .
For Cassini the familiarity between the writer/director and the actor was a bonus, especially when you have just under two weeks to shoot a full feature.
“It was nothing but a great experience. We both come from the theatre and we both speak a lot of the same language,” says Cassini. “We were able to dive in pretty quickly.”
Cassini and Shim’s relationship goes back about eight years to the beginning of Railtown Actors Studio.
Founded by Cassini and Kate Twa, Railtown gave Shim a place to work out his script within the framework and support of the development arm of studio called the Railtown Lab.
“We have a home. We have place where we can safely practice and exercise our creativity freely, when we want,” says Shim, who has already done a table read at Railtown for a new script.
“We workshop things, and we talk about things, and keep active in this creative environment,”
“It’s about developing new work,” says Cassini. “We are not a for-profit society. I don’t run an acting studio because it is how I make my living … it is a hub of creativity. Sure we train actors and all of that. It is also a place where a lot of experienced actors come to work out and collaborate. (With Daughter) I feel like we manifested the mandate.”
After Daughter, Shim says he took a deep breath and reflected on the experience.
“I learned that I am capable of putting a movie together. That sheer concept was a giant mystery to me,” says Shim, who had done a few short films leading up to Daughter.
“Could I possibly write dialogue that could translate into performances that could then translate into a narrative? I imagined it for years, but until I actually did it, it was just this big question mark. It was guessing.”
That confidence has led him to pen two new screenplays, one of which he hopes to have in production by early next year.
“I wish I was shooting tomorrow,” says Shim. “I am dying to do this again, knowing what I know now.
“I hope I can be in a position to continue to tell stories to whatever scale that I have the opportunity to do,” adds Shim. “I just love the process of filmmaking so much, and I’m dying to do it again as soon as I can.”
But right now it’s Daughter that is the focus, and will be seen for the first time ever by an audience at VIFF.
Veteran Cassini says his gut tells him this movie will stay with people after they leave the theatre.
“You never know going in what kind of movie is going to come out,” says Cassini.
“I think we really believed in it, and we always said that this was a movie (where) we cared about the resonance after the credits rolled. It was one of the movies that we wanted to sit with people, to instigate some discussion and I think we have done that.”
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