Sing a Lullaby

Director: Wang Jing. China, Mandarin, 114 minutes

This timely debut from Wang Jing, Jia Zhang-ke’s assistant director, was inspired by a journalist who defended 120 million people’s rights with a pen.

Inspired by true events, Wang Jing’s assured debut illuminates China’s independent film scene with new colours and fresh energy. Set in 2003, in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic, The Best Is Yet to Come addresses issues that echo today’s global scenario, where politics and prejudices sometimes conflict with safety and health concerns.

It is also a touching character study and a thrilling exploration of investigative journalism in China, The Best Is Yet to Come — produced by star auteur Jia Zhang-ke (Platform, Still Life) — informs, moves, and shocks. It is an indelible visual account of lives from a past that is suddenly too close.

Link: https://www.tiff.net/events/the-best-is-yet-to-come

Ying Wang is an independent filmmaker based in Richmond, British Columbia, a city with one of the highest new immigrant populations in Canada. 

As a migrant navigating between multiple cultures, Ying is fascinated by stories that reveal the geopolitical complexity of global migration. Following the 10-year journey of an elderly Chinese couple searching for the truth behind their son’s death in Canada, her new documentary The World is Bright is a tender portrait of family, mental health and migration, and an indictment of state bureaucracy. Ying received the Sea to Sky Award at the 38th Vancouver International Film Festival in 2019 and Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in 2020. 

Her credits as a filmmaker also include writing and directing Sisters, a 87-minute docudrama that exposed for the very first time the life of Chinese women who suffer from eating disorders, as well as producing Tricks on the Dead: The Story of Chinese Labour Corps in WWI, a Canada-China-France co-production that won two 2016 Canadian Screen Awards and the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival Audience Must See Award. 

In addition to filmmaking, Ying co-founded Cinevolution Media Arts Society (www.cinevolutionmedia.com) in 2007. Under her leadership, Cinevolution has grown into one of the most promising arts organizations in metro Vancouver.   

When we approached Director Wang with the question, “are there Canadian film directors who have made inspirational films about the Chinese-Canadian experience?” she immediately identified Mina Shum as the most important filmmaker in this context. Noting that “Shum has created a body of works that tell the stories of Chinese Canadians, particularly these three works: ‘Double Happiness’, ‘Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity’, and ‘Meditation Park’. There is a handful Chinese Canadian filmmakers, but most of them made films about the Chinese IN China, not IN Canada. Mina Shum is the only one who has created significant works about Chinese Canadians, the early generations of Chinese immigrants. Stories about the new and contemporary Chinese Canadians are extremely rare.”

Via Zoom Ying Wang sat down with Helen Moscicky to discuss the inspiring films of Mina Shum.  The resulting insightful interview can be accessed here. https://youtu.be/mGDdc4QryEg

Short descriptions of the films discussed are below along with links where you can watch them.