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Founded by Mi-Jeong Lee in 1996, Ciné-Asie (now “Arts East-West'') was created to promote and produce the works of Korean, pan-Asian and Asian-identifying Canadian artists operating in the media arts community in Canada. Arts East-West has brought Asian Canadian media arts into the public eye, facilitating a better opportunity for artists and their community to have their voices heard on a local and international level. Based in Montréal, a francophone region, we feel that Arts East-West has made a significant contribution to the artistic and cultural narrative of Canada, bringing diverse perspectives through Asian Canadian and Canadian films, and arts at large. Enriching the visual landscape of contemporary Canadian art and fostering an inclusive, multicultural understanding of what it means to be an artist working within Canada and around the world.
Ciné-Asie’s first project was the nationally acclaimed “Three Korean Master Filmmakers”, in collaboration with the MOMA in New York. It was awarded the Team Canada Project and toured across Canada in 1997. From its inception, we (formerly Ciné-Asie) have collaborated with local, provincial and international festivals and institutions such as the Reel Asian Film Festival in Toronto, Fantasia Film Festival and Festival Accès Asie in Montréal. Arts East-West has also partnered with Cinémathèque québécoise, Canadian Film Institute, Harbourfront Centre, the Cinémathèque Québécoise, the Smithsonian Museum, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film and Television, Korean Film Council, Korean Film Archives, and Jeonju International Film Festival, etc. Throughout the years, Ciné-Asie has brought countless culturally rich media arts events to Montréal, including: the 2006 retrospective “Regard sur le Cinéma Sud-coréen” and the 2008 “Hong Sang-Soo Retrospective," both held at the Cinémathèque Québécoise. Ciné-Asie has also organized, in partnership with Concordia University and New York City’s Film Society of Lincoln Centre, the retrospective “Chinese Cinema - 1993-1949”. In 2019, Ciné-Asie became the Korean Film Festival of Canada and evolved into an independent entity. 2019 also marked the first time that the festival was organized in partnership with the Centre d’études asiatiques de l’Université de Montréal (CÉTASE). In 2020, KFFC was presented exclusively online, complete with film programming, visual arts exhibitions, workshops, and a conference: “Narratives Beyond Borders: New Wave Korean Cinema by Women Directors (1950-2020, Series I).” In 2020, Ciné-Asie was renamed Arts East-West (alternative name is KFFC), reshaping as a thematic and art-committed festival, deepening its repertoire to include the visual and media arts of all Asian-identifying Canadian artists. Arts East-West now operates year round projects. The annual Korean Film Festival Canada (KFFC) is a focal project committed to bringing diverse, new voices of Asian and Asian Canadian artists’ work to our Canadian and international audiences, and fostering a resilient and creative working environment. The 11th KFFC is scheduled from May 21st-31st, 2024, in partnership with the Moving Image Research Lab’s Sociability of Sleep at McGill University. The 11th KFFC’s new theme on “Arts & Technologies: Sleep, Dream, and Body” will further explore the intersection of creative works and technological advancements through Asian cinema and media art, encompassing both present and future visual cultures.
KFFC and AAPLab of Arts East-West has a three-fold mission:1) Exploring Korean and pan-Asian Canadian made digital media and visual arts in an attempt to understand its place within the diverse cultures and heritages of Canada, through both an intercultural and intergenerational lens.2) Creating Asian Canadian media arts contents and art projects through various artist-driven, theme-based projects in order to discover and foster a notion of cultural diversity within Canada, exploring what it means to be Canadian and how Asian Canadian art reflects its own Canadianness.3) Bridging the gap between Eastern and Western cultural identities through the showcasing of marginalized voices, supporting emerging artists, and embracing technology and the opportunities afforded for cultural and artistic discourse in the international online community, both as a citizen of Canada and the world.
Arts East-West or Korean Film Festival (both names are registered to reflect on our organization’s multiple projects), is a non-profit media arts organization based in Montréal. We facilitate the works of Asian-identifying artists in Canada and abroad. Our long-standing motto since 1996, “Where East Meets West,” represents our commitment to bring together diverse communities to enrich both audiences and artists in Québec, Canada and beyond through Asian Canadian media arts. We were founded in 1996 as Ciné-Asie, and since then our multiple pan-Asian and Asian Canadian projects summoned under the name of Korean Film Festival Canada (KFFC) in 2013, AmérAsia (diaspora) Film Festival in Montreal in 1999, and we opened the Asian Art Publication Lab (AAPlab, 2020).
In 2024, the annual KFFC marks its 11th anniversary. Arts East-West strives to raise visibility for Asian Canadian artists working within the film and media arts industry. It also provides an outlet for the dissemination of Asian Canadian-led cinema. Our annual and thematic film festival (KFFC) acts both as a mode to reach Canadian audiences and, crucially, as a forum for the rigorous research and platform for diverse art expressions and its ecological environment. It is an inclusive and healthy space for diverse cultural voices, affording them a place to create their art and give voice to the lived experiences of the Asian diaspora in Canada. Over the years, our KFFC has grown into a multimedia extravaganza that includes: film screenings, exhibitions of digital media works, conferences focused on the Asian diaspora and Asian Canadians, seminars with emerging and professional Korean Canadian and Asian Canadian artists, creative workshops, artist talks, and scholarly publications. We are constantly expanding our artistic networks by facilitating collaboration between artists and arts communities. We are strategically placed to support works of Asian Canadians and others across a multiplicity of technological mediums, whether through film, online media, digital artworks, and visual arts. All our festival content is translated into three languages—English, French and Korean—in order to ensure the broadest possible reach for our target audience. We are an evolving organization that looks forward to the future, inherently expanding and altering our vision toward the digital world, adapting to new technologies as they emerge in order to constantly nurture new avenues of artistic expression.
Korean Film Festival Canada (KFFC)
To support Asian Canadian media arts through creation by artist-driven, theme-based initiatives directed at fostering cultural diversity in Canada.
To explore Korean Canadian and pan-Asian Canadian identity through the arts and media through both an intercultural and intergenerational lens.
To support emerging Asian Canadian artists through showcasing marginalized voices, and to embrace technology and opportunities for cultural and artistic discourse, online and in person, both nationally and globally.
Asian Art Publication Lab (AAPlab)
Asian Art Publication Lab (AAPlab) is a Montréal-based research and creation laboratory at the intersection of academia and public culture. Our goal is to act as a bridge between the East and West by decolonizing Asian arts through inclusive and critical dialogue. Our goal is to foster Asian arts, with an emphasis on the diaspora, and on relations of arts and technology. We believe that by connecting and reimagining the perceptions of East and West, we can create a more vibrant and inclusive community of artists and art enthusiasts. To achieve this, we publish and translate books, essays, and stories that showcase the rich diversity of Asian art practice and creation. AAPlab calls for artists and researchers to engage with us, offering an in-person and virtual platform for exploring and embodying innovative pan-Asian art projects. AAPlab is a year-round project of Arts East-West, a Québec-based, artist-driven nonprofit organization supporting Asian media arts since 1996. Another distinguished project of Arts East-West is Korean Film Festival Canada, which will have its eleventh edition this year.