August
26
NANITIC by Carol Nguyen In World Premiere at TIFF
NANITIC by Carol Nguyen
In World Premiere at TIFF
Travelling and Coop Vidéo de Montréal are proud to present Nanitic by Carol Nguyen in official competition at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The short film will have its World Premiere as part of the Short Cuts 1program on September 8, 15 and 16, in the presence of the film crew.
A festival regular, the 24-year-old filmmaker premiered No Crying at the Dinner Table at TIFF in 2019, and the film earned a place in the festival’s Canada Top Ten. This year, Carol Nguyen is one of six women selected for the TIFF Talent Accelerator, a mentorship program offered to two emerging Canadian producers, two female directors and two screenwriters, with the aim of accelerating their careers and projects.
She is also one of the 20 filmmakers chosen this year for the TIFF Filmmaker Lab, a talent development program that takes place during the festival. For five days, participants have the opportunity to interact with and learn from internationally renowned filmmakers and guests.
Synopsis: Nine-year-old Trang starts to shift out of oblivion as her aunt Ut tends to Grandma, who lies in her deathbed in the living room. How can a single body occupy so much space? What will happen when Grandma is gone?
To discover the trailer: vimeo.com/699623886
About Carol Nguyen
Carol Nguyen is a Vietnamese Canadian filmmaker, born in Toronto, now based in Montreal. Her films often explore the subjects of cultural identity, silence and memory. Her film No Crying at the Dinner Table (2019) screened at TIFF as well as IDFA, where she was additionally invited as the Opening Night speaker. In 2020, the film also received the Jury Prize for Short Documentary at SXSW. Carol is a 2018 Sundance Ignite fellow and a TIFF Share Her Journey ambassador. Recently, her project The Visitors was selected for the IDFA Project Space 2022, a development lab for first- or second-time directors. Today, Carol is writing and directing several projects, including two feature films and an animated short. Nanitic is her first short fiction film.
Director’s statement
The word “nanitic” is coined for first-generation worker ants, who sacrifice their life for the survival of the colony. Nanitics care for the offspring as well as the Queen Ant. As a result of their natural position and sacrifice, they are often smaller than the next generations and have less sufficient food supply. When a Queen Ant dies, it is stated that the colony slowly dies thereafter. These symbols run parallels to the lives of immigrant families throughout the generations. Grandparents hold the culture and family together (the Queen ants), parents sacrifice themselves for their children’s futures (the Nanitics), and for us, the children, we reap all the benefits of their hard work as the colony grows, but only to assimilate away from our culture once our elders are gone. The film uses ants and their colonial structure as a metaphor, exploring the effect of this family moment at a macro level. – Carol Nguyen
NANITIC
Fiction. Quebec/Canada. 2022. 14 minutes.
In its original Vietnamese and English version with French or English subtitles.
Director: Carol Nguyen | Script: Carol Nguyen | Cinematography: Alexandre Nour-Desjardins | Art direction: Estelle Tang | Editing: Carol Nguyen | Sound: Giulio Trejo-Martinez, Andrés Solis | Music: Arie Van de Ven | Cast: Kylie Le, Ly Pham, Van Pham, Dam Nguyen, Eve Sévigny, Fred Nguyen, An Nguyen | Producers: Carol Nguyen, Marie Lytwynuk | Production: Coop Vidéo de Montréal | Distribution: Travelling
Website: travellingdistribution.com/en/film/nanitic-507
Schedule and ticketing: tiff.net/events/short-cuts-2022-programme-01
NANITIC was produced thanks to the financial participation of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, in collaboration with Coop Vidéo and Travelling.
BKonthescene 