CHRISTIE PITS Park
Sunday, july 27, 2025

past lives

With the short films Distant Cousins and Don’t Forget the Water

Canadian filmmaker Celine Song’s début feature Past Lives (an Oscar nominee for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay) is loosely based on her own memory of a dinner spent with her English-speaking American husband and her Korean childhood sweetheart sitting on either side of her, unable to communicate across language barriers. With echoes of Richard Linklater’s melancholic Before films, Past Lives vulnerably confronts the bittersweet discomfort of openly acknowledging regret in adulthood. Song – born in Korea as Song Ha-Young, raised in Markham, and now based in Brooklyn – embraces uncomfortable moments for her trio of characters (played by Greta Lee in a truly breakout role, John Magaro and Teo Yoo). Drawing on her background in theatre, she makes the space to reveal complex emotions and an uncertain path towards the future, as all three begin their journeys into middle age, hearts on their sleeves.

Tonight’s feature is paired with two shorts uncovering past lives and family secrets. In Toronto writer-director Winnifred Jong’s Distant Cousins – which was partially funded by TOPS’ 10th anniversary short film project in 2020 – a Chinese-Canadian woman immerses herself in memories to recover the lost relationship with her cousins, who were her childhood best friends, and discover the reason for their sudden separation years ago. And in a light-hearted addition to this shorts programme, experimental filmmaker Christina Hajjar’s Don’t Forget the Water creatively visualizes a delightful conversation between the director and her mother in pursuit of the secret to a most cherished Lebanese family recipe: how to make coffee. Don’t Forget the Water is further highlighted in this year’s Spotlight on SWANA Stories programme.