Life has been a whirlwind for York alumna Sylvia Mok, who graduated just last year with a BFA in film production. But that’s not all. She premiered her short documentary Restaurant Kids at the 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this past September. On top of that, Mok was one of five emerging filmmakers selected for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and TIFF’s new initiative, REDEFINED.
The initiative called for five emerging filmmakers under 30 years old to create short documentaries redefining what it means to be Canadian. Applicants received mentorship and had their films funded, produced, and set to premiere at TIFF. Mok says she was shocked and ecstatic that she even got an interview, much less became a finalist for the program. “From November of last year to literally today, I’m still kind of processing that this is even happening.”
Mok made the most of her incredible opportunity, delivering a 12-minute documentary infused with emotional complexity and skillful filmmaking. Restaurant Kids centers around the small but tight-knit community of Chinese restaurant owners and their children in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
In the film, elders reflect at a dining table about their experience immigrating to Canada and running a restaurant, while their children look back on how their childhoods were influenced by an all-encompassing restaurant life. For some, their first memories were in their parents’ restaurants, and they began working in the kitchens in their early teens. The film was personal for Mok, as it reflects her own experience growing up with a restaurant as her second home.
The documentary’s subjects also reflected on the resentment and regret caused by working long hours. The elders missed out on their children’s childhoods, and the kids, some now adults, felt this absence. But Mok does so without understating the love felt by both generations. As she explains, many depictions of the immigrant experience focus only on the negative and are “soaked in trauma.” Mok asserts that “I always knew from the get-go … that I’m also talking about the moments of humour and joy.”
The subjects in moments of contemplation, shot by a still or slow-moving camera, are contrasted by energetic close-ups of vegetables and meat being chopped, fiery gas stoves, and wafting steam. Mok explains that her visual inspiration came from the world of television, particularly Christoper Storer’s The Bear. “They portray this kinetic energy of the kitchen, and this sense of family through archival photographs and scenes of Chicago.”
Mok credits her cinematography courses, taught by York’s very own Sue Johnson, for helping her learn how to translate her thoughts into capturable images and communicate this vision with her crew. As she continues to emerge as a filmmaker in her own right, Mok feels incredibly grateful for the opportunity that REDFINED provided her. “Leaving York, I was terrified, because the [film] industry seemed so elusive,” she says. “Seeing a glimpse of this kind of support and how many resources and mentorships I was able to acquire in this entire process instilled [me with] a sense of hope.”
Restaurant Kids and REDEFINED’s four other documentaries are all available to stream for free on the NFB website.
