Mina Shum wins Artistic Merit Award from Women in Film and Television Vancouver

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      Vancouver's Mina Shum has added another honour to her list of achievements.

      Women in Film and Television Vancouver has presented the director-writer-producer with its Artistic Merit Award for her first documentary, Ninth Floor.

      It was announced at the closing gala of the Vancouver International Film Festival.

      Shum has previously won a special jury citation for Best Canadian Film and Best Canadian Short at the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as other prizes.

      Ninth Floor focuses on a 1969 student protest against racism at the former Sir George Williams University in Montreal. (It's now part of Concordia University.)

      The uprising occurred came after a biology professor spoke to black students differently than he interacted with white students. It culminated in nearly 100 arrests and widespread damage to the computer lab in the Henry F. Hall Building.

      Shum's film shines a light on a significant event in the history of race relations in Canada.

      The jury was comprised of writer-producer-actor Laura Adkin, screenwriter-author and former WIFTV president Rachelle Chartrand, and marketing consultant and publicist Julia Frittaion.

      They praised Ninth Floor "for the masterful weaving of archival footage, captivating testimonies, and metaphorical imagery that illuminates a dark part of our country's history".

      Other nominees were Sonia Bonspille Boileau (Le Dep), Hélène Choquette (A Dog’s Life), Sophie Desraspe (The Amina Profile), Phyllis Ellis (Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven); Anne Émond (Our Loved Ones), Deepa Mehta (Beeba Boys), Patricia Rozema (Into the Forest), and director Chelsea McMullan and cinematographer Maya Bankovic (Michael Shannon Michael Shannon John).

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