The Mother and The Bear - Director Johnny Ma

After 26-year-old Sumi suffers an accident on the streets of wintry Winnipeg, her overbearing mother Sara (Kim Ho-jung) flies in from Seoul to be by her now comatose daughter's side. Desperate to ensure Sumi will have someone to look after her in the future, Sara embarks on a mission to catfish a suitable (preferably Korean) husband before her daughter wakes up. However, as Sara meddles in Sumi's life via a dating app, she ends up on a journey that will leave her forever changed. Director Johnny Ma (OLD STONE, TO LIVE TO SING) joins us to talk about the art and business of making a truly independent film, working with Pablo Larrain (JACKIE, NO) and a Guy Maddin cameo.Johnny Ma was born in Shanghai and immigrated to Toronto at age 10. He is a DGA student-award winning director and a graduate from the Columbia University MFA program. His short film A GRAND CANAL screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. An alumni of the 2014 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. Johnny's first feature OLD STONE debuted at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival and won the Best Canadian First Feature Award at 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and 2017 Canadian Screen Awards. His second feature TO LIVE TO SING premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2019 in Directors Fortnight, to tremendous reviews. He wrote, directed and produced an isolation short for Pablo Larrain's HOMEMADE for Netflix alongside Kristen Stewart and Ana Lily Amirpour. THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR, is his third film, and the first produced outside of China.