Ann Shin

{{Infobox person

| name = Ann Shin

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date =

| birth_place =

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = Canadian

| alma_mater = University of Toronto

| other_names =

| occupation = Filmmaker, writer

| years_active =

| known_for =

| notable_works = My Enemy, My Brother

}}

Ann Shin is a filmmaker and writer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Leah McLaren. [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/summer-entertainment/how-does-a-poet-attain-smashing-success-just-ask-ann-shin/article12411436/ "How does a poet attain smashing success? Just ask Ann Shin".] The Globe and Mail, 7 June 2013.

Early life

Shin was born in London, Ontario to parents Sue Shin (née Kim) and Albert Shin. Her mother was born in South Korea, moved to Canada, and worked as a registered nurse. Her father was an agriculturalist specializing in Animal Husbandry in Denmark and at the University of Guelph.{{cite web |title=Ann Shin |url=http://www.vmacch.ca/beta/collections/ann_shin.html |website=VMACCH |date=4 December 2014 |publisher=Inkwell Media |accessdate=25 June 2020}} Her parents met and got married in Toronto, but soon moved to Langley, British ColumbiaGrace O'Connell. [http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/poets_profile_ann_shin "Poets in Profile: Ann Shin".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714191401/http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/poets_profile_ann_shin |date=14 July 2014 }} Open Book: Toronto, 1 May 2013. to start a mushroom farm. Shin spent most of her childhood years on the family farm. In 2019, Shin lost her father to dementia.{{Cite web |title=Hot Docs 2021 Women Directors: Meet Ann Shin – "A.rtificial I.mmortality" |url=https://womenandhollywood.com/hot-docs-2021-women-directors-meet-ann-shin-a-rtificial-i-mmortality/ |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=womenandhollywood.com |language=en-US}}

Shin moved to Toronto, and completing a Bachelor of Arts, Honors, and Master of Arts in English Literature at University of Toronto. During her university years, she wrote three articles for the University of Toronto Student Newspaper, The Varsity.{{cite web |title=In defiance of neutrality |url=https://thevarsity.ca/2005/12/30/in-defiance-of-neutrality/ |website=The Varsity |date=30 December 2005 |publisher=University of Toronto - Varsity Publications |accessdate=25 June 2020}}{{Cite web |title=Ann Shin |url=https://thevarsity.ca/author/ann-shin/ |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=The Varsity |language=en-US}} She also hosted the program Rights Radio on CIUT radio station. Upon graduation, she started working at CBC as a radio producer.{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-film-ann-shin-oscars-nomination-my-enemy-my-brother-1.3289592 |title=Toronto filmmakers on Oscars shortlist for short documentary |author= |date=26 October 2015 |website=cbc.ca |publisher=CBC |access-date=21 May 2024 |quote=}}

Journalism career

Shin's journalism career began at CBC Radio{{cite web |title=Canadian Poetry Online |url=https://canpoetry.library.utoronto.ca/kemp/radio.htm |website=University of Toronto Libraries |publisher=University of Toronto and University of Toronto Libraries |accessdate=25 June 2020}} where she produced a number of shows including Metro Morning, Tapestry, Roots and Wings, Sunday Morning Live. During this time she produced sound poetry and radio documentaries, including How to Breathe the Air of our Ancestors, which won a Gold Medal at the New York Festivals in 1998.{{Cite web |title=CBC Radio Canada Annual Report 1998-1999 |url=https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/301/ar_cdn_broadcasting_corp/1998-1999/annualreports/1998-1999/6_2_2_11_99.shtml |access-date=August 27, 2024}}{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

Film-making career

Due to her interest in long-form documentary,{{cite web |title=Director Ann Shin on making My Enemy, My Brother |url=https://seventh-row.com/2018/03/10/ann-shin-my-enemy-my-brother/ |website=Seventh Row |date=10 March 2018 |accessdate=25 June 2020}} Shin moved into television. She began to produce television series for a number of networks, as well as direct independent documentaries. Her documentary credits include the documentary My Enemy, My Brother, which was shortlisted for a 2016 Academy Award{{cite web |title=Toronto filmmakers on Oscars shortlist for short documentary |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-film-ann-shin-oscars-nomination-my-enemy-my-brother-1.3289592 |website=CBC |publisher=CBC/Radio Canada |accessdate=21 May 2024}} and nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award. The feature version won Grand Jury Prize at San Diego Film Festival, and the short version was awarded Best Short Documentary in eleven international film festivals including Traverse City Film Festival, Russia's Doker International Festival, Grand Prize Winner of the Best Shorts Humanitarian Awards, the Sepanta Award for Best Short Film.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}} Other of her films include documentary film The Defector: Escape from North Korea (2012){{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}, The Four Seasons Mosaic (CBC (2005), Western Eyes (CBC Newsworld) (2000), The Roswell Incident (History) (1998), Almost Real (CBC Newsworld) and How to Breathe the Air of Our Ancestors (CBC Radio) (1998). Shin has produced programs for CBC, TVO, PBS, HBO, ABC, Slice, HGTV, W, Discovery and History, and her programs have sold in territories in the US, Europe, Australia, East Asia and Southeast Asia.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

The Defector: Escape from North Korea was highly praised by several critics. CNN Connect the World called it an "incredible story", while the Toronto Star named it one of the 10 Must See Films at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Next Projection said of the film, "The Defector exposes a part of the world that is so heavily shielded we can only know through conjecture."{{Cite web |last=Heller |first=Doug |date=April 22, 2013 |title=The Defector: Escape from North Korea (2012) |url=https://nextprojection.com/2013/04/22/the-defector-escape-from-north-korea-2012/ |access-date=March 28, 2024 |website=Next Projection}}

Shin has also created the cross-platform project The Defector: Escape from North Korea which won Best Documentary and won Best Documentary Director at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards, as well picking up the SXSW Interactive Festival Award, the FITC Award and nextMedia Canadian Digi Awards.

=Filmography=

==Documentary==

How to Breathe the Air of Our Ancestors, 1998 - director
Turning Points of History: The Roswell Incident, 1998 - director
The Fall of an Asian Tiger, 1999 - director
Western Eyes, 2000 - director
Almost Real, Connecting in a Wired World, 2002 - director
Opening Night: The Four Seasons Mosaic, 2005 - director
The Defector: Escape from North Korea, 2013 - writer/director/producer
My Enemy, My Brother, 2014 - writer/director/producer
Sugar Sisters, 2017 - co-writer, co-director
The Superfood Chain, 2018 - director
Artificial Immortality, 2021 - director, writer, producer

==Series==

Rags to Red Carpet
The List
I Do…Let's Eat (2012)
Save Us from Our House (2005)
Modern Manners (2000)
Venture
Face-Off{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}

Writing career

Shin is a poet and fiction writer, with work published in various anthologies and magazines in both Canada and the United States. She is one of four poets featured in Crossroads Cant, published by Broken Jaw Press in 1997. Mansfield Press published her first volume of poetry, The Last Thing Standing{{cite web|url=http://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/contributors/ann-shin/ |title=Ann Shin – Literary Review of Canada |publisher=Reviewcanada.ca |accessdate=31 October 2015}} in 2000 to acclaim. In 2013, Brick Books published her second book of poetry, The Family China{{cite web |url=http://www.brickbooks.ca/?mw_events=ann-shin-launches-new-poetry-collection-the-family-china-in-toronto-this-is-not-a-reading-series-event |title=Ann Shin launches new poetry collection The Family China in Toronto – This Is Not A Reading Series event – Brick Books |publisher=Brickbooks.ca |date=22 October 2015 |accessdate=31 October 2015 |archive-date=3 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203092222/http://www.brickbooks.ca/?mw_events=ann-shin-launches-new-poetry-collection-the-family-china-in-toronto-this-is-not-a-reading-series-event |url-status=dead }} which won the 2013 Anne Green Award.{{cite web|url=http://www.lpg.ca/public/news/ann_shin_wins_2013_anne_green_award |title=Ann Shin Wins the 2013 Anne Green Award|publisher=Literary Press Group of Canada|url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714173918/http://www.lpg.ca/public/news/ann_shin_wins_2013_anne_green_award |archivedate=14 July 2014 }}

Author Nino Ricci referred to her first volume of poetry, The Last Thing Standing as "A beautiful and memorable book. Ann Shin writes about love, loss and the idea of home with clarity, wit and grace".{{cite web|url=http://vmacch.apps01.yorku.ca/AC_Visual/Shin_Ann/artistic_contributions_visual_Shin_Ann.html |title=Virtual Museum of Asian Canadian Cultural Heritage – Artistic Contributions – Visual – East Asia – Ann Shin |publisher=Vmacch.apps01.yorku.ca |date=30 April 2009 |accessdate=31 October 2015}} Of her second collection of acclaimed poetry, author and poet Karen Connelly wrote, "… This short, dazzling collection of poems contains a universe — nothing short of North American life in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Somehow it is all here, joyously offered up, birth, death, and everything in between…".{{cite web|url=http://www.brickbooks.ca/shop/the-family-china/ |title=The Family China – Brick Books |publisher=Brickbooks.ca |date=22 October 2015 |accessdate=31 October 2015}}

Her novel The Last Exiles was the winner of the Trillium Book Award for English Prose in 2022.Deborah Dundas, [https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2022/06/21/toronto-writer-ann-shin-wins-20000-trillium-prize-for-north-korean-novel-the-last-exiles.html "Toronto writer Ann Shin wins $20,000 Trillium Prize for North Korean novel ‘The Last Exiles’"]. Toronto Star, June 21, 2022.

=Bibliography=

Crossroads Cant, Broken Jaw Press, 1997{{cite web|url=http://library.ryerson.ca/asianheritage/authors/shin/ |title=Ann Shin | Asian Heritage |publisher=Library.ryerson.ca |date=1 May 2013 |accessdate=31 October 2015}}
The Last Thing Standing, Mansfield Press, 2000
The Family China, Brick Books, 2013
The Last Exiles, Park Row, 2021

Honors, Awards, Nominations, and Accomplishments

Her films have garnered numerous awards and screened at film festivals around the world, including SXSW, Tribeca International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, the San Francisco Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Human Rights Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, New York Festivals, Mumbai International Film Festival and the Chris Awards.

At the 2015 Vancouver International Film Festival, the Canadian Images shorts jury gave Shin an honorable mention in the Most Promising Director of a Canadian Short Film category for My Enemy, My Brother.{{cite press release |url=http://archive.viff.org/e-blasts/viff/2015/20_BCSpotlightCanadianImagesAwards_VIFF2015_PR.html |date=3 October 2015 |accessdate=11 October 2015 |title=VIFF Announces BC -Spotlight and Canadian Images Awards |publisher=Vancouver International Film Festival}}-

Film and Television

2017 My Enemy, My Brother, the feature version, wins Grand Jury Prize at the [https://sdaff.org/2018/ San Diego Asian International Film Festival.]

2015 My Enemy, My Brother, Shortlisted for Academy Award and nominated for an News and Documentary Emmy Award.

The Defector: Escape from North Korea

2014 Canadian Screen Awards