Movies & Shakers

Only a fortunate few have childhood friendships that last a lifetime. For York University film grads Albert Shin (BFA ’06) and Pearl Ball-Harding (BFA ’08), luckier still, the bond they formed at Newmarket High School in ninth grade has not only withstood the test of time, but it has blossomed into a professional partnership that’s helping to put Canadian cinema on the map.

The strength of this pair couldn’t be better exemplified than by their latest project, the Korean-language film In Her Place that they co-wrote, which had its world -premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and has since garnered critical acclaim worldwide. Shin also directed the film and co-produced it with another fellow York grad, Igor Drljaca (BFA ’07, MFA ’11). 

Their independent feature, called “exquisite” by renowned Canadian moviemaker Atom Egoyan, has won numerous awards, including the Child Protection Award for Best Film at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the 2015 Taipei Film Festival’s International New Talent Competition. And it surprised everyone when it picked up an impressive seven nominations at this year’s Canadian Screen Awards. “It’s really cool that this little film was able to cut through some noise and stand out a bit,” says Shin, who is attracting attention in his own right, recently winning the Scotiabank Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist at the 2014 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards.

A longtime movie buff with big-screen aspirations, Shin began honing his craft in his teens, bringing -Ball-Harding on board whenever he needed a hand. She dabbled in -commercial acting as a child, and getting a glimphttps://magazine.yorku.ca/issues/fall-2015/the-president/se into Shin’s behind-the-scenes world sparked her interest in the other side of the business.

To avoid Ontario’s double cohort year, Shin fast-tracked through high school and went straight on to university. This allowed Ball-Harding to get a taste of York’s film program through Shin’s eyes before deciding to join him two years later. And it was a decision she doesn’t regret for a second.

As for Shin, many of his former York classmates have become his real-world collaborators. “We forged amazing bonds, both personally and professionally, so we were able to take what we learned in school and continue to evolve and grow together.”

Being a second-generation Korean Canadian, Shin had his heart set on making a movie in his homeland someday. And he had just the place – his aunt and uncle’s abandoned dairy farm in the Korean countryside, about 150 kilometres from Seoul. All he needed was the right story.

He found it while on a brainstorming trip to Korea after graduation. Shin overheard a heated family debate at a restaurant about whether a family member was actually pregnant or faking it, planning to illegally adopt and claim the baby as her biological child. Surprisingly, this wasn’t a new concept to Shin. Suspicions of hush-hush adoptions are not uncommon in the Korean community. “There’s one in every family, or at least rumours of one,” he says.

The secrecy stems from the stigma attached to adoption, teen pregnancy and abortion in Korea. There are a lot of unwanted babies and people not able to have babies, but still needing to maintain their family lineage, says Shin. “All of these things create this kind of messy perfect storm.” Or, as he realized that day, the stuff of movie magic.

Shin knew this topic needed to be explored through film, but decided to scale it down to one story – three women brought together through a secret adoption scheme – to serve as a “microcosm of the bigger picture.” He felt Ball-Harding could bring a creative element to the project that he was lacking, as well as a female perspective. “It was basically tailor-made to my sensibilities,” she says. “Culturally it speaks to him, but it speaks to me as a woman.”

The pair spent a month in Korea together – drawing inspiration from the evocative landscape, figuring out the skeleton of the film and walking through scenes. With Ball-Harding back in Canada, they continued fleshing out the storyline, sending notes back and forth until the screenplay was finally completed three years later.

The prep work, which included translating the English script into Korean, took about a year. Then Shin spent 24 days shooting with his all-Korean cast and crew, and post-production was handled in Toronto.

“I look back now at the original screenplay we wrote on yellow legal pad and it makes me smile, the differences,” says Ball-Harding. “But for the most part, the bones are there, the idea is there, the thrills are there. So that’s exciting for me.”

Though they’re both exploring different projects at the moment, this power-house film duo is confident they’ll be working together in an “official capacity” again soon. “In some ways, Pearl is always involved,” says Shin.  “We have a collaborative friendship,” adds Ball-Harding with a laugh. ■