“Café Daughter” Film Screening & Panel Discussion

Café Daughter, based on true events, is a story of personal reconciliation for young Chinese-Cree Yvette Wong, as she embraces her heritage and builds towards her dream of becoming a doctor in 1960s Saskatchewan.

Join us at 6:30 pm for a reception before the film, followed by a post-screening discussion with director Shelley Niro (Mohawk) and Elder Larry Grant (Musqueam and Chinese), moderated by Melissa Karmen Lee, CEO of the Chinese Canadian Museum.

Event Details:

• Date: Friday, January 31, 2025

• Location: The Cinematheque (1131 Howe Street)

• Time & Schedule:
  6:30 - 7:00 P.M. – Doors & reception
  7:00 - 8:30 P.M. – Café Daughter screening
  8:30 - 9:30 P.M. – Panel discussion & audience Q&A

• Cost: $11-$15/ticket
  *GST not included

• Register: Registration link here (via The Cinematheque)

This event will be conducted primarily in English.

About Café Daughter

A Cree-Chinese girl struggles to keep her dreams from being extinguished in this affecting period drama from celebrated Kanyen’kehá:ka (Mohawk) multimedia artist Shelley Niro, subject of a major touring retrospective currently on view at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Adapted from Cree playwright Kenneth T. Williams’s one-woman play, itself based on the life of retired Canadian senator Lillian Eva Quan Dyck, Café Daughter follows young Yvette Wong, a whip-smart student coming of age in small-town 1960s Saskatchewan, who has been taught to conceal her Indigeneity in a bid to pass as fully Chinese, the lesser persecuted minority. A death in the family compels Yvette to embark on a discrimination-laden path to medical school, while a taboo friendship with a Mi’kmaq classmate sows the seeds of Indigenous pride. Niro, whose art practice routinely involves film, crafts a soul-stirring picture that honours the extraordinary resolve of its inspiration—a neurosurgeon before her appointment to the Senate.

Audience Choice Feature Award

imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival 2023

This screening is co-presented with the Cinematheque and the Vancouver Art Gallery in conjunction with their exhibition Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch, on view until February 17, 2025.