66: Double Happiness with Michelle Da Silva
This week, Now Magazine's Michelle Da Silva brings us the first Female Canadian-Chinese helmed film, Double Happiness. In addition to this being Sandra Oh's debut feature film, this 1994 gem was also a calling card for director Mina Shum, and her fabulous later work. We talk about our favourite works of Shum and Oh, showing the Chinese Canadian experience on film without getting stereotypical, and how to be effortlessly cool on film. We also ask what gimmicky film tricks can be forgiven, how skillfully this avoids being a "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" rehash, and the tough questions about the portrayal of one ethnic group by another.
If you're looking for a feel-good film with stunning performances, you should check out Double Happiness on iTunes.
This week's end credit music is MacArthur Park, by Richard Harris. It has nothing to do with Canada, but it's in the movie and hey, it'll make you smile.
On this week's show
Michelle Da Silva is currently the Online and Social Media Manager at NOW Magazine, an independent weekly in Toronto. She tells stories about community and culture, with a particular interest in Millennials, race and gender-equity issues, mental health, DIY, and tech.
In 2017, a NOW project she co-authored titled Hidden Toronto was nominated for a Canadian Digital Publishing Award. That same year, she received a Next Generation/Diversity Scholarship from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia to attend their conference in Washington, DC.
In addition to her work at NOW, she is a freelance food and lifestyle writer with bylines in House & Home, Food Network Canada, NUVO, MONTECRISTO, BC Living, and Killahbeez.com.
From 2010 to 2015, she covered food, lifestyle, and entertainment news for Vancouver’s Georgia Straight. As a staff writer, she created a weekly cooking column, which profiled local chefs and shared their personal recipes that readers could recreate at home. In 2014, her work was recognized by the BC Chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier with a scholarship to study for the level two Wine & Spirit Education Trust exam at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts.
Since 2008, she has provided copywriting, content marketing, copy editing, photography, and social media services to Shopify, the United Way, Designlines Magazine, Fashion Magazine, Analyse & Kritik, Refinery29.com, Kijiji Canada, Ballet BC, Vancouver Opera, Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir, and Best Buy Canada.
In addition her appearance on the Royal Canadian Movie Podcast, she's also appeared on Viewpoints with Todd van der Hayden, and Our City with Kirk LaPointe.
Connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
