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Sook-Yin Lee

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Sook-Yin Lee
李素英
Lee at the Odesa International Film Festival in 2010.
Background information
BornVancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation(s)Musician, actress, filmmaker, broadcaster, multimedia artist
Years active1990–present
LabelsZulu, Mint Records
Sook-Yin Lee
Simplified Chinese李素英
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLǐ Sùyīng

Sook-Yin Lee is a Canadian broadcaster, musician, film director, actress and multimedia artist. She is a former MuchMusic VJ and a former radio host on CBC Radio. She has appeared in films, notably in the John Cameron Mitchell movie Shortbus.

Early and personal life

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Lee was born in Vancouver, British Columbia.[1] She is the second daughter of father, Leo Lee,[2] from Hong Kong and a mother from Mainland China,[3] Lee was raised as a devout Roman Catholic.[4] Her father was a post-World War II orphan from Hong Kong, and her mother an escapee from Communist China[3] who remained in and out of psychiatric institutions when Lee was young.[5] Lee also has a sister, Deanna, a Vancouver-based artist.[6] She grew up within a strict, secretive and unstable family.[3] When Lee was 15, her parents split up and Lee ran away from home, for a time living on the street[7] before eventually living with a "community of lesbians and artists".[3]

In the mid-1980s, she became the lead singer for Bob's Your Uncle, a Vancouver alternative rock band.[8] Lee often incorporated performance art techniques into the band's melodic rock. When that band broke up, Lee pursued a solo music career, releasing several solo albums and performing as an actor in theatre, film and television projects. She was the lead singer for the band Slan.[9] Neko Case covered Lee's song "Knock Loud" on her 2001 EP Canadian Amp.

She had a relationship with the comic artist Chester Brown from 1992 until 1996. She is depicted in several of his comics. He moved to Vancouver for two years to be with her, and moved back to Toronto with her when she became a VJ for MuchMusic. He also drew the cover for her 1996 solo album Wigs 'n Guns. Brown's relationship with Lee is the last boyfriend/girlfriend relationship he had, as he explains in Paying for It. They remain good friends, and Brown has contributed artwork to her productions as recently as 2009's Year of the Carnivore; in 2024, Lee directed the film adaptation of Brown's graphic novel Paying for It.[10]

She was later in a relationship with writer and musician Adam Litovitz, who was also her frequent artistic collaborator, from 2007 until 2018.[11] They occasionally performed improvised musical sets under the name LLVK, short for Lee/Litovitz/Valdivia/Kamino, and formed the band Jooj, which released its debut album in 2015.[12] An album of music written by Sook-Yin and Adam was completed in 2020 and was released under the title of jooj two in April 2021 on Mint Records.

She resides in Toronto.[13]

Lee is bisexual and gender-fluid.[14]

Career

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Broadcasting

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Lee became a VJ for MuchMusic in 1995, hosting MuchMusic's alternative music show The Wedge.[15][16]

In 1995, on the day that sexual orientation was held to be protected under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Egan v Canada case, Lee celebrated the decision by kissing a woman on the air.[17] She later appeared on the cover of Xtra! in 1997.

During her last appearance as a MuchMusic VJ in 2001, Lee and her co-host turned their backs to the camera, and mooned the audience on live television.[15][18]

She became the new host of CBC Radio One's Saturday afternoon pop culture magazine radio-show Definitely Not the Opera in 2002.[19] Definitely Not the Opera completed its run in 2016.[19]

In the fall of 2004, she hosted a documentary celebrating Terry Fox as part of the CBC Television series The Greatest Canadian.[20]

During the Summer of 2008, Lee was a member of the CBC Olympic broadcasting team for the Beijing games.[21] During the games, Lee filmed a TV spot that touched upon concerns regarding human rights and political issues.

In 2016, Lee hosted the 10 episode summer series Sleepover for CBC Radio,[22][23] which continued as a podcast[24] until 2018.

In 2020, Lee hosted Landscape Artist of the Year Canada, a Canadian adaptation of Landscape Artist of the Year, for Makeful.[25]

Film work

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As a feminist, Lee specifically works on films that discuss feminist and/or racial issues. Escapades of One Particular Mr. Noodle (1990) was her debut as a feminist film director. This film was produced by Studio D, a primarily feminist film production company, as one of the short films in their segment Five Feminist Minutes (1990).

Lee played the lead character Alessa Woo, alongside fellow Canadian actor Adam Beach, in Helen Lee's 2001 film The Art of Woo.

Lee also has a smaller part in John Cameron Mitchell's film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, playing Kwahng-Yi, a guitarist in Hedwig's rock band made up of Korean-born army wives.

In 2003, she became the centre of controversy when Mitchell first announced that he was casting Lee in his film Shortbus (released 2006). Due to Mitchell's announcement that the film was to be sexually explicit in nature – Lee and other cast members perform non-simulated intercourse and masturbation on screen – the CBC initially threatened to fire her.[26] In making Shortbus, Mitchell sought to make a film about love and sex without censoring itself.[27] Celebrities such as director Francis Ford Coppola, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, actress Julianne Moore and artist and musician Yoko Ono, as well as the CBC's listening audience, rallied behind her, and the CBC ultimately relented.[28] The movie premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Her performance in Shortbus earned Lee the 2007 International Cinephile Society Award for Best Supporting Actress.[29] This was not her first film that explores a sexually explicit nature. She acted in 3 Needles (2005), a short film about HIV and AIDS. The film takes place in various locations around the world - Canada, China, and South Africa - demonstrating the universality of STDs/STIs.[30]

In 2012, she was chosen to play Olivia Chow in the biopic television film Jack, alongside Rick Roberts as Jack Layton.[31] The film aired on CBC Television in 2013. She subsequently won the 2014 Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by a Lead Dramatic Actress in a Program/Mini-Series.[32]

Lee stars in, wrote and directed The Brazilian segment of the 2008 film Toronto Stories.[33]

Her feature film directorial debut Year of the Carnivore premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009. Lee, Litovitz and Buck 65 also collaborated on the film's soundtrack, which garnered a Genie Award nomination for Best Original Score at the 31st Genie Awards.

Her second feature film as a director, Octavio Is Dead!, premiered at the Inside Out Film and Video Festival in 2018, and received several Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards.

Theatrical work

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In 2013, Lee wrote and starred in a theatrical performance show How Can I Forget? at Toronto's Rhubarb and Summerworks theatre festivals.[34] She and Litovitz also staged Morrice Fled: Two Paintings Talk to Each Other, a pop-up performance at the Art Gallery of Ontario based on the art of James Wilson Morrice, in January. In 2014, Lee choreographed a dance solo for Syreeta Hector as part of On Display for Toronto Dance Theatre. From 2015 to 2017, she created and directed Sphere of Banished Suffering with dancers Jenn Goodwin, Mairi Greig, and Charlie McGettigan with Litovitz developed in residencies with LUFF art+dialogue, Dancemakers, Artscape Sandbox, and premiered at the Festival of New Dance 2017.

In 2019, she wrote and appeared in Unsafe, a documentary theatre production on the topic of censorship, at Canadian Stage.[35]

Discography

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Filmography

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ MacPhee, Hayley (17 February 2003). "profile: Sook-Yin Lee – Definitely more than a VJ". The Fulcrum. Archived from the original on 24 October 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2008.
  2. ^ "Sook-Yin Lee Talks Money with her Dad".
  3. ^ a b c d Denise Balkissoon (11 June 2010). "Sook-Yin Lee: Candid with the camera – except for one thing". Toronto Star. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
  4. ^ Bruni, Frank (24 September 2006). "'Shortbus' Cast Didn't Study for This in Acting Class". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  5. ^ Leah McLaren (9 September 2006). "'There Was One Day When I Couldn't Take My Clothes Off, So I Asked Everyone on Set To Take Their Clothes Off.'". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
  6. ^ "About Me".
  7. ^ Sook-Yin Lee, comment on Definitely Not the Opera, CBC radio, 2 November 2010
  8. ^ Morris, Aaron (8 June 2015). "Sook Yin-Lee and Adam Litovitz are JOOJ, Jury, and Executioner". Noisey. Vice Media. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  9. ^ Sumi, Glenn (31 August 2006). "Sook-Yin Lee (profile)". nowtoronto.com. Archived from the original on 18 February 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2006.
  10. ^ Alex Hudson, "TIFF 2024: 'Paying for It' Is a Wonderful Bit of Oversharing". Exclaim!, September 6, 2024.
  11. ^ "Sook-Yin Lee: Candid with the Camera — Except for One Thing". Toronto Star, 11 June 2010.
  12. ^ Willard, Jeremy (8 May 2015). "Sook-Yin Lee's sorority of naked women". Xtra. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
  13. ^ Lau, Melody (9 April 2021). "How Sook-Yin Lee is transforming tragedy into unabashed pop". CBC. Retrieved 25 September 2021. ... the Toronto-based Lee has always been on a quest of understanding the human condition.
  14. ^ Chandler Levack (24 May 2018). "Sook-Yin Lee and Canada's new queer cinema". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  15. ^ a b Sayej, Nadja (30 April 2013). "Sook-Yin Lee". Vice. Retrieved 3 July 2019. She got her first big break in 1995 when she was cast as a VJ on Much Music, most notably as the longtime host of the network's cult alternative music show the Wedge.
  16. ^ "MuchMusic VJs From The 90's And Where They Are Now". Narcity. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 3 July 2019. ... she came to MuchMusic in 1995 where she would become one of the station's most controversial VJs. Hosting their alternative music show The Wedge ...
  17. ^ Sheppard, Denise (30 October 2001). "VJ looks back on her MuchMusic days". canoe.ca. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2007. From the day she participated in a vigorous game of on-air girl-to-girl tonsil-hockey (to celebrate the addition of the words "sexual orientation" to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  18. ^ Hughes, Fiona (10 December 2001). "The art of Sook-Yin Lee". Vancouver Courier. Archived from the original on 15 January 2004. Retrieved 22 October 2007. On her last day at MuchMusic a couple of months ago, the flamboyant Lee mooned the camera.
  19. ^ a b Takeuchi, Craig (10 May 2016). "Definitely Not the Opera, hosted by Sook-Yin Lee, to end after 22 years". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 3 July 2019. The storytelling show is hosted by Sook-Yin Lee, who hails from Vancouver and joined the show in 2002.
  20. ^ The greatest Canadian. Volume 2, Sir John A. Macdonald ; Terry Fox ; Don Cherry. OCLC 415641463. Terry Fox: advocate, Sook-Yin Lee ; directed, written and produced by Leora Eisen ; producer, Jackie Carlos.
  21. ^ "Trudeau joins CBC Olympic broadcast team". CBC Sports. 9 July 2008. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  22. ^ Desson, Craig (21 June 2016). "Sook-Yin Lee back with new show after Definitely Not the Opera's end". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 3 July 2019. Lee describes the half-hour Sleepover (airing Mondays at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m.) as "part populist entertainment, part durational art project and part social experiment."
  23. ^ "CBC Radio One to Launch 'Social Experiment' Radio Show". Broadcaster Magazine. 21 June 2016. Archived from the original on 22 June 2016. CBC Radio One says Lee will host the new 30-minute weekly show "Sleepover," which will air Mondays at 7:30 p.m. ET, beginning June 27.
  24. ^ "Sleepover". CBC.ca. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  25. ^ Greg David, "Makeful TV launches Landscape Artist of the Year Canada, a new competition series hosted by Sook-Yin Lee". TV, eh?, January 16, 2020.
  26. ^ Stone, Jay (22 May 2006). "Sook-Yin Lee's film debut definitely not CBC fare". The Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 24 July 2006.
  27. ^ Mitchell, John. "Shortbus Official Trailer". Youtube. Indie Wire. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  28. ^ Johnson, Brian D. (2 June 2006). "Sook-Yin Lee shocker in Cannes". Macleans.com. Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2007.
  29. ^ "2010 ICS AWARD WINNERS". International Cinephile Society. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012.
  30. ^ "Sexually Transmitted Diseases : Also called: Sexually transmitted infections, STDs, Venereal disease". U.S. National Library of Medicine. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  31. ^ Annette Bourdeau (7 August 2012). "Sook-Yin Lee To Play Olivia Chow in Jack Layton Movie". Huffington Post Canada.
  32. ^ Kupferman, Steve. (10 March 2014). "David Cronenberg name-checks Dilbert at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards". Torontolife.com. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  33. ^ R.M. Vaughan (11 December 2008). "Sook-Yin Lee: Culture creator with a naughty rep". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
  34. ^ Corrigan, David (9 August 2013). "'It's not Shakespeare': Sook-Yin Lee on exploring memory in 'How Can I Forget?' at Toronto's SummerWorks festival". National Post. Retrieved 16 December 2017. It went on to be performed in conjunction with her solo art show We Are Light Rays at the Ottawa Art Gallery.
  35. ^ "Sook-Yin Lee's Unsafe has little to say about call-out culture". Now, March 18, 2019.
  36. ^ Canada, Government of Canada, National Film Board of (11 October 2012). "National Film Board of Canada". onf-nfb.gc.ca. Retrieved 23 March 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  37. ^ Baker, Marie Annharte; Blain, Kim; Boschman, Lorna; Browne, Christene; Burns, Alison; Cole, Janis; Dempsey, Shawna; Fleming, Ann Marie; Gagnon, Angèle (1 January 2000), Five Feminist Minutes, retrieved 23 March 2017
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