Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Photos by Jeff Harris.

It’s the 1970s, and the Lee family — Dad, Mom and three daughters — are experiencing the typical immigrant life in Toronto. A brash dad and a soft-spoken mom spend all their time in the family convenience store so the girls can study for school in their high-rise apartment tower. But everything changes when, seemingly out of nowhere, their mom dies by suicide, leaving only a few photos and silent memories. Now, decades later, one of those sisters has made a documentary about their hidden past… but there are no words to describe the shocking family history and generational trauma she unveils.

The film’s called There are no Words, and is written and directed by multiple award-winning Toronto-based documentary filmmaker Min Sook Lee. She is known for her moving documentaries that bring crucial global political issues down to a personal scale, as in her doc Migrant Dreams in 2016, the last time I spoke with her on this show.

Incorporating period news footage and photos with new interviews with her family’s relatives and friends in Canada and Korea, as well as a shocking and revelatory talk with her father, There are No Words is a highly personal heart-wrenching look at the filmmaker’s own hidden family history.

I spoke with Min Sook Lee via Zoom.

There are No Words had its world premiere at TIFF, played at ReelAsian and will be released theatrically.