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Min Sook Lee (Korean: 이민숙; born 1969) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, screenwriter and political activist. She was the New Democratic Party candidate for Toronto—Danforth during the 2019 federal election.[1] She ran primarily on concerns about climate change, energy, economic equity, a national pharmacare program, child care programs, improved public transit systems, and the protection and expansion of affordable housing.[2]

This biography of a living person relies too much on references to primary sources. (September 2019)

Biography

Lee was born in South Korea and immigrated to Canada with her family at the age of three,[3]^{[non-primary source needed]} growing up in Downtown Toronto, where her family owned a convenience store.[4] Lee and her sisters worked long hours behind the counters, often translating for their parents, who did not speak English.[5][4]

As a teenager, Lee joined the anti-apartheid movement in Toronto, which she credits with introducing her to political activism.[5]

Career

Film

Lee is a self-taught documentary filmmaker who has directed eight feature documentaries, often focusing on labour, migration, and social justice issues.[6][7]

Early in her career, Lee was news director at community radio station CKLN-FM from 1996 to 1998, and a news reporter at television station Toronto 1 from 2004 to 2005.[8]^{[non-primary source needed]}

Lee's first feature film El Contrato (2003) showed migrant farm workers from Central Mexico facing harsh working conditions in Leamington, Ontario. In response, Leamington farmers issued a SLAPP suit which delayed the film's release by a year.[9] Lee was awarded the Cesar E. Chavez Black Eagle Award for the film.[10]

Lee's 2005 film Hogtown: The Politics of Policing followed a dysfunctional City Hall struggle over the Toronto Police Service's budget during a wave of violent gun crimes and police corruption scandals.[11] The film won the Best Canadian Feature Documentary award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.[12]

Lee also directed Tiger Spirit (2008), telling the story of Korean families divided by the Korean War and the border between North Korea and South Korea; My Toxic Baby (2009), about toxins in baby products; The Real MASH (2010), which tells the story of the real people who inspired the movie and television series, M*A*S*H; Badge of Pride (2010) about LGBT police officers; and The Real Inglorious Bastards (2012), about Frederick Mayer and his company of European Jewish refugees. Lee was co-creator of the television sitcom She's the Mayor, which aired on VisionTV.[13][14] Tiger Spirit was awarded the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary at the 2009 Gemini Awards.^{[citation needed]} Her film, The Real Inglorious Bastards, won the 2014 Canadian Screen Award for Best History or Biography Documentary Program or Series.[15]

In 2016, Lee revisited the theme of migrant workers in Canada in her film Migrant Dreams, which examined the plight of a group of mostly Indonesian migrant workers entering Canada through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.[16][10]^{[non-primary source needed]} She was awarded the Canadian Hillman Prize which honours journalists whose work identifies important social and economic issues in Canada[1] and the Canadian Association of Journalists Award for Labour Reporting.[3]

In 2012, the Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts named the Min Sook Lee Labour Arts Award in Lee's honour for her contribution to the cause of migrant workers,[15] citing her work to "engage non-arts audiences, and that challenges Eurocentric notions of art".[17][18]

Lee is an Assistant Professor at the OCAD University, where her teaching and research focus on the relationship between art and social change.[1] She previously taught documentary filmmaking at Ryerson University's School of Image Arts MFA program.[15][19]

Politics

Lee was the New Democratic Party candidate in Toronto-Danforth for the 2019 federal election.[5][3] In her campaign, she committed to bring in a 1% super-wealth tax on households with a net wealth of more than $20 million. The Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated that this measure could bring in $70 billion in new revenue.[20]^{[non-primary source needed]} On election night, Lee finished in second with 33.2% of the vote to incumbent Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin.[21]

Awards and honours

• 2005 Winner of Best Canadian Feature Length Documentary Award, Hot Docs Festival for Hogtown: the Politics of Policing
• 2007 Recipient of the Cesar E. Chavez Black Eagle Award, presented by the United Farm Workers of America
• 2009 Winner of the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary Program for Tiger Spirit
• 2012 Induction of the ‘Min Sook Lee Labour Arts Award’ presented by Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts
• 2014 Winner, Canadian Screen Award – Best History Documentary for The Real Inglorious Bastards
• 2016 Cinema Politica Alanis Obomsawin Award for Commitment to Community and Resistance
• 2017 Canadian Association of Journalists Award for Labour Reporting for Migrant Dreams
• 2017 Canadian Hillman Prize for Journalism for Migrant Dreams

Filmography

Year	Title	Project	Notes
2001-2002	Profiles	12-part TV documentary series	Senior producer (3 episodes), director (3 episodes), field producer (1 episode)
2003	El Contrato	Documentary	Director, writer
2005	Hogtown: The Politics of Policing	Documentary	Producer, director, writer
2008	Tiger Spirit	Documentary	Producer, director, writer
2010	Badge of Pride	Documentary	Director, writer
2010	The Real M*A*S*H	TV documentary	Director, writer
2011	She's the Mayor	Television sitcom series	Co-creator, executive producer (12 episodes), writer (1 episode)
2012	The Real Inglorious Bastards	TV documentary	Director, writer
2016	Migrant Dreams	Documentary	Producer, director, writer

Electoral record

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election: Toronto—Danforth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Julie Dabrusin	27,681	47.7	+5.36	$75,766
	New Democratic	Min Sook Lee	19,283	33.2	-6.97	$102,067
	Conservative	Zia Choudhary	6,091	10.5	+0.64	$19,351
	Green	Chris Tolley	3,761	6.5	+1.79
	People's	Tara Dos Remedios	621	1.1	-	$3,633
	Animal Protection	Elizabeth Abbott	261	0.4	-0.24	$2,645
	Independent	John Kladitis	210	0.4	-	$2,953
	Communist	Ivan Byard	151	0.3	-
Total valid votes/expense limit			58,059	100.0
Total rejected ballots			413
Turnout			58,472	71.9
Eligible voters			81,283
	Liberal hold		Swing		+6.17
Source: Elections Canada[22][23]

References

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