The wildly talented multi-hyphenate Mayumi Yoshida returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss her long-awaited feature film directorial debut, Akashi, which is inspired by Mayumi’s own experience of living in the space between cultures. Ten years after moving to Vancouver, struggling visual artist Kana (that’s Mayumi) returns to Tokyo to attend the funeral of her beloved grandmother. Arriving in Japan, she rekindles a tentative flame with her bashful ex-boyfriend, Hiro, an aspiring thespian who vanished from her life a decade prior. As Kana digs deeper into her grandmother’s past, she uncovers a family secret that prompts her to reconsider everything she thought she knew about love, duty, and belonging.

Akashi – which Mayumi wrote, directed, and starred in – has its world premiere this week at the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival. The feature began its life as a Fringe Festival play in 2016, before evolving into a Storyhive-funded short film in 2017 (the latter for which she earned a slew of awards, including the award for Best Female Director at the 2018 Vancouver Short Film Festival, and the Outstanding Writer Award at the NBCUniversal Short Film Festival). Although it’s been a long road to bring Akashi to the screen in its current feature-length incarnation, Mayumi hasn’t been idle in the intervening years: between directing short films – including the music video for Different Than Before, which won the SXSW Music Video Jury Award in 2023 – and working as a dialect coach and cultural consultant and advocating for diversity and inclusion in our challenging industry, Mayumi has been fighting to get this film made. This included, in 2021, taking on Telefilm, Canada’s major funding provider, for their outdated language requirements that didn’t take Canada’s purported commitment to diversity and inclusion into consideration. In this riveting conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Mayumi reflects on her journey to this moment, how Akashi changed over the years, and how Akashi changed her as an artist.

Episode sponsor: UBCP / ACTRA

What has the Taliban’s shocking return to power meant for Afghan women? Brishkay Ahmed’s new documentary In The Room hands the mic to Afghan women who’ve stepped onto the world stage and reclaimed their homeland and identity. This includes Brishkay herself, who literally steps through the looking glass and confronts and contextualises her own identity. At times dreamlike and always impactful, In The Room is at once a celebration of Afghan resistance, and a reminder that – in age where women’s rights are being gleefully eroded all over the world, including most notably south of our border – our autonomy as women must be actively protected. In The Room was produced through the National Film Board of Canada and has its world premiere at the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival. In this wildly fascinating conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Brishkay reflects on her own journey with her Afghan identity, the power of anger in activism and resistance, and the parallels she sees between what’s happened in Afghanistan and what’s currently occurring all over the world.

Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Today’s episode of the YVR Screen Scene Podcast is both another instalment in our ongoing #IndustryBFFs series AND our season opener! Sabrina is joined in the podcast studio by two powerhouse actresses who are uplifting women in film via their new project, the Liberated Actresses Playground: Aliyah O’Brien and Priscilla Faia. Returning guest Aliyah O’Brien is beloved for her work on Rookie Blue, Legends of Tomorrow, and You Me Her, for her beautiful smile, and her equally beautiful personality. Priscilla Faia is a new friend-of-the-pod but a veteran actress around town. You know her from You Me Her – for which she won a Leo Award for Best Performance in a Music, Comedy or Variety Program or Series – and for Rookie Blue, for which she was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award. In this rambunctious and at times emotional conversation (facilitated by vodka soda and the “airport drinking” paradigm), Aliyah and Priscilla discuss what it means to be a liberated actress, how their friendship has helped them navigate this sometimes unfriendly industry, and why women are stronger when we stand together. Episode sponsor: UBCP / ACTRA

Earlier this month, Angela’s Shadow won two awards – for best screenwriting and best production design – at the 2025 Leo Awards. It was the latest in a string of successes for the film, which won the Panorama Audience Award at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival, kicks off a theatrical run in Toronto this weekend, and is acclaimed Cree filmmaker Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin’s highly anticipated follow-up to the similarly lauded Broken Angel. In Angela’s Shadow, Angela (played by Sera-Lys McArthur) and Henry (Matthew Kevin Anderson), young 1930s socialites with a baby on the way, embark on a short trip north to visit Angela’s beloved childhood nanny, Mary (Renae Morriseau). When Angela is harassed by a menacing shadow figure, Mary moves to bless and protect her and her unborn child with illegal Cree ceremonies and medicine. As the truth about her ancestry and the spectral figure’s identity unfold, Angela must decide whether to delve into her newfound spiritual traditions in order to protect herself from her husband’s escalating purity-obsessed racism.

Angela’s Shadow is the second film in a trilogy that follows three sets of Cree characters all connected to each other in some way, across three different time periods, who use their connections to their Cree spiritual traditions to combat and heal from settler colonialism. The first film – the aforementioned dramatic thriller entitled Broken Angel – won Sera-Lys the award for Best Actress at the 2022 American Indian Film Festival. In this compelling conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Jules and Sera-Lys talk about healing from settler colonialism through art, working with family (three of Jules’ sons and her mom all appear in the film), being pregnant IRL shortly after being pregnant onscreen, and where they’re going to take us next.

Episode sponsor: Directors Guild Of Canada, BC District Council

Bronwen Smith was nominated for a UBCP/ACTRA Award for her scene-stealing dramatic turn in Laura Adkin’s feature film directorial debut, Re: Uniting. Catherine Lough Haggquist (who received the Lorena Gale Woman of Distinction Award from UBCP/ACTRA in 2020) garnered a globe-spanning fanbase for her role as the ass-kicking General Bellweather on Motherland: Fort Salem. Separately, they are powerhouse performers; together, they are #IndustryBFFs whose friendship directly impacts their individual journeys through this topsy-turvy film and television industry (not to mention the work they do through The Drama Class, where they provide online education, support, and community for actors everywhere and at every level). In this contemplative, moving, and at times hilarious episode, Bronwen and Cat discuss their three decades of friendship – and why people sometimes ask if they’re actually okay. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA

Inedia is a disquieting and psychologically charged dramatic feature exploring a young woman’s descent into a dangerous online fasting movement. Filmed on Salt Spring Island, Inedia tells the story of Cora (Amy Forsyth), a desperate young woman who signs up for an alternative lifestyle community to escape her mounting food allergies. At Sun Haven, they practice “breatharianism,” subsisting on light and air. The group’s charismatic leader (Susanne Wuest) and peaceful vibes give Cora hope, but it’s not long before she realizes there are tensions beneath the surface. At its core, Inedia is an eerie study of emotional and psychological disturbance and the way it manifests outwardly. Filmmaker Liz Cairns joins Sabrina in the YVR Screen Scene studio to discuss her journey with Inedia and her experience visiting a breatharian retreat in Peru. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment

Beloved Vancouver actor Alex Zahara swings by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast studio to discuss his wildly entertaining turn as Uncle Howard (RIP) in Final Destination: Bloodlines and his own remarkable career on stage and screen. The funny and fascinating conversation covers a lot of territory: how Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein’s critically acclaimed, blockbuster contribution to the Final Destination universe is a love letter to Vancouver; how he gets into character (a process that somehow involves primordial ooze); memorable roles from his career, including his 40 on-screen deaths; how he navigates the quiet times; and what it is about this topsy-turvy biz that keeps him coming back for more. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA

Simon Barry (Warrior Nun, Continuum) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss his latest series. Bet – 10 episodes of which dropped on Netflix in May 2025 – draws its inspiration from the manga Kakegurai – Compulsive Gambler. The series tells the story of Yumeko (portrayed by Miku Martineau), a young woman who enrols in an exclusive boarding school to avenge the murder of her parents. This exclusive boarding school ain’t Hogwarts: it’s a cutthroat academy run by a powerful Student Council whose power structure is entirely based on gambling. Yumeko’s prowess at gambling and her overarching revenge quest put her in the crosshairs of the Student Council and its formidable president, Kira – leading to a showdown that is both high-octane and deeply satisfying.

Bet is at once a breath of fresh air and exactly what we’ve come to expect from Simon Barry: a wildly entertaining adventure set in an unexpected world about a whip-smart woman on a seemingly impossible quest. In this fascinating interview, Simon discusses his journey with Bet, what Miku Martineau brought to the pivotal role of Yumeko, his thoughts on AI, collaborating with director Jacquie Gould (Outlander, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Dennis Heaton’s brain, and what he learned from Warrior Nun and its fans.

Episode sponsor: Directors Guild Of Canada, BC District Council