Film series focuses on city's history from Asian Canadian perspective

Mark Hasiuk
Vancouver Courier
Friday, August 17, 2007

A film series chronicling the history of Asian-Canadians in Vancouver is being presented every Friday evening this month at the Chinatown Night Market.

The film series, entitled Riot in Vancouver, features a collection of short films depicting the events and aftermath of four pinnacle years in four eras of the past century. The subjects include Vancouver's 1907 anti-Asian riots, Asian-Canadians winning the right to vote in 1947, and British handover of Hong Kong back to China in 1997.

This Friday, the third instalment in the series entitled Forces of Migration showcases six short films, ranging in length from three to 26 minutes, which highlight the turbulent year 1967, when restrictions on Asian immigration to Canada were lifted.

Cindy Mochizuki, curator of the 1967 project, spent months researching filmmakers in Vancouver and around the country to collect material for tonight's presentation.

Mochizuki, a 30-year-old video animation artist and Hastings-Sunrise resident, said film is the perfect medium to explore issues that are rarely discussed in the Asian-Canadian community and Vancouver as a whole.

"Each of the artists use a different narrative, either poetically or experimentally, to talk about some of the more traumatic and difficult issues," she said. "So film is an effective way of opening up these issues for discussion."

Mochizuki's film selections include Vancouver artist Kira Wu's Whitewash, about an Asian-Canadian girl who, after watching a TV commercial about a whitening laundry detergent, attempts to rid her skin of pigmentation in the bathtub.

Other films chosen by Mochizuki include Toronto-based video artist Samuel Kiehoon Lee's documentary How to Make Kimchi: According to My Kun-Umma, which depicts a Korean woman's efforts to maintain her ancestral roots in Canada.

Unlike other series presenters, Mochizuki includes two works by First Nations filmmakers. Vancouver artist Dorothy Christian's Spiritual Land Claim chronicles the "Sixties Scoop" that saw large numbers of First Nations children placed in white foster homes.

"Things like that are rarely talked about, nor are there accessible forms of media out there that people can obtain," said Mochizuki. "There are some parts of history that are still invisible--that we need to be reminded of."

Mochizuki's own family history is highlighted by dramatic events in the Asian-Canadian experience. A fourth generation Japanese-Canadian, her father's family was interned during the Second World War. "It's interesting to step back and look at Canadian history, and look at the changes and shifts that are happening, or what hasn't happened."

Riot in Vancouver is sponsored by Anniversaries of Change, a group of local organizations aimed at promoting Asian heritage.

See http://www.anniversaries07.ca for more information.

Photo credit: Photo-Dan Toulgoet of Video animation artist Cindy Mochizuki