WORLD TELEVISION PREMIERE: STOLEN MEMORIES

15 years in the making, Stolen Memories will have its world premiere television broadcast live on Omni in BC, Alberta and Ontario on March 4th at 9pm local time. A Japanese subtitled version of the film will air in Ontario on the OMNI network on March 11th at 9pm.

W2 Media Cafe (111 West Hastings) presents the World Television Premiere of Stolen Memories on March 4th at 7:30 pm. There will be a special presentation with guest speakers talking about the film’s significance and impact on the Japanese Canadian community. The filmmakers will be present, including writer/producer/director Kagan Goh and producer Imtiaz Popat who will be doing a Q & A. Kagan Goh will be presenting a new photo album to the Kamitakahara family (the owners of the lost photo album) as a symbolic gesture of a new beginning for a new generation. Food and refreshments will be served. Admission is by donation.

STOLEN MEMORIES is a detective story about filmmaker Kagan Goh’s personal quest to return a photo album that was lost by a Japanese Canadian family during the Japanese internment. Kagan, aided by Mary Seki, his 70-year old detective sidekick, embarked upon a quest to find the rightful owners, find out what happened to them and return their lost photo album to them. Documenting the search as well as redressing the wrongs of the past is a symbolic “homecoming” a coming home in terms of returning to a place of self-acceptance, belonging, wholeness and healing.

STOLEN MEMORIES reflects deeply rooted issues of prejudice which have affected the Japanese Canadian community throughout the last one hundred years, experienced not just by the family but by the Japanese Canadians who helped in the quest to return the “stolen” photo album. The extraordinary story is a microcosm within the macrocosm of the Japanese Canadian legacy.
“It’s a very effective way of touching on an important common feature of the internment— loss of much family material due to forced relocation. The personal touch seems a good idea too, as many such documentaries have been a bit distant from the victims”  Stan Fukawa, past president of the Japanese Canadian National Museum.