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Murakami film hits TV, Vancouver
by Mitchell Sherrin, Driftwood, 1/11/2006
A film featuring respected islander Kimiko Murakami will get a west-coast premier at the Vancouver Museum on January 12 before it hits Channel M later in the month.
Kimiko Murakami: Triumph Over Internment, by Susan Poizner is part of a series of 13 films called Mother Tongue that highlight contributions by ethnic women to Canadian history.
When Poizner was conducting research she found that Kimiko Murakami fit all the criteria for her project.
“I was looking for the story of a remarkable woman from the Japanese-Canadian community, somebody who made a difference in the community,” said Poizner.
“Kimiko’s story just jumped out at me. She sounded like an inspiring woman – just an incredible woman who we could all learn from.”
And then Poizner learned more about Kimiko Murakami through interviews with her daughters: Rose Murakami and Mary Kitigawa.
“We told the story of her being born in Steveston, the first Japanese-Canadian woman to be born there, and the struggles her parents had to establish themselves in the country where they didn’t speak the language.”
Poizner followed Murakami’s story as she moved to Salt Spring and formed a beautiful successful farm.
“Of course, then we covered what happened to her in the war. It’s clear that Kimiko Murakami and her family weren’t the only people to suffer. Thousands and thousands of Japanese Canadians suffered.”
But the Murakami story puts a human face to a historical tragedy that is otherwise difficult to fathom.
“When you tell the story of one woman and see how it affected her family, it’s more personal and more real to the viewer.”
As a Toronto-based filmmaker, Poizner first became interested in the idea of making films about ethnic diversity when she returned to Canada after living in Europe.
“I’m from a Jewish community. I grew up with this misconception that Canadian history was just the story of the English and the French. I somehow felt that my family and my community, they were just the visitors and they had no role to play.
Investigation for her project proved Poizner wrong, she said.
She plans to attend a launch of her Mother Tongue series with an airing of Kimiko Murakami: Triumph Over Internment and Mary Lee Chan: Taking on City Hall at the Vancouver Museum on January 12.
Starting on Sunday January 15 at 9:30 p.m., Channel M will show one episode of the series each week (shows are 22 minutes long). Kimiko Murakami: Triumph Over Internment is set to air Sunday, January 22 at 10 p.m. The multicultural-focused Channel M can be found on cable 10 in Victoria, channel 254 on Bell ExpressVu and channel 42 on UHF.
For more information about Poizner’s series, check her website (www.mothertongue.ca).
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This series of educational videos was made possible with funding from
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Mother Tongue: A woman's history of ethnic Canada is a 13-part TV series that documents Canada's multicultural history from a female perspective. Each program tells the story of a notable woman in one of Canada's communities, including a Black fugitive slave, an Acadian mail order bride, and an Icelandic suffragette.
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