TORONTO, Nov. 26, 2012 /CNW/ - Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP is pleased to announce that Chris Hope, a lawyer in the firm's Entertainment Law Group, has produced and directed Hatsumi, a feature-length documentary film to be released by Alliance Films on Tuesday, November 27.
Hatsumi follows Chris and his grandmother, Nancy Okura, on a journey of discovery as they travel through the locations of the Japanese Canadian internment, through which Nancy tells the story of her own internment experience for the first time. The film presents both a vivid first-hand account as well as an overview of the political context for that dark chapter in Canada's history. Academy Award® nominated director Atom Egoyan says that Hatsumi is an "extraordinary and beautiful film … exhaustively and passionately researched, both at the level of the filmmaker's personal history and as an investigation into our national consciousness," while Deepa Mehta, the Academy Award® nominated director of Midnight's Children says that the film is "a beautifully crafted documentary that never once loses its innate humanity whilst portraying the rampant inhumanity that surrounded these hapless citizens of Canada. Fierce, loving, strong, poetic."
Reflecting on the completion of the film Hope states: "I was first motivated to seek out first-person stories about the Japanese Canadian internment after briefly learning about it in high school. I quickly discovered that few detailed first-hand accounts of internment experiences existed, due in part to the reluctance of the Japanese Canadian community to openly discuss their internment experiences. After eleven years of work, I'm thrilled that Hatsumi not only fully documents the internment experience through my grandmother's eyes, but also documents the negotiation that was necessary to persuade my grandmother to tell her story. As a multigenerational journey into the past, I hope that the film will add a rare personal dimension to future reflections on the internment."
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP is also proud to sponsor the official launch screening of Hatsumi at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) in Toronto, Ontario at 7pm on Wednesday, November 28. All funds raised will go toward supporting the cultural programming at the JCCC and toward the establishment of the Nikkei Heritage Museum, which is currently under construction at the JCCC. The museum will host programming with an emphasis on education, to preserve the memory of Japanese Canadian life in Canada for generations to come.
About Cassels Brock
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP is a leading Canadian law firm focused on serving the transaction, advocacy and advisory needs of Canada's most dynamic business sectors. The firm's Entertainment Law Group is one of the largest and most established practices of its kind in the country.
Image with caption: "Nancy Okura and grandson Chris Hope (CNW Group/Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20121126_C3264_PHOTO_EN_21129.jpg
Image with caption: "Reunion with pre-war neighbours (CNW Group/Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20121126_C3264_PHOTO_EN_21130.jpg
Image with caption: "Road camp work taken with smuggled camera (CNW Group/Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20121126_C3264_PHOTO_EN_21131.jpg
SOURCE: Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
contact: Joy O'Hara, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, Communications Specialist, [email protected] or 416-642-7454.
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