As part of Vancouver Public Library's One Book One Vancouver program, there will be many related events designed to help bring the book Obasan to life.
Obachan's Garden, is the award winning National Film Board documentary about the filmaker Linda Ohama's Grandmother. Ohama won a 2002 Leo Award for best direction for a documentary.
Check out a review of Obachan's Garden on Culture Vulture
Please see below for the information from the VPL web page.
Obachan's Garden: Film Screening
Thursday, June 23; 7:30 p.m.
Alice MacKay Room (Lower Level), Central Library (350 West Georgia St.)
Join director Linda Ohama for a special screening of Obachan's Garden.
In 1923, Asayo Murakami left Hiroshima and settled in a fishing
village in Steveston, BC. Her family has memories of a happy woman who
sang, danced and nurtured a colourful flower garden, but underneath,
the memory of what she left in Japan haunted her deeply.
Delicately peeling back the layers of her grandmother's life,
filmmaker Linda Ohama discovers a painful, buried past. In poignant
interviews, Asayo, now 103 years old, recalls life in Japan, her
arrival in Canada as a “picture bride,” her determination to marry a
man of her choice, the bombing of Hiroshima and the forced relocation
of her family during World War II.
Beautifully rendered dramatic sequences are merged with an exquisite
collection of memories, feelings, images and voices. Culminating in an
emotional reunion with a long-lost daughter, this film is an intensely
personal reflection of Japanese-Canadian history and a testament to one
woman's incredible endurance and spirit.
