Beautifully filmed in Canada and China’s Guangdong province, From C to C is a moving, and cinematic, tapestry of stories of migration. These stories outline the injustices faced by Chinese migrants to Canada during the last century, and the little known effects of migration on the families and communities of migrants. The film contrasts these histories with the views and experiences of contemporary Chinese Canadian youth, leading viewers to reflect on the meaning of legislative exclusion for those who experienced it, as well as for those who did not. By calling attention to the diverse and transnational nature of contemporary Chinese Canadian identities, the film promotes an inclusive vision of Canada that values members of all communities as global-rather than solely national-citizens.
Producer, Director, Writer: Jordan Paterson
Since graduating from Simon Fraser University Jordan Paterson has produced a series of documentaries which earned many awards. From C to C won a Leo for best documentary. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival.
Paterson has directed other films connecting China and Canada including his 2015 docu-drama Tricks of the Dead: The Story of the Chinese Labour Corps in WWI, which paints a picture of the secret transport of 85,000 Chinese labourers across Canada to dig trenches and bury the dead on the Western Front in the First World War. He is currently working a production on the life of Norman Bethune.
Panel Discussion: Following the screening of From C to C, Yew Lee and Professor Timothy Stanley, will expand on the themes and lessons highlighted by the film.
Yew Lee is the former Co-Chair of the Ontario Redress Committee and Volunteer with Chinese Canadian National Council.
Lee was one of three plaintiffs who represented Head Tax payers and their families in a class action lawsuit asking for symbolic redress for the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act. Yew represented descendants, his mother, represented spouses, and Shack Jang Mack represented Head Tax Payers. The class action lawsuit was supported with assistance from the Court Challenges Program of Canada.
Professor Tim Stanley is Professor of Education Foundations and Antiracism Education at the University of Ottawa. A historian of education, racism and the Chinese Canadian experience, he has written extensively on anti-Chinese racism.
Professor Stanley’s 2011 book, Contesting White Supremacy: School Segregation, Anti-racism and the Making of Chinese Canadians (UBC Press), won prizes from the Canadian Historical Association and the Canadian History of Education Association. His current research examines the relationships between contemporary racism and historical memory.