A video documentary: an interview with Haruko Okano

Directed by Lina Hoshino: produced by Scott Kildall

In Haruko: Child of Spring, Haruko Okano, a Vancouver­based Japanese­Canadian artist and social activist, reconstructs her fragmented memories with clarity and unnerving candor. By capturing Haruko's story, this video probes the function of art-making as means for surviving, understanding and relieving pain. At the same time, her life story challenges the notion that an individual's identity may be defined along racial lines or in terms of ethnicity alone. Though born during World War II while Canadian martial law was still in effect, Haruko was not sent to an internment camp like other Japanese-Canadians, but was instead uprooted from the Japanese-Canadian community and placed in the care of a series of Caucasian foster families. Piecing together her recollections and interlacing an intimate personal narrative with a larger historical and cultural backdrop, the piece captures the essence of her multi-layered identity. As her narration moves from her troubled past to the realization of her artistic potential, the abstract imagery interpreting her psychological state likewise comes into focus.

 

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©1999 Kozaru Productions