2020 Winner

East of the Rockies

Jam 3, National Film Board of Canada

CANADA

Arts & Entertainment - Interactive Content

The project began with Joy Kogawa—famed author, poet, activist, and member of the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia, as well as Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun. Joy is also a former internee at the Japanese-Canadian internment camp at Slocan, BC. Kogawa’s novel Obasan stands as the most important account of this chapter in Canadian history. Powerful and passionate, Obasan tells, through the eyes of a child, the moving story of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Based on Kogawa’s own experiences, this award-winning novel was the first to recount the story of the evacuation, relocation, and dispersal of Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Obasan was named one of the most important books in Canadian history by the Literary Review of Canada. At 83 years old, Kogawa has teamed up with artists and producers at Jam3 to tell a completely original tale for an all-new medium.