The National Film Board's In the Shadow of Gold Mountain will have its television premiere on CBC Newsworld's Rough Cuts on Tuesday, Jan. 11 at 10 pm ET/PT, with a repeat broadcast on Friday, Jan. 14 at 10 pm ET/PT.

In the Shadow of Gold Mountain (a film by Karen Cho) uncovers stories from the last living survivors of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, which lasted from 1885 until 1947. These personal accounts of extraordinary Chinese-Canadians who survived the era are stories of unwavering personal strength, of families torn apart and
of a community's struggle for civil rights and redress.

Filmaker Karen Cho is a very thoughtful young filmaker who captures the stories behind the story of the racist head tax that was only applied to immigrants of Chinese descent - no matter which country they came from.

Read both my short review of In the Shadow of Gold Mountain, and my meeting with Karen Cho.

This film features interviews with Vancouver locals Roy Mah and Gim Wong - both of whom served in the Canadian military, when they were not even allowed to vote in their own country of birth.  I know both men personally, and they are both very decent and gracious men, who strongly believe in their convictions.

Roy is the founder of Chinatown News, the first and longest running English language news magazine for the Chinese Canadian community, and a recipient of the Order of BC, and Queen's Jubilee Medal. This past summer at the age of 86, Gim Wong rode his motorcycle to the site of Last Spike, in Craigelachie, BC, to draw attention to the Canadian Government's lack of ability to respond to repeated requests for apologies and reparations for the Chinese Exclusion Act and Head Tax.

Read the NFB press release about the television premiere for In the Shadow of Gold Mountain.

Also check out the the network television premiere of Tribe of One, a film about my cousin Rhonda Larrabee, who grew up half Chinese and half First Nations.  It airs on Feb 6, 2005  APTN as part of a 13 part Aboriginal Showcase of NFB films.