2022-2023 Virtual Artist-in-Residence
Kagan Goh - Filmmaker, Author, Activist
About the Artist
Originally from Singapore, Kagan Goh is a Vancouver-based Chinese Canadian BIPOC multidisciplinary Mad Artist: award-winning filmmaker, published author, spoken word poet, playwright, actor, mental health advocate and activist. He was diagnosed with manic depression at the age of twenty-three, in 1993. Kagan is a well-known spoken word artist, essayist and poet, a respected and established voice in Vancouver’s literary community for over two decades. He has been invited to perform at readings, festivals and on radio, and has published in numerous anthologies, periodicals, and magazines. In 2012, Select Books in Singapore published his poetic memoir, focused upon his relationship with his esteemed father, Who Let in the Sky? Kagan is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker with several releases including the award-winning Mind Fuck(1996); Stolen Memories(2012); Breaking the Silence(2015); and The Day My Cat Saved My Life (2021); his films have been broadcast on national television and gained entry into respected film festivals across Canada. In Kagan Goh’s follow-up memoir, Surviving Samsara, he recounts his struggles with manic depression, breaking the silence around mental illness. From an honest and personal perspective, Surviving Samsara traces Goh’s experiences as he wanders through the highs of mania, the terrors of psychosis, and the lows of depression. From the welfare office to the hospital ward and many places in between, Goh struggles to discern the difference between mental health breakdowns and spiritual breakthroughs. Facing his experiences with courage and authenticity, Goh shares memories of family altercations, pushed to the brink of living on the street, and psychiatrist visits. He explores his diagnosis of bipolar mood disorder not only as a medical condition but as a spiritual emergence—a vehicle for personal growth, healing, and transcendence.
Originally from Singapore, Kagan Goh is a Vancouver-based Chinese Canadian BIPOC multidisciplinary Mad Artist: award-winning filmmaker, published author, spoken word poet, playwright, actor, mental health advocate and activist. He was diagnosed with manic depression at the age of twenty-three, in 1993. Kagan is a well-known spoken word artist, essayist and poet, a respected and established voice in Vancouver’s literary community for over two decades. He has been invited to perform at readings, festivals and on radio, and has published in numerous anthologies, periodicals, and magazines. In 2012, Select Books in Singapore published his poetic memoir, focused upon his relationship with his esteemed father, Who Let in the Sky? Kagan is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker with several releases including the award-winning Mind Fuck(1996); Stolen Memories(2012); Breaking the Silence(2015); and The Day My Cat Saved My Life (2021); his films have been broadcast on national television and gained entry into respected film festivals across Canada. In Kagan Goh’s follow-up memoir, Surviving Samsara, he recounts his struggles with manic depression, breaking the silence around mental illness. From an honest and personal perspective, Surviving Samsara traces Goh’s experiences as he wanders through the highs of mania, the terrors of psychosis, and the lows of depression. From the welfare office to the hospital ward and many places in between, Goh struggles to discern the difference between mental health breakdowns and spiritual breakthroughs. Facing his experiences with courage and authenticity, Goh shares memories of family altercations, pushed to the brink of living on the street, and psychiatrist visits. He explores his diagnosis of bipolar mood disorder not only as a medical condition but as a spiritual emergence—a vehicle for personal growth, healing, and transcendence.
Wednesday, September 14, 2022 @7pm
Screening of Stolen Memories and Breaking the Silence
followed by Q&A with filmmaker Kagan Goh via zoom.
Screening of Stolen Memories and Breaking the Silence
followed by Q&A with filmmaker Kagan Goh via zoom.
This free public event is made possible by a grant from the Michigan Humanities Council.
STOLEN MEMORIES is a detective story about filmmaker Kagan Goh’s personal quest to return a photo album “stolen” from a Japanese Canadian family during the Japanese internment.
The filmmaker’s brother found a framed photograph of a samurai warrior along with photo album that once be
longed to a Japanese Canadian family at a garage sale. After paying a mere $10 for these precious family heirlooms, he asked the man how he'd come to possess them. The man replied that he found the collection in the attic collecting dust and just wanted to “get rid of it” The date on the photographs was 1939.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1942, Japanese Canadians were ordered to turn over property and belongings to the Custodian of Enemy Alien Property as a “protective measure only.” Caught in the whirlwind of anti-Japanese hysteria and paranoia, all of the Japanese descendants living in Canada at the time were rounded from their homes and herded off to internment camps and declared “enemy aliens.” They had no choice but to leave everything behind. The album was left behind when the family was interned and their possessions were either seized by the Canadian government and sold for a pittance, or stolen by looters. They lost everything.
Kagan Goh, aided by Mary Seki, his 70-year old detective sidekick, embarked upon a quest to find the rightful owners, find out what happened to them and return their lost photo album to them. Documenting the search as well as redressing the wrongs of the past is a symbolic “homecoming” – coming home in terms of returning to a place of self-acceptance, belonging, wholeness and healing.
STOLEN MEMORIES reflects deeply rooted issues of prejudice which have affected the Japanese Canadian community throughout the last one hundred years, experienced not just by the family but by the Japanese Canadians who helped in the quest to return the ‘stolen’ photo album. The extraordinary story is a microcosm within the macrocosm of the Japanese Canadian legacy.
The filmmaker’s brother found a framed photograph of a samurai warrior along with photo album that once be
longed to a Japanese Canadian family at a garage sale. After paying a mere $10 for these precious family heirlooms, he asked the man how he'd come to possess them. The man replied that he found the collection in the attic collecting dust and just wanted to “get rid of it” The date on the photographs was 1939.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1942, Japanese Canadians were ordered to turn over property and belongings to the Custodian of Enemy Alien Property as a “protective measure only.” Caught in the whirlwind of anti-Japanese hysteria and paranoia, all of the Japanese descendants living in Canada at the time were rounded from their homes and herded off to internment camps and declared “enemy aliens.” They had no choice but to leave everything behind. The album was left behind when the family was interned and their possessions were either seized by the Canadian government and sold for a pittance, or stolen by looters. They lost everything.
Kagan Goh, aided by Mary Seki, his 70-year old detective sidekick, embarked upon a quest to find the rightful owners, find out what happened to them and return their lost photo album to them. Documenting the search as well as redressing the wrongs of the past is a symbolic “homecoming” – coming home in terms of returning to a place of self-acceptance, belonging, wholeness and healing.
STOLEN MEMORIES reflects deeply rooted issues of prejudice which have affected the Japanese Canadian community throughout the last one hundred years, experienced not just by the family but by the Japanese Canadians who helped in the quest to return the ‘stolen’ photo album. The extraordinary story is a microcosm within the macrocosm of the Japanese Canadian legacy.
Breaking the Silence
Documentary Short by Kagan Goh.
This documentary shares the story of Gabout Akihide John Otsuji, a Japanese-Canadian man, who was unjustly imprisoned after the Japanese internment. Otsuji's sister sets out on a quest to clear her brother's name and redress the wrongs of the past.
Documentary Short by Kagan Goh.
This documentary shares the story of Gabout Akihide John Otsuji, a Japanese-Canadian man, who was unjustly imprisoned after the Japanese internment. Otsuji's sister sets out on a quest to clear her brother's name and redress the wrongs of the past.
Book Reading and Discussion - Surviving Samsara
Get Your Free Copy of the book!
(supply limited - books must be picked up from the Keweenaw Storytelling Center)
"Samsara is defined as the 'round of rebirth' or 'perpetual wandering' ... a continuous process of ever again and again being born, growing old, suffering and dying."--Buddhist Dictionary by Nyanatiloka Mahathera
In Kagan Goh's second memoir, he recounts his struggles with manic depression, breaking the silence around mental illness. From an honest and personal perspective, Surviving Samsara traces Goh's experiences as he wanders through the highs of mania, the terrors of psychosis, and the lows of depression. From the welfare office to the hospital ward and many places in between, Goh struggles to discern the difference between mental health breakdowns and spiritual breakthroughs. Facing his experiences with courage and authenticity, Goh shares memories of family altercations, pushed to the brink of living on the street, and psychiatrist visits. He explores his diagnosis of bipolar mood disorder not only as a medical condition but as a spiritual emergence--a vehicle for personal growth, healing and transcendence.
With raw language and deep insight, he combats the societal stigma, prejudice and discrimination people with mental health challenges face on a daily basis, and exposes the further damage it can do. Writing and sharing his story of living with a mental illness began a form of self-therapy, and now illustrates Goh's transformation from victim to survivor to activist. Surviving Samsara tells a deeply personal story of recovery, acceptance and unconditional self-love and humanizes the challenges of those living with mental illness.
My Story - Kagan Goh
Showing of the short film "The Day the Cat Saved my life"
followed by a discussion with Kagan about his memoir "Surviving Samsara"
Wednesday, October 12 at 7pm
In person or via Zoom
Showing of the short film "The Day the Cat Saved my life"
followed by a discussion with Kagan about his memoir "Surviving Samsara"
Wednesday, October 12 at 7pm
In person or via Zoom
