Miles, a mixed-race Japanese Canadian, has loved baseball since he was a kid. During his teams semi-final baseball game, Miles collapses to the ground from sudden kidney failure.

Two weeks later, Miles is now the recipient of a donor kidney. He struggles to come to terms with the new facet of himself. His internal conflict is quickly exasperated by the intrusion of memories of the Japanese-Canadian internment, memories that aren't his own.

His single mother, Jennifer, tries tirelessly to comfort Miles only to be met with a detached wall of emotions. Miles' visions intensify, as Jennifer tries to share with him a photo album of his late father. In a fit of confusion and denial Miles races outside where the vision become unbearable. He hurls a baseball at the garden fence and falls to the ground. Miles, now covered in dirt, tries to scrub away the intruding memories but in doing so opens up his surgical wound. Upon returning to his bedroom, he is met with the same photo album. Realizing it may be a key to stopping the visions he returns to Jennifer for answers.

She tells him that his father had passed while donating a kidney to his uncle, which, until now was unbeknownst too Miles. Desperate for more answer Miles seeks out his uncle for answers where he meets Natasha, his estranged cousin. The final piece to the puzzle, Natasha opens up to him about their family's time in Internment. All of a sudden, Miles' gets a vision, but this time a memory of his own. An echo of medical orders reveal that his kidney donor is none other that his uncle, who had passed just two weeks prior. With a newfound understanding, Miles asks Natasha if he can visit again to learn more about his history. One month later, Miles, now healed from his transplant, steps onto the baseball pitch but at the pitching mound is a young man, his uncle and at the plate with a wooden bat held high, his father. Miles stands proudly unified and whole.

WHY?

Growing up, I never thought much about my identity. Of course, I knew my dad was Japanese, and my Mom was from the

UK, but that was just my reality. When they got divorced, my time was split in two. I often felt detached, trapped between

two worlds. I knew that my family had history, as does everyone’s, but we just never talked about it. After all, we were

Canadian. Fast-forward to 2019, and COVID opens the blinds on the deep-rooted discrimination towards Asian-Canadians. I had to face the facts: I was Asian, and pretending like it didn’t matter wasn’t going to work anymore. A year later, my

grandmother Joycie passed away. I remember going to her apartment, the same one she had lived in for as long as I could

remember.

My father and I were digging through her belongings, and I came across an old shirt, which read: Poston Internment Reunion. My grandmother had been interned in Arizona during the Second World War, her home, belongings, and her rights taken, and I had never taken the time to learn about it. I thought back to when I was in school. We would spend weeks discussing Christopher Columbus or the Canadian Fur Trade, but when it came to Canada’s Internment of Japanese-Canadians, one paragraph. We spent one class, on one day, for one hour learning about the Japanese Internment.

This film is a love letter to my history, to my identity, to my family and every other mixed-race Canadian who feels lost in

their own skin. I wanted to create a story that personified my detachment from my Asian heritage, the same ancestry I felt I had no right to talk about. Using the motif of a kidney transplant, I want to explore the internal conflict of being mixed-race while diving into my family's history, Japanese-Canadian history.

There are references to the Asahi Baseball team. You can learn more about it here: https://www.asahibaseball.com/history.html

We are also very grateful to be filming at the Tashme Museum in Sunshine Valley. Learn more here: http://tashme.ca/

WHERE DOES YOUR MONEY GO?

We are so grateful to have the support of Telus StoryHive. We are raising $8,000 more to make this film with care, quality, and community.

Indie filmmaking is built on love from our community. So many people have supported us already, and we want to give back by making a film that creates an impact. 

Every donation counts, and if you can't donate, simply sharing this page to family and friends is immensely appreciated.

OUR STRETCH GOAL

Our stretch goal is an additional $5,000. This would allow us to pay for prep and wrap days and ensure a quality and timely post-production. We want to give back to our team as much as we can. With these extra funds, we can make sure that our crew does not get overworked.

It would mean so much of us if you shared this campaign with your family friends, or share it on social media. The more people that know about this project and our mission, the closer we can get to our goal.

Follow our journey on Seed&Spark.

WE THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR SUPPORT!