Relics of Love and War

A wartime love story reveals a hidden chapter of Chinese Canadian history, told through rare archival footage and personal memories.
About this Event

A co-presentation with the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society (CCMMS) and the Chinatown Storytelling Centre (CSC).

Relics of Love and War, 40 min, 2023
Trailblazing Chinese Canadian director, Keith Lock, tells the story of how his father married his mother in Australia during World War Two when he and 12 other Chinese Canadians were serving in Operation Oblivion, a top secret British mission affiliated with Force 136. This little known Chinese Canadian history is told with intimate inside knowledge and set against a backdrop of the Second World War, a time when Chinese Canadians could not vote, sit at the front in movie theatres, swim in pools or hire white women for their businesses. Lock’s documentary essay uses archival imagery (much of it previously unseen) to bring this story to light.

Schedule:
3:30 PM - Doors Open
4:00 - 4:45 PM -Welcome & Presentation
4:45 - 5:00 PM - Q&A

Ticket Pricing:
$15 general admission ($10 for CSC Members)
Click here to become a member of the CSC!

Director's Bio:
Trailblazing Chinese Canadian filmmaker, Keith Lock, has an MFA in film from York University. His high school film, Flights of Frenzy, won Best Super 8 Award at the UNESCO 10th Muse International, Amsterdam, 1969. His experimental feature, Everything Everywhere Again Alive, 1975, screened in TIFF's Retrospective of Canadian Cinema, 1984. A Brighter Moon, received a Gemini Award nomination for Best Short Drama, 1987. The Road Chosen: The Lem Wong Story, received the NFB Innoversity Conference Award, 2002. The Dreaming House, 2005, received Best GTA Filmmaker Award at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. More recently, he created The Secret, 2017, a 360° Virtual Reality prototype for the NFB. Keith was cinematographer for Michael Snow’s, Two Sides to Every Story, voted one of TIFF’s 150 Essential Works of Canadian Cinema, 2017. In 2020, his film, Everything Everywhere Again Alive, was selected one of “100 Best Canadian Films of All Time”, by AGO Film Curator, Jim Shedden. Keith is the inaugural winner of the Reel Asian Film Festival’s Firehorse Award, 2022. He is the Executive Producer of the feature film, Café Daughter, 2023, Winner of Audience Choice Award at the ImagineNative Film Festival. His documentary, Relics of Love and War, 2023, tells a little known Chinese Canadian history and screened internationally in many film festivals and independent venues.