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Photo credit: Ronald Lee

“Be like water. Water doesn’t lose its identity; water takes up space; water can create—it can combine with other things to create something entirely new.”

These were the words spoken by Shannon Lee, daughter of American martial artist and actor Bruce Lee and keynote speaker of the inaugural East by Northwest (EXNW), a three-day global summit focused on racialized storytelling and entertainment, held in July 2023 in Vancouver, BC. Water can go with the flow, or it can forge a new path, and forging a new path is exactly what EXNW set out to do. And while the summit looks to the future, it is steeped in history from across the globe.

EXNW

EXNW was first envisioned many years ago by Barbara Lee, founder of the Racial Equity Screen Office (RESO) and of the Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF), the oldest Asian Film Festival in Canada, celebrating its 27th edition in November this year. Barbara is also the creator of Elimin8Hate, an advocacy branch of VAFF that focuses on dismantling anti-Asian racism.

At the time of launching VAFF, Barbara saw a lack of representation, opportunity, and funding for stories created by the Asian diaspora. Then in 2017, the VAFF board held a strategic visioning session that identified the need for an organization to lead the charge in creating content for the Asia Pacific markets. From there, in 2020, the vision was expanded to include all people of colour across Canada, to advocate for their stories. Barbara wanted to solve the problem of how to develop a pathway or a pipeline for this talent that can go to different markets and concluded that “we need to build something to showcase all the talent that we have here and support the people who are making this content here; help them connect, make business connections, network, and find those pathways for their stories to go across continents.” And so East by Northwest was born.

The global summit included studio tours, pitch sessions, workshops, and panels with titles like Protecting IP (intellectual property) for IBPOC Creators; Gaming; Documentary; Exporting Diverse Stories to Global Markets; Content Creators, Animation + Storytelling; Racialised Creatives Working Together; Making Vancouver a Key Player for Global Film and TV; Metaverse and AR/VR; and The Future of AI. Shannon Lee’s summit keynote honoured 50 years of Bruce Lee’s Hollywood legacy. There was also a ball and a dim sum brunch featuring a drag performance by House of Rice.

Barbara’s manifesto for EXNW is based on the historical context of the Northwest Passage, a trading route to Asia that passed through Canada. “There was a desire for Europeans, kings, and merchants to find a trading route to Asia for all their goods and luxury items. On their way, they came across the landmass that is Canada. So today, we are on that trip; we are going to help redevelop that trading route, going eastward through the Northwest Passage, but it should be led by the racialized diasporas who have deep roots across these continents.”

People have wondered if East by Northwest is affiliated with the American film festival South by Southwest (SXSW), but the only connection is the directional name. Some questioned whether the name should be changed to avoid confusion with SXSW, but Lee didn’t want to give it up. “I think the weight of the history of Canada, and what we want to do and where we want to go, would just outweigh any confusion that people would have. The story behind it I think is so apropos for Canada and what we’re trying to do—going east through the Northwest. It’s so steeped in history.”

Shannon Lee (left) and Barbara Lee. Photo credit: Terry Tang

Everywhere is home, but nowhere is home.

Moving across cultures with deep roots across continents gives the North American Asian community a unique perspective on storytelling, says Barbara. “Our stories are fresh but familiar. They’re different, but there’s something about it that is familiar because of the roots that we have in these different cultures.” She adds that it can create a strange dichotomy: “You’re a part of it, but you’re also othered at the same time.”

Photo Credit: Terry Tang

Photo Credit: Ronald Lee

Photo Credit: Ronald Lee

Abundance rather than scarcity

One important consideration of EXNW was determining how racialized creatives can work together—rejecting the historical notion of being each other’s competition and pitted against one another. “What we said in every panel was, we have to change our mindset; we cannot go at it from a scarcity mindset. It has to be from an abundance mindset. How we do that is we work together; we find new opportunities.” Big festivals and conferences tend to be white-centred, where diversity is a topic of conversation but not always represented on stage. For Barbara, EXNW needed to be very intentional with its programming. The summit shouldn’t only speak about diversity but show that diversity with its panelists and content.

Furthermore, EXNW wants to show that stories told by their communities deserve to be invested in. “It’s not just a handout; we actually can contribute to the economic development of the industry. Our stories have value, and they’re business opportunities.” Centred around racial equity, EXNW wants to build a bigger table where everyone has a seat rather than asking for permission to enter already existing spaces. “We wanted to flip that perspective and say, if you truly want our stories, then you come to our house where we are equals. And you come and learn about how we tell stories, work with us to get our stories out there. East by Northwest is a racialized space for people to come and learn about our stories, learn about our communities, and help us to work together.”

Photo credit: Ronald Lee

Photo credit: Ronald Lee

Photo credit: Ronald Lee

Creative control is key

From film to television to TikTok, EXNW highlights several industries, because, as Barbara points out, these days there are a lot of intersections across different industries. This past year, for example, has seen successful crossover with gaming, with films such as The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which made nearly $1.4 billion at the worldwide box office, and series like HBO’s The Last of Us. Lee says it’s important for creators to have fluidity and not pigeonhole themselves to one industry: “You’ve got to be creative about your creativity.”

Representation also matters. It’s important for people to see themselves on screen; it gives them the confidence to see themselves in that space and that industry. But while progress is being made on camera, with more diverse casts, true authenticity comes from behind the camera. “Being seen is very important, but having creative control is the ultimate because that really drives it.” Authentic storytelling is key to avoiding stereotypes and pandering and instead provides nuances on different cultures to audiences.

Zarqa Nawaz, the creator of Little Mosque on the Prairie, which originally aired on CBC, was a panelist at EXNW who spoke about her experiences with IP and creative control. Despite creating the show, and the success of the show, she had to fight for creative control and was continuously partnered with white writers and producers. Fifteen years later, Lee hasn’t seen much change with racialized creatives being in charge of their IP. “Who has creative control and who gets to decide and control the story? That’s the next piece of it.”

This is in part why Lee sees EXNW, RESO, and VAFF as an important ecosystem: “One organization cannot solve the issue of racial equity. It needs to be an ongoing conversation with different folks all around the country.”

Photo credit: Ronald Lee

Photo credit: Ronald Lee

Now the work begins

Since the inaugural summit has passed, Barbara has had time to reflect on the achievement and success of EXNW: “The first week we were just on a total high—it was completely more than we thought we could do. When you have this plan, it’s the first one, and you’re not sure if people will show up. It’s sort of like that movie Field of Dreams: If you build it, they will come, but you don’t know until the day of [the event] that they actually will come. It was very nerve-wracking, but it was amazing.”

It’s important for Barbara that the work started by EXNW carries on and doesn’t lose momentum. Making connections, building relationships, mentorship, incubating talent, and honing crafts are all a part of EXNW’s mandate. Pitch sessions with producers were held where filmmakers could receive feedback on how to strengthen their projects. “We are hoping next year to have a couple announcements of successes from the past year. What we want to do throughout the year is to keep in touch, to nurture it, to incubate it, to give the people training if they need it. If they need support, we will help them source it out.” Essentially, Barbara hopes there will be cohorts of creatives each year who move through the completion of their projects together, creating sustainability for the summit and the people who attend.

Additionally, Barbara envisions EXNW to be a framework and a partnership with other organizations to take over and share their ideas through programming, “a space where we hold space for people, for organizations to take ownership.” As for the future and how the summit will grow, she isn’t looking for EXNW to become a film festival but, in part, to become a showcase for upcoming productions. “We’re sort of like a Comic Con, where we have what’s coming down the production pipeline, and we bring those actors and directors in to talk about it even before it’s completed.” This strategy could help build excitement and funding opportunities that connect to another goal of Barbara’s: a star-making system, which she has identified as key in elevating the Asian-Canadian film industry. “That’s what the North American Asian community has lacked. Without a big star, you don’t get funding right away. The Tom Cruises say, ‘I have a film production company and I have this film,’ and studios line up and say, ‘Here’s some money,’ because you’re attached to it, you have a name. And that’s what we need in the racialized community—more stars that can champion projects.”

Gratitude and joy

Barbara admits that telling funders the story of EXNW and getting them to see the vision was the hardest part. “It was rewarding to see in real-time, the moment that you could just see on their faces that they got it—all those months of trying to paint the story of what we’re trying to do.” Barbara relied on her background in the corporate world and used that language to show the value of art. “It’s part of that whole idea that we’re an investment, not a handout.”

For Barbara it was the small moments at EXNW that were the most rewarding. She would watch the crowd, and catch the reactions from the audience. “[For] the people who showed up, the people who found so much value in it, [I have] so much gratitude. A lot of gratitude and a lot of joy. They were the center and everything was around them, as opposed to them trying to mold themselves into something to fit.”

Photo credit: Phillip Chin