It's been almost been 4 years since I first started out on my journey to create my first feature length documentary, One Big Hapa Family. It has been a true labor of love!
Here is the synopsis:
After a realization at a family reunion, half Japanese-Canadian filmmaker, Jeff Chiba Stearns, embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find out why everyone in his Japanese-Canadian family married interracially after his grandparents’ generation.
This feature live action and animated documentary explores why almost 100% of all Japanese-Canadians are marrying interracially, the highest out of any other ethnicity in Canada, and how their mixed children perceive their unique multiracial identities.
The stories from four generations of a Japanese-Canadian family come to life through the use of innovative animation techniques created by some of Canada’s hottest independent animators, including, Louise Johnson, Ben Meinhardt, Todd Ramsay, Kunal Sen, Jeff Chiba Stearns, and Jonathan Ng. One Big Hapa Family challenges our perceptions of purity and makes us question if mixing is the end of multiculturalism as we know it.
