JESSICA ANTOLA DEBUTS HER SECOND SHORT FILM, "MY GODMOTHER KYO"

In her films, Jessica loves telling stories through portraits, spaces, and objects. She brought the story of her mom, a fashionable lifelong jet setter, to life with her first short, “My Mother’s Shangri-La.” And now she’s turned her attention to another seminal woman in her life, her godmother, Kyo. “Kyo is like my second mother. This film reflects on her life as she approaches her 92nd birthday. She emigrated from Japan to British Columbia as a child, growing up as a Japanese National during WWII, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent establishment of the Japanese internment camps, which imprisoned over 132,000 Japanese Americans and Canadians along the west coast of North America. 

Kyo persevered through the anti-Japanese world around her, never losing her sense of optimism. I treasure her pearls of wisdom and her positive outlook on life, which has carried her through marriage, divorce, cancer, and the isolation of the pandemic. She is always there to tell me, 'Accept what comes because we never know—life can change so quickly.’

This film, like ‘My Mother’s Shangri-La,’ is told through her memories and surroundings.”