For Roy

'For Roy' was inspired by my family's experiences of folding cranes at the hospice and losing my dad at a young age in 2007. When he was given 3 days to live after 5 years of battling cancer, we began to fold a thousand cranes, as the legend goes, to earn a wish for my dad, Roy. 3 days turned to 3 weeks, and so my dad was transferred to a hospice, which is where the film begins. Although the film revolves around dying, it is truly a film about life, the joys and oddities of growing up in a hospital/hospice setting. If there's something I learned and want people to know, there's more to grieving than crying 24/7.

Seeing a lack of representation of terminal illness of loved ones from a child's perspective as well as the lack of Asian-Canadian voices in films of this genre, I was driven to add my personal narrative to show support and solidarity for survivors of cancer patients, but also to honour my father's memory and our honest bond as father and daughter on the 15 year anniversary of his passing.

In order to immerse the audience in my unique personal experiences, we brought in many real-life elements to ground the story in honesty and bring people visually and emotionally to a place not often seen to audiences. This includes the original one thousand cranes folded by friends of family that visited Roy in 2007, the exterior of the hill and hospice that we trenched up and down everyday, his camera that he used to capture family memories and the videos messages that he recorded for his children before his passing, and the family clock that was present the morning he passed. In addition to physical accuracy, we recreated the imaginary scenarios that I would use as a kid to cope with my dad's illness and passing, as well as highlighting unique memorable visitors and their haunting words that heavily shaped my childhood.

An ode to my younger self, I can't wait to share with you me and my family's incredible story. We hope to inspire more open conversations about loss and grief, especially within Asian communities and younger audiences, and to bring more representation and advocacy of children experiencing loss of loved ones - something I longed to see growing up.