+ For Schema readers in Toronto, One Big Hapa Family will be playing at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival this Sunday November 14th at 4:45 PM at Innis Town Hall.

Schema Magazine Interview with Jeff Chiba Stearns from Devon Wong on Vimeo.

As the 2010 Vancouver Asian Film Festival began to wrap up, I had the pleasure of catching up with B.C. filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns in the always beautiful Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

His latest film, One Big Hapa Family, would later close the festival, but it would not be the last time we would hear about the film.

Originally from Kelowna, B.C., Chiba Stearns has already accumulated a strong online following after the recent success of his 2007 animated short, Yellow Sticky Notes. While that piece was inspired by the commonly chaotic life of a filmmaker, Chiba Stearns' newest film searches even deeper for personal inspiration—beginning with a two-year journey examining four generations of his family and the growing trend of interracial marriages within the Japanese Canadian community.

Perhaps it was the backdrop of a crisp fall morning against the traditional Chinese gardens that roused the tone of our conversation, but I couldn't contain my giddiness over how this film is so quintessentially Schema. It encompasses all of the themes that we here at Schema Magazine set our mandate to explore: race, ethnicity, nationality, identity, the dreaded "But where are you really from?" and so forth.

Chiba Stearns eloquently discusses his inspiration for the film, and what impression he hopes to make on Canada's current model of multiculturalism.

+ Watch our exclusive interview with Jeff Chiba Stearns
+ Read the review of One Big Hapa Family by Schema's Toronto Correspondent Manori Ravindran.

Schema Magazine is proud to be a community partner and supporter of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival