Subscribe

ProjectsRefuge Ten Thousand Roses In the Shadow of Gold MountainDiasopra Eve Love is a Four-Letter WordSyndicated LifeThe Cardboard Spaceship

Ten Thousand Roses -
Director's Journal :

Synopsis
Production Info
Photos & Clips
Director's Journal

Ten Thousand Roses (In Development)
Writer/Director: Karen Cho
Producers:  Productions Virage, National Film Board of Canada

Director's Statement:
As a filmmaker, I am interested in stories of struggle, triumph, and change. Much of my work has dealt with issues of identity, human rights, social justice, and the re-telling of history from unique and often ignored perspectives. The story of Ten Thousand Roses is one that I am deeply passionate about. The themes, issues and struggles that will be explored in the film are akin to the subjects that I have developed through my work and will also allow me to expand and deepen my voice as a filmmaker.

Ten Thousand Roses is a multi-faceted and fascinating account of the remarkable achievements, challenges and experiences of the Canadian women’s movement. I am truly energized and inspired by the potential of this film to evoke the dynamic history of Canada’s and Quebec’s second wave of feminism while also exploring the present-day struggles of younger women and men of who are working for women’s rights and social change.

Although the feminist movement may have been well documented in the United States, in Canada and Quebec, its unique achievements and significant efforts have not been amply acknowledged in the “pages” of our history. Likewise, the movement is often regarded as a white, upper-middle-class women’s struggle ignoring the substantial contributions and leadership that women of colour, aboriginal women, working-class women, women with disabilities, and lesbian women gave to the struggle. 

Ten Thousand Roses is a story that must be told before its wealth of first-hand experience, retrospection, and lived memory are gone. This is a project that strikes at the core of both female and Canadian/Quebecoise identity. It is a rare “herstory” telling of events that brought fourth a revolution and forever changed the status of women in this country. Yet for many Canadians and Quebecers as well as younger generation women, it is still an unknown story.

I speak from the perspective of that younger generation, a generation that does not question pursuing a career, being entitled to legal equality, pay equity or the right to choose.  However, the women of my generation know so little of what came before: of the battles that were fought, the changes that were made, or the precedents that were set through the struggles of the women before us.

When I first read Ten Thousand Roses, I was surprised to learn that so many of the rights, freedoms and choices that I now enjoy were non existent for the women of my mother’s generation. I became acutely conscious of the fact that so much of how I identify myself as a woman is a direct result of the advances that were made by the second wave of feminism in this country. Rights and privileges that I take for granted were the fruit of hard-fought crusades waged by courageous women across the country who crossed social, political, linguistic, and cultural barriers to fight for a common cause. I was astonished at how far the movement had come and how unique and successful Canada’s and Quebec’s women’s movement was.

Yet at the same time I questioned why I didn’t know more about this rich history. Why it was not talked about, celebrated, debated and acknowledged? I also questioned if feminism had brought about profound changes to the structures of culture and society, or rather, did only women’s rights (in the law books) change?

Certainly, the experiences of many women have been forever transformed through the changes realized by second wave feminism. However, the majority of the women who have benefited most from these changes belong to the places of privilege within our society. There is still a long way to go for the women who lie on the margins of society and who face the harshest levels of discrimination. I’m truly inspired by the young women I am meeting, those of the would-be “Third Wave.” They are transforming the movement into something that speaks to the realities of our present-day generation. The Third Wave acknowledges and understands that women don’t experience discrimination/oppression/violence solely because of their gender, but due to a “multiplicity of reasons*” including race, sexual orientation, class, disability etc. Young women are expanding on the language of feminism by using “intersectionality as a tool to discuss and create change within feminism and feminist activism.

Why is the mainstream media so quick to proclaim that feminism is “dead” when countless women of my generation continue to fight against the barriers to equality that remain? I’m beginning to find cracks in the commercially-packaged veneer of the “feminism is dead” rhetoric…beneath the surface lies an undercurrent of strong, engaged, and active young women and men making the connections, pushing for social change and unwilling to accept the myth that we’ve arrived at true equality.

As Judy Rebick so eloquently put it in her book, “remembering how far we have come in a single generation is also a way of making sure we never go back.” Ten Thousand Roses is a documentary that will explore the struggles of a generation of women who dared to speak out and affect change. However, it is also a story that speaks true to today’s social struggles. How will the present generation take the knowledge of the past and apply it to our own revolution?
 
I am inspired by the wealth of history, experience and knowledge found in the pages of Ten Thousand Roses. More so than a film about women coming together to fight for their rights, it is a film about community, courage, and social change. It is a narrative that must be recounted, celebrated, and used to inspire a new generation of young social activists – both male and female.

- Karen Cho