Streams Flow From A River: Opening conversations about mental health in the Asian-Canadian community
Isabella West, Staff Writer
A new Canadian drama series is coming to Super Channel on April 1 called Streams Flow From A River. The short form series follows the story of an Asian-Canadian family that are brought back together because of a stroke within the family. After being trapped together by a snowstorm in rural Alberta, the family is then forced to confront past traumas that had previously tore them apart.
“Inevitably, things flow down from generation to generation and as kids, we understand our parents so much better than they think we do. You know, we see the little cracks and we see how human they are,” said director Christopher Yip in explaining the title of the series.
After the family is stuck together, forced to face their past conflicts, the series goes on to explore the invisible struggles immigrant families face while trying to be successful in the West.
Some of Yip’s inspiration for the series comes from personal experiences within his family when his grandfather had a stroke. Yip said that seeing the difference between his own reaction compared to his fathers highlighted “a gap between intergenerational” approaches to grief, of which he wanted to explore.
From this, Yip developed the series as a way to “start a conversation in the Asian community about mental health and bridge the gap between generations of younger and older immigrants and Asian folks,” said Yip.
With the rise of anti-Asian hate amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as seen through personal experiences, Yip wanted to create a series that could help “to center and celebrate Asian folks” as a way to get to a point where there won’t be a need to “humanize racialized people because we’re people like anybody else,” said Yip.
Although it takes extra work and effort to consider other perspectives when it comes to the film industry, Yip said that it’s worth it “for people who haven’t had that opportunity to shine, [to] be seen,” because they deserve to make a “mark in history too.”
As the first ever digital series to be included, Streams Flow From A River premiered at the Canadian Film Fest on March 28. The series will be available for viewing on Super Channel on April 1. Super Channel is available within most cable providers, as well as streaming live and On Demand with Amazon Prime Video Channels and Apple TV.
