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PODCAST: Arnold Lim, award-winning filmmaker and photojournalist

TODAY IN B.C.: Film ‘My Name is Arnold’ earns widespread accolades
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Arnold Lim. (Black Press Media photo)

You will find ‘Today in B.C.’ podcasts on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart and Google podcasts.

Host Peter McCully chats with Black Press Media journalist and award-winning filmmaker, Arnold Lim.

Lim’s parents moved to Canada from South Korea with just $5 in their pocket. When Arnold was born, his father put aside a certain amount of money to buy a camera to document his growth.

“When I was 16, he gave that camera to me. I remember that moment and thinking to myself, ‘I am going to be a photographer one day. I’m going to tell stories through a lens,’” said Lim.

Directing the feature film All in Madonna, which won numerous awards in 2020, Lim has followed it with his own story My Name is Arnold. It details the story of when he was 10 years old growing up in Blue River, B.C.

“I was the only Asian kid in the school, and it wasn’t always an easy experience,” he said. “People would hit me; they would call me names. No one cared, no one did anything. I didn’t do anything. It was a time where I went to school angry almost every single day. Maybe to process that and maybe for cathartic reasons, I wrote a short, I called it, My Name is Arnold.”

My Name is Arnold recently won awards at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, for Best Overall Short Film and Best Performance.

Lim has worked as a photo manager at the last four Olympic Games and tells McCully of his experience in Japan and China during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“(In Japan) The rooms are so tiny over there, I was getting claustrophobic,” said Lim “We weren’t allowed to leave the room. So, we got stuck in the room and they were giving us food, three meals a day, a bottle of water with every meal. We couldn’t go anywhere. It was so challenging. And then when I was in China, when you go to eat or go into the restaurants, everyone is wearing those white hazmat suits. So, you’re the only one not wearing that. So, the foreigners are put into a hotel and then they have people in hazmat suits feeding you. It’s a really surreal experience.”

If you have suggestions or comments, send a voice message to podcast@blackpress.ca you may be part of our audio podcast mailbag segment.

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Peter McCully

About the Author: Peter McCully

Peter has been a broadcaster and publisher on both of Canada’s coasts and has owned a small newspaper and run an advertising agency along the way.
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