MEET AND EAT AT LEE’S GARDEN

Nominated for a 2022 Canadian Screen Award for Best History Documentary Program or Series, the documentary is a social and historical look at what Chinese restaurants meant to the Chinese and Jewish communities in the 1950s. It is available for streaming in Canada only on CBC Gem. 

When I was a kid, my second home was our restaurant, Lee’s Garden. My father opened it in 1951  and operated it for about 20 years until he retired in the early 1970s. I started working there on Sundays when I was in elementary school and it became my summer job during high school.   The restaurant is the inspiration for many of my stories. It’s where I heard my father and the Greek and Jewish customers tell stories about immigrating to Canada. These stories were little gems as my parents didn’t talk much about their past, so I sat there quietly, listening as they talked and laughed about the people they knew, the jobs they had and the discrimination they faced. I only gleaned little details here and there and could never connect the whole story until a friend’s chance remark made me realize that the restaurant was more than just a way for my parents to make a living.

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Distributed by Filmoption International.