Common Law, film by Kagan Goh

Help us make Common Law, a 30-minute short film which reveals the damaging effects of rigid government policies on disability benefits and combat the social stigma against those living with mental health diagnoses. This narrative film is based on my own lived experience dealing with the social services system as a citizen living with manic depression, who also had a common law partner.

Common Law is a family drama in which an Asian-Canadian man with manic depression struggles to survive in a world built to work against him. The film chronicles a turbulent time in our protagonist, Kagan's, life when he is rejected for disability benefits due to his common law status.

Common Law is currently in pre-production and ready to go to camera in July 2023. The film is slated for festival release in October 2023. We have already secured 79% of the film budget, including support from the BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, and the Kettle Friendship Society.

Help us raise the remaining funds needed to make this film a reality.

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“The truths shared in this film will speak with and for the many who have lived, are living or will live under the same harsh judgment of non-acceptance due to mental health challenges.” - Susanna Uchatius, Artistic Director, Theatre Terrific

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Project Vision

My name is Kagan Goh. Originally from Singapore, I am a Vancouver-based Chinese Canadian multidisciplinary Mad Artist: award-winning filmmaker, published author, spoken word poet, playwright, actor, mental health advocate and activist. I was diagnosed with manic depression in 1993. I am making Common Law because I really want the world to understand the damaging effects of the stigma on mental illness. On top of the mental illness itself, the stigma adds to the hardship for people like me. The film dramatizes painful memories of family altercations and relationship breakups resulting from impersonal laws and government regulations, which further isolates and disenfranchises mental health survivors even more than they already are.

Common Law is a short story adapted from my memoir, Surviving Samsara, which recounts my struggles with manic depression, and breaking the silence around mental illness, published by Caitlin Press in 2021. Surviving Samsara was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize 2022 in the creative nonfiction in English category. FYI, I am currently in the process of adapting my memoir Surviving Samsara into a TV series. The proposed TV series is currently in development.

I am the son of Goh Poh Seng—a doctor and Singaporean literary pioneer, poet, novelist, and playwright— similarly I discovered myself as a writer, returning time and again to the written word to express my emotions and experiences as I struggled with the exhilarating highs and frightening lows that characterize manic depression.

My father, Goh Poh Seng, once predicted that the stories I was writing about my lived experience with mental illness, the life of our family, his struggle with Parkinson's disease, my mother, Margaret Joyce Wong's courageous struggle with terminal pancreatic cancer, my chronicling the East Van bohemian spoken word/slam poetry artistic scene on Commercial Drive our colourful and eccentric neighbourhood, our house on Victoria Drive and the back alley where I used to pick a bouquet of wildflowers for my girlfriend as I walked uphill back home singing love songs, McSpadden Park near our home where my mother used to sit on a bench from sunset to sundown chain-smoking cigarettes crying uncontrollably because she was the lone caretaker of her husband who had Parkinson’s, and her son who suffers from mental illness — all these stories I was writing my father predicted would make our house and neighbourhood famous one day so much so he predicted that there would be walking tours of our neighbourhood. Now with the successful publication of my memoir Surviving Samsara, the making of my upcoming film Common Law, and the possibility of the Surviving Samsara TV series, my father's predictions seem to be coming true!

Please make a donation and also forward this post to your colleagues, extensive friends, relatives and family members and anyone whom you think may be interested in finding out about my father, Goh Poh Seng, and my mother, Margaret Joyce Wong’s lives after they left Singapore and emigrated to Canada —please donate to support the making of my film Common Law.

With Common Law, I hope to combat the societal stigma, prejudice, and discrimination that people with mental health challenges face on a daily basis, and expose the harm they can do. Rarely is a film about mental illness actually made by someone who has actually gone through it. You can help us change that with this project.

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“Goh's work has the courage to face into the heartbreaking realities of madness, poverty, sexism and racism without going numb or bitter. Instead…he lets compassion come through the broken heart and shapes it into art that is both elegant and tender…” - Tom Sandborn, critic, reviewer, investigative journalist

Why this particular project now?

Today in the news and media with anti-stigma campaigns like Bell’s Let’s Talk, there is a lot of talk about society wanting to fight the stigma against people with mental illness. According to an article entitled “Tackling the stigma of mental illness among Asian men” by Douglas Todd: “Many men in North America feel pressure to succeed and provide for their families. Many men, as well as boys, fear being seen as weak. When they’re struggling emotionally, they often feel shame. It makes them reluctant to seek psychological help. What’s more, when the man is of Asian origin, all those factors are magnified. As a result, there can be a strong stigma in Asian-Canadian cultures against men dealing head-on with mental health difficulties, either their own or those of family members. But it’s been documented that men tend not to seek help as frequently as women. And that can be compounded for new Canadians and males of Asian background.

It’s estimated roughly one out of four Canadians will at some time suffer from a form of mental illness. Since 43 percent of the population of Metro Vancouver has Asian origins, this problem is especially prevalent in B.C. The subject of this film is highly relevant to many people’s lives, not just those with a mental illness but also their friends, relatives and family. Mental illness is so widespread that no one’s life is untouched by it. Common Law tackles issues of stigma, discrimination and prejudice against people with mental illness, and makes tangible an experience that is typically internal and invisible.

Kagan Goh’s film Common Law is seen from a Chinese Canadian man’s refreshingly honest, frank, sensitive and transparent point of view. As an Asian-Canadian man struggling with manic depression or bipolar mood disorder, by telling his story Kagan is breaking the silence of the taboo subject of mental illness prevalent within the Asian-Canadian community.

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Cast & Crew

We have a stellar cast and crew that is as eclectic and diverse as the East Van neighbourhood in which the story takes place, including: Berlin Lu as Kagan, Clare Filipow as Daniela, Henry J. Mah as Dad (Goh Poh Seng), Winnie Hung as Mom (Margaret), Kristof Gillese as Daniela's father (Oscar), and Jeff Mohs as Dr. Curé.

Equally instrumental to the success of the project are those behind the scenes: Andy Wong, Yun-Jou Chang, Holly Vestad, Marc Yungco, Rachel Qin, Mik Narciso, Malcolm Noel Dow, Candelario Andrade and many, many others.

More than a film, Common Law is an invitation to conversation and a vision for a kinder future for those living with mental health diagnoses. Please support this meaningful project by making a donation.

I need your help to raise the remaining funds which will help me to tell the story in a way that is faithful to my life, the life of my parents, and the creative vision that has been in my mind, heart and soul for more than 20 years.

Thank you for your generosity.