SUBMITTED PHOTO JEFF NOON
Hatter Mark Sakamoto films part of the first episode of his new TV show in downtown Medicine Hat in 2018. His show 'Good People' will debut in March on CBC.
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@MHNmocranker
Winning CBC’s Canada Reads in 2018 was apparently just the start for Mark Sakamoto.
The born-and-raised Hatter was able to announce recently that he now has his own show on the CBC – something he didn’t really see coming.
“I was doing so much media work after Canada Reads with Jeanne Becker – I guess they liked what they saw,” he said. “CBC approached me with an opportunity to create and host a television show – they really gave me an incredible amount of creative freedom and leeway on this.
“After our first meeting they told me to assemble a team and to come back with an idea – that’s what I did.”
After Rick Mercer retired from hosting his show on CBC, Sakamoto approached his team and was quickly able to assemble a super team of directors and producers he was excited to work with.
“They’re some of the best in Canada at what they do,” he said. “I produced this with VICE media and we went off and created something I’m really proud of.”
The show, which Sakamoto hosts, is called ‘Good People’ and it has him travelling across North America during its first season, which lasts five, 30-minute episodes. It will air on CBC in March as well as the streaming service GEM.
“Every episode I travel to a place that is experiencing a significant and widespread problem,” he said. “The issues range from homelessness, opioid addiction and gun violence – we go there and meet the people struggling with these issues.
“We try and uncover why it’s an issue in this area and then we scour the world and look for a place that has come to terms with that issue.
“We really look for hopeful places and for solutions – it’s amazing what we found.”
Sakamoto says filming the five episodes was eye-opening.
“Every time we got to a place with an issue I felt it just couldn’t be fixed – it was so overwhelming,” he said. “When we left the place that showed signs of solutions, I felt genuine hope every single time.
“These insurmountable problems are absolutely solvable.”
“Between the Cracks” is the name of the first episode and it holds a special spot in Sakamoto’s heart.
“That’s probably my favourite episode and it’s on homelessness,” he said. “We started by looking at tent cities in Hamilton, Ont. and it felt like you were walking into an episode of an apocalyptic television show. The people there were some of the strongest people I’ve met.
“Medicine Hat has done a ton of work on this issue so I made it my ‘solution’ city for the first episode.”
The Crescent Heights High School grad and his team filmed the bulk of the show in late 2018 and 2019. He says the Medicine Hat episode takes a look at housing first.
“The housing first initiative has been around for quite a while,” he said. “I was able to sit down with Jamie Rogers, who is the manager of homeless and housing development, and her team, to see the kind of care they provide to people who need housing.
“Medicine Hat isn’t the most likely place for this to happen, but the work that has been done is incredible.”
Sakamoto says the show aims to share a message of hope.
“We want to show that people are able to turn around their lives,” he said. “There’s actually a lyric by Leonard Cohen that reads, ‘there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in,’ and I saw so many people living in dark circumstances just surviving day to day.
“It was their resilience that was so apparent and you could tell they were hanging on and waiting for that crack and that light to appear.”
Sakamoto says to watch the CBC for advertising in the coming weeks for ‘Good People.’
