Sakamoto’s CBC series up for two Canadian Screen Awards
By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on March 31, 2021.
ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com
Mark Sakamoto woke up to good news Tuesday morning – his series Good People is nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards: best factual series and best writing for a factual series.
“Good People is a series that really looks to introduce audiences to actual solutions to what seem like insurmountable problems,” said Sakamoto. “Whether that be gun violence, the opioid crisis or homelessness, we get lost in the numbers and lose sight of the fact that people in places can actually solve these problems. So, we really wanted to amplify that.”
The series has five episodes and can be streamed on CBC Gem. Sakamoto was also the executive director of the show, which was produced through his production company SakaMedia Inc.
In the first episode Sakamoto investigates the homelessness crisis in Hamilton, Ont., before looking to Medicine Hat’s Housing First approach as a solution.
“That episode is probably the nearest and dearest to my heart,” he said. “We were able to introduce audiences to the solution that was produced in my hometown Medicine Hat. We went and met with community leaders, the mayor and folks have really proven that the notion of housing as a human right is not only the kind thing to do, but it’s also economically the smart thing to do.”
Sakamoto was born and raised in Medicine Hat but lives in Toronto with his family.
This is Sakamoto’s first Canadian Screen Awards nomination and first time on camera as a host, but he previously won the Canada Reads award in 2018 for his book Forgiveness.
He says you work closely with others on these types of projects and he is happy to work with great people – including Nik Sexton and Tom Stanley who co-wrote the series with him.
“I’m really happy that their work and their artistry is being recognized,” said Sakamoto. ” … I’m super grateful to CBC who has really offered me this opportunity and we ran with it.”
Sakamoto adds he was honoured to tell the stories of people affected by the problems they investigated throughout the series.
“In every episode there was always good people doing good work, but the really great people were the ones in the thick of the problems: the folks that were homeless and just through shear grit survived and went on to find housing, or finding a way out of an opioid addiction,” he said. “Those folks were really the jewels of this show and I do hope folks can … introduce themselves to those really inspiring people.”
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