One woman's literary mission -Actor-turned-author shines light on world's dark places

Toronto-born Mia Kirshner, who stars in 'The L Word,' paid an impressive roster of contributors out of her own pocket to produce the “paper documentary” 'I Live Here,' which she will present on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008, as part of the International Festival of Authors.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/521600

Why one rising star turned her attention away from Hollywood to focus on the plight of the world's oppressed

Oct 23, 2008 04:30 AM
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Bruce DeMara
Entertainment Report

Mia Kirshner isn't your typical self-absorbed Hollywood celebrity.

While her competition was busy blitzing the L.A. circuit for coveted roles over the past several years, the Toronto-born actor was travelling to some of the darkest corners of the world to shine light on the plight of child soldiers and prisoners, war refugees and women struggling against long odds for survival.

The result is I Live Here, a harrowing, moving and memorable book, chronicling in four volumes the lives of refugee families living in troubled Ingushetia and war-torn Chechnya as a result of Russian military intervention; the struggles of Karen refugees and child soldiers pressed into military service by the Burmese military junta; the ongoing devastation in Malawi as a result of AIDS; and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where more than 400 young women have been tortured and murdered over the past decade while the government and a corrupt police force turn a blind eye.



Kirshner will present this "paper documentary" on Saturday, along with fellow contributors Karen Connelly and Lauren Kirshner, Mia's younger sister, as part of the 10-day International Festival of Authors, which kicked off yesterday.

The actor-turned-author called her decision to create the project "a light-bulb moment."

"I felt like, creatively, I was just not inspired. I was also becoming frustrated ... that I knew very little about how most of the world lived," said Kirshner, 33, a regular on the cable series The L Word who began her career in 1993 playing a dominatrix in Love and Human Remains and has had a steady stream of film and television roles since.

The idea for the project came in the aftermath of the 9-11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. in 2001, she said, as she struggled to make sense of the world.

"Sept. 11 happened and I was, as most people were and are, just very frightened about the direction of the world and the ways things appeared to be going. I became quite frightened at the level of my own ignorance," she added.

After a year of research, Kirshner brought together a range of collaborators, including writers J.B. McKinnon and Ann-Marie McDonald, comic-book author Joe Sacco and numerous other artists to create a book that, using first-person accounts, original art and prose, is uniquely evocative in its presentation of the life-and-death struggles of marginalized people.

She bankrolled the entire book, paying for the travel and the salaries of co-writers Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons, even having to take out a bank loan.

"The real reason I didn't ask for money is I just felt like it's my first book, I didn't really know if it was going to work and I didn't want to take someone's money and not be proud of the result," Kirshner said.

Fortunately, she's pleased with the final package.

"I feel I've never done anything very well in my life and I'm really proud of this and I'm proud of the fact so many artists came together for this. It's the best thing I've done with my life, for sure," she said.

Among the greatest dangers she faced: crossing the jungle border from Thailand back and forth into Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar), where she documented stories of women forced into brothels and boys stolen from families to become soldiers.

"Please print this: a massive f--- you to the Burmese government," she said defiantly.

Kirshner and her fellow travellers encountered deprivation, fear, horror and, too often, great sorrow.

"There were moments of like, `What am I doing? This is nuts.' There were times ... when I was deeply devastated. There were levels of grief," she said.

"Juarez was the worst, it was awful. The Mexican government has done nothing and it's been over 10 years," she said.

But along with grief came, surprisingly, inspiration and hope.

"I thought at the end of it, there would be this hole inside of me. But actually what I found with most people that I met was they ... weren't complaining and were making the very best of what they have. That to me was really incredible," Kirshner said.

"You can look at it two ways; you can either be crushed by it or you can look at ... these people, who are actually incredibly positive and inspiring to me and giving me a kick in the butt to get my own life together. That's the way I look at it."

While royalties for the book will go to Amnesty International, the experience also prompted Kirshner to create the I Live Here Foundation. Its first project will be to fund a literacy/writing program for orphaned children living in a Malawi prison whose sole request was for a soccer ball.

Kirshner also plans future books to look at other dark places in the world – Pakistan, Iran, Colombia are on the short list – and to bring the stories of oppressed people to a worldwide audience.

"I'm passionate and much more directed and much more sure of why I did (the book) and what I want to do now," she added.



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Just the facts
WHAT: Mia Kirshner, Karen