Much too often, the pain in the world goes overlooked; much too often, the hunger of people is unnoticed; much too often, human suffering is pushed to the wayside. As you open “I Live Here,” the quote “there are too many stories” resonates throughout the four books that are enclosed in the cover of this moving composition.
“I Live Here” by Mia Kirshner, J.B. MacKinnon Paul Shoebridge, and Michael Simmons is a moving documentary of the lives on refugees and people who have been displaced from their homes by wars or fear for their lives. The authors of the book had to travel to all corners of the globe: the war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, globalization in Mexico and AIDS in Malawi, telling the heart-wrenching stories of these people.
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Most journals are about our own little problems. But Toronto actress Mia Kirshner travelled to four desperate parts of the world to bring back the tales of the most vulnerable people, Gayle MacDonald writes
For the past seven years, Toronto actress Mia Kirshner has been obsessed with self-financing and publishing her debut book, I Live Here, a harrowing tribute to the overlooked victims of war, corrupt governments and crippling disease.
“I worked on the book – all the time,” says Kirshner, a gorgeous, dark-haired slip of a thing who started acting as an extra in low-budget television and saw her career take off after nailing roles in Love & Human Remains and Exotica.
“I drove my friends and family insane because they said it’s all I talked about. I know it’s true, and I’m sure, very annoying to be around. But it literally has been an odyssey, an obsession for me. Because once I saw how many people have sacrificed so much … well, I became obsessed,” she says with a smile.
Kirshner says all this while in town last week to present her so-called paper documentary at the International Festival of Authors. The 33-year-old explains that she became fixated with the idea of the four-part book – which took the actress and many collaborators to some of the most ravaged places in Chechnya, Myanmar, Juarez, Mexico, and Malawi – after 9/11.
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I’m a big fan of Mia Kirshner (love her portrayal of train-wreck master diva Jenny on “The L Word”) and I think she has an interesting point about the link between celebrity and activism. — Karen
If you get annoyed when actors engage in activism, Mia Kirshner is right there with you. The 33-year-old actress — who played a stripper in the revered 1994 movie “Exotica” and has worked steadily since, most often in roles as sexualized smarty-pants, like her character Jenny Schecter on “The L Word” — said recently, “I think some actors have exploited their philanthropic efforts to promote a film.”
Kirshner was saying such things because her book, “I Live Here,” released last week, is unmistakably philanthropic. Over the last six years, she traveled to four messy and malignant parts of the world — the Russian republic of Ingushetia; Burma; Juarez, Mexico; and Malawi — that have large disenfranchised populations. “I Live Here,” is the product of those trips: Its four separate volumes, one for each region, tell stories about the women and children in these places through journal entries, collages, photographs, paintings, graphic novellas and images of found objects. Kirshner wrangled many collaborators; J.B. MacKinnon, Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons are the co-authors, and there is a boatload of other contributors, including some of the subjects themselves.
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The ‘L Word’ actress reaches into her pocket to create the book ‘I Live Here,’ about troubled lives in places of upheaval.
If you get annoyed when actors engage in activism, Mia Kirshner is right there with you. The 33-year-old actress — who played a stripper in the revered 1994 movie “Exotica” and has worked steadily since, most often in roles as sexualized smarty-pants, like her character Jenny Schecter on “The L Word” — said recently, “I think some actors have exploited their philanthropic efforts to promote a film.”
Kirshner was saying such things because her book, “I Live Here,” released last week, is unmistakably philanthropic. Over the last six years, she traveled to four messy and malignant parts of the world — the Russian republic of Ingushetia; Burma; Juarez, Mexico; and Malawi — that have large disenfranchised populations. “I Live Here,” is the product of those trips: Its four separate volumes, one for each region, tell stories about the women and children in these places through journal entries, collages, photographs, paintings, graphic novellas and images of found objects. Kirshner wrangled many collaborators; J.B. MacKinnon, Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons are the co-authors, and there is a boatload of other contributors, including some of the subjects themselves.
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On a recent sunny Saturday afternoon, Jennifer Beals and Mia Kirshner met in a loft near Hastings and Clark streets in East Vancouver. The stars of The L Word weren’t there to shoot a steamy scene for the show’s sixth season. Instead, the gorgeous brunettes were celebrating the launch of Sappho Cosmetics (www.sapphocosmetics.com), a new chemical-free line from the show’s makeup artist, JoAnn Fowler, who uses this loft space as unofficial headquarters.
The Emmy-nominated Fowler, who could pass for Judi Dench’s younger sister, credits Beals and Kirshner for prompting her to start Sappho. “For a long time, I didn’t think the world needed another makeup line,” she says. That all changed when she discovered research on the effects of chemicals in cosmetic products.
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Please visit Causecast.org to read Mia’s blog entries with even more information about ‘I Live Here’ including photos, trailers and also the new I Live Here Foundation that she has set up in order to help fund creative writing programs in the areas she and her partners have visited. If you would like to donate to the foundation, you can do so through Causecast.org or through the official I Live Here website.
Thank you to Ryan at causecast.org for making this post possible.
Please be advised that the below trailers for the book contain some disturbing images and should be viewed with caution.
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Actress Mia Kirshner is probably best known for her role on the Showtime drama The L Word, but for the past several years, she’s been focusing her creative energies on the people that nobody seems to notice: women and children around the world who have been displaced, silenced and forgotten. Over the past few years, 33-year-old Kirshner has traveled to some of the most desolate and dangerous countries in the world to see and meet some of the most victimized people, in hopes of bringing the world’s attention to their plight.
One part of her commitment to bringing attention to the world of global refugees is I Live Here, an unusual collaborative graphic work that will be published by Pantheon in October. A mixed media combination of comics, photos, journals and travelogues, I Live Here is a four-segment book collection, with each section–—and each artist—focused on the personal and social trauma of displaced people in a different country. Much acclaimed comics journalist Joe Sacco, creator of Palestine, produces a graphic novel that examines war-torn Ingushetia, Chechnya; comics memoirist Phoebe Gloeckner examines the serial killing of women in Juarez, Mexico; French-Algerian artist Kamel Khélif surveys ethnic killing in Burma and Thailand; and finally, there’s a children’s story by author J.B. McKinnon and artist Julie Morstad that tackles the AIDS epidemic the African country of Malawi. Other writer-contributors include Chris Abani, nonfiction writer Karen Connelly and short story writer Lauren Kirschner.
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I received an email from a publicist from Pantheon earlier tonight with the following information and photos pertaining to I Live Here and wanted to share them with you guys. I cannot wait for the release of this book!
I LIVE HERE (Pantheon Books/October 14, 2008/$29.95) is a visually stunning paper documentary, in which the lives of refugees and displaced people become at once personal and universal. It is a raw and intimate journey to crises in four corners of the world: war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, globalization in Mexico, and AIDS in Malawi.
The voices we encounter are those of displaced women and children, told in their own words or by noted writers and artists, including Joe Sacco, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Phoebe Gloeckner, Chris Abani, and many others. Threaded throughout these accounts is Mia Kirshner’s intimate travel narrative, brought vividly to life in collaboration with writer J.B. MacKinnon and designers Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons.
This groundbreaking book is but one element of a larger project known as the I Live Here Foundation, committed to establishing creative writing programs for marginalized people. Further information is available at i-live-here.com.
There is a 2 page article in the September 2008 issue of Glamour magazine (Penelope Cruz on the cover) about Mia and her work on her book I Live Here. I picked it up yesterday and it’s a really great, though rather short, read and includes photos and artwork from the book. I will have scans available as soon as I can, though it may be a little while as I am having some issues with my scanner and I’m getting ready to move in a couple of weeks.
Thanks to Johanna for the heads up on this. 
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