Tadaima! Online Film Festival Curator statement
As a film programmer, I have spent the past decade of my career working on film festivals that have specialized in Japanese Cinema and the Asian American and Pacific Islander experiences on screen. While this has presented opportunities to delve into the Japanese American experience on occasion, working with Tadaima! Virtual Pilgrimage is the first time that I have been able to devote an entire festival program to the exploration of Japanese American issues and identity. As a biracial Yonsei, this is the most personal slate of films I have ever had the privilege of curating, and I am thrilled to share these titles with an international audience of Nikkei and our allies over the course of the next nine weeks.
Each of the weekly film programs adhere to the general themes of the virtual pilgrimage and are designed to complement the many other programs being offered online. There are also several key themes that weave throughout all nine weeks such as reclamation of Japanese cultural identity, overcoming intergenerational trauma, and envisioning a more inclusive and sustainable future as a community. In selecting these films, I have endeavored to show the variety and nuance within the so-called “camp genre” of Japanese American cinema. I have also expanded the scope of this project to include works by Nikkei filmmakers whose topics express solidarity with other marginalized communities, and other general history topics within the AAPI movement from the Japanese American perspective.
Beginning with the opening ceremony, we featured Robert Nakamura’s Manzanar (1972) – a meditative and visceral short documentary that explores the ruins of Manzanar less than three years after the first pilgrimage took place. This groundbreaking film that helped define a genre was paired with Pilgrimage (2006) a work by Robert’s son, Tad Nakamura, which explores the history behind the first pilgrimage to Manzanar and burgeoning pilgrimage movement. We will revisit the Nakamuras work during our closing ceremony when Robert and Tad join us for a live discussion about their new film Third Act, currently a work-in-progress.
Including Nakamura’s Manzanar, this program features several early films from the birth of the Asian American cinema movement courtesy of the archives of Visual Communications – the country’s oldest Asian American media organization based in Los Angeles Little Tokyo. Duane Kubo’s Cruisin’ J-Town (1972) explores Little Tokyo through the eyes of Dan Kuramoto – multi-instrumentalist frontman for the band Hiroshima, and Alan Kondo’s …I Told You So (1974) is a lyrical exploration of poet Lawson Inada’s works.
Art is a common theme across many films such as Hidden Legacy: Traditional Performing Arts in the WWII Internment Camps (2014) that reveals how the community used art to help cope with the difficult camp years. Another film, Masters of Modern Design: The Art of the Japanese American Experience (2019) examines the careers of Nisei luminaries such as George Nakashima and Ruth Asawa, whose careers as artists had lasting impacts on Modern design during the postwar era.
This program includes several films about the parallel experiences of Latin American Nikkei that offer a different, but relatable perspective on the events of the Second World War. Spanish language documentary Nikkei (2011) details one family’s journey from Japan to Peru to Venezuela as they fled wartime persecution in South America, while Hidden Internment: The Art Shibayama Story exposes the lesser-known extradition and subsequent incarceration of Latin American Nikkei in US concentration camps.
In addition to covering the many site-specific experiences of wartime incarceration, we also delve into the resettlement of Japanese Americans postwar – a time in which our communities were further dispersed into sparsely populated regions throughout the country. Of particular note are Relocation, Arkansas (2016) that investigates the issue of racial triangulation among the few Japanese American families who chose to resettle in the Jim Crow era Deep South, and Good Luck Soup (2016) which explores similar themes through the story of a mixed race Japanese American family in Cleveland Ohio.
We also explore stories of resilience among the Japanese American business community, whose families returned to the West Coast and resumed their trades after the war. Seed: The Life of the Rice King and His Kin (2016) tells the story of fourth generation family-owned Koda Farms. First Street North (2019) highlights longstanding family businesses Fugetsu-do and Bunkado in Little Tokyo while also exploring the relationship that its Shin-Issei (new first-generation Japanese immigrant) filmmaker has to the Japanese American incarceration narrative.
Other films invite viewers to delve into their own family histories, as the documentary subjects reclaim the lost histories behind their Japanese heritage. In Finding Dohi (2019) a Japanese Hawaiian mother and daughter journey to Japan to meet their last living relative for the first time. In A Vanished Dream (2019), biracial African American journalist Regina Boone honors her father’s dying wish by investigating the disappearance of her grandfather who was imprisoned during World War II.
Many of the films deal with the intergenerational trauma that persists within the descendants of incarceration camp survivors. Satsuki Ina’s seminal film Children of the Camps (1999) explores the lifelong impacts of trauma on childhood camp survivors in documentary format. Rea Tajiri’s Strawberry Fields (1997) – a narrative drama tells the story of a Sansei woman who journeys to Poston in an attempt to reconcile with her family’s tragic past.
Through this program we also memorialize another tragedy that took place in Japan during the last days of the war, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that will occur on August 6 and 9. The Mushroom Club (2005) offers a personal insight into filmmaker Steven Okazaki’s journey to Hiroshima amidst the 60th anniversary of the bombing. Shinpei Takeda’s Hiroshima Nagasaki Download (2011) documents a road trip along the Pacific Coast as he interviews hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) who reside in North America.
Our program also seeks to illuminate members of the Japanese American community who have been advocating alongside other communities of color for our collective liberation throughout history. America Needs a Racial Facial and The Ride – two short films from the late Jeff Adachi are particularly adept at exploring these issues. Another film titled A Hero’s Hero examines the lifelong advocacy of anti-war, civil rights, and HIV/AIDS activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya.
Even with the multitude of perspectives represented in this program, this is by no means a comprehensive filmography, and there are many great works that were not included in the festival line up. That being said, it is my hope that these films will help Japanese Americans and fellow Nikkei living in diaspora throughout the world who have experienced similar discrimination before, during, and after WWII to better understand our shared experiences.
Throughout the history of our diaspora, political and economic forces have conspired to tear our community apart. Now at a time when we must physically distance ourselves from one another amidst the global pandemic, participating in the Tadaima! Virtual Pilgrimage is a powerful reminder that we are capable of building community wherever we are. I hope this program will help continue fostering connections between our Nikkei community here in the US, and throughout the world. The Japanese American community has always been a place of great solace to me. For those of you who are just joining us, Okaeri (Welcome Home).
- Rob Buscher, Film Programmer