Browse > Genre > Documentary
262 articles
Chrysanthemums and Salt (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Immigrant experience, Importance of community, Self-reliance
- Available
Documentary film by Dianne Fukami on the Japanese American community in San Mateo, California, from its late 1800s origins to the outbreak of World War II. As hinted at by the film's title, Chrysanthemums and Salt largely focuses on two of the major industries that employed Japanese Americans before the war, growing and marketing chrysanthemums and salt companies that took advantage of the region's natural suitability for salt evaporation ponds. The film also covers Japanese American community life, the role of the churches and the outbreak of World War II and the reaction to the subsequent forced removal. Chrysanthemums and Salt is notable for including interviews with several Issei , conducted in Japanese with translated voiceovers. "Host" Jane Yanehiro narrates the film and also appears on camera.
Eyewitness: Stan Honda: Reflections of a Photojournalist (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, Biography
- Expression through art, Facing darkness
- Widely available
Short documentary film about photojournalist Stan Honda, who gained fame for the photographs he took of the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Fighting for Justice: The Coram Nobis Cases (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Convention and rebellion, Evils of racism, Injustice, Power of the past
- Limited availability
Documentary film that provides a short overview of the coram nobis cases , based on interviews with attorneys Dale Minami , Peggy Nagae , and Rod Kawakami and television footage of other key figures.
Legacy of the Nisei: Stories of Japanese American Internment and World War II Veterans (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy, Heroism - real and perceived, Role of men, Injustice, Evils of racism
- Limited availability
The second video produced by the San Leandro Public Library built around interviews with Japanese American veterans and former concentration camp inmates from the San Francisco Bay area.
An American Story: World War II Stories of the Tragedy and Triumph of Our Japanese-American Community During Wartime (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Importance of community
- Widely available
Video on the World War II odyssey of Japanese Americans from the Watsonville area based on interviews with survivors of that time. The video was part of a larger project that also included a curriculum guide/lesson plan kit for teachers and an interactive video kiosk available for display by community organizations. The project was sponsored by the Watsonville Public Library and Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League and funded by a $14,000 grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program . The film's premiere screening took place on August 27, 2011. [1]
Point of Departure (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Expression through art, Power of the past, Rebirth
- Widely available
Short documentary film that highlights the creation of interpretive artworks at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial in 2022. Featuring interviews with Bainbridge Island incarceration survivor Lilly Kitamoto Kodama and artists Anna Brones and Luc Revel, we see the fabrication of the pieces and their installation, concluding with their September 2022 dedication. The film was funded by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation and City of Bainbridge Island.
Omoiyari: A Song Film by Kishi Bashi (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, Biography, Music
- Expression through art, Identity crisis, Power of the past
- Widely available
Feature length musical documentary film that follows singer/songwriter Kishi Bashi as he writes and performs songs from a project inspired by the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.
Conscience and the Constitution (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Convention and rebellion, Illusion of power, Injustice, Power of the past, Rights - individual or societal
- Widely available
Influential documentary film that tells the story of the draft resistance movement at Heart Mountain . Journalist Frank Abe produced, directed, and wrote the hour-long film, which was released in 2000.
Jimmy Murakami-Non Alien (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Expression through art, Power of the past
- Widely available
Irish documentary filmmaker Sé Merry Doyle's profile of expatriate Nisei animator, filmmaker, and artist Jimmy Murakami.
Baseball Behind Barbed Wire (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Power of the past, Role of men
- Widely available
Documentary film on baseball in camp with a particular focus on the story of Issei baseball pioneer Kenichi Zenimura and Gila River . Filmmaker Yuriko Gamo Romer builds the story around interviews with Nisei Baseball Research Project Director Kerry Yo Nakagawa and Zenimura biographer Bill Staples, Jr., along with archival interviews with Tets Furukawa and Howard Kenso Zenimura, two Nisei who played under Zenimura, the latter interviews being augmented by Sabina Kariat's animation.
Lessons in Loyalty: One American's Internment Camp Experience (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Power of the past, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Documentary film that profiles Masaji "Mas" Inoshita, a Nisei who was forcibly removed and incarcerated with his family at the Gila River , Arizona, camp during World War II and who subsequently served with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team . Lessons in Loyalty is built around interviews with Inoshita and also includes scenes of him visiting the Gila River site and speaking to a class about his experiences. Karen Leong, a professor at Arizona State University, provides the historical context. The film was produced by Ray Gonzales for the City of Chandler, Arizona in 2007.
An Alien Place: The Fort Missoula Detention Camp, 1941–1944 (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Facing darkness, Injustice, War – glory, necessity, pain, tragedy
- Widely available
Documentary film by Kimberly Hogberg on the Fort Missoula Detention Camp that covers the history of the Italian seamen and Issei community leaders who were imprisoned there during World War II.
The Ito Sisters (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Evils of racism, Family – blessing or curse, Immigrant experience, Role of women
- No availability
Documentary on three Nisei sisters from Central California who lived to see their beiju (88th birthday) celebration, exploring their lives to the end of World War II.
Community in Conflict: The Santa Fe Internment Camp Marker (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Change versus tradition, Patriotism – positive side or complications, Power of the past
- Available
Documentary film on the contentious effort to build a historical marker at the site of the Santa Fe Internment Camp in the late 1990s.
Visible Target (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Injustice, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Progress – real or illusion
- Widely available
Documentary film on the forced removal of Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island , Washington. Cris Anderson and John de Graaf produced Visible Target in 1984 for Seattle public television station KCTS, making it one of the earliest documentaries to tackle the exclusion and incarceration of Japanese Americans.
... I Told You So (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Expression through art, Importance of community, Power of words
- Widely available
Early documentary film produced by the Asian American arts organization Visual Communications that profiles the Sansei poet Lawson Fusao Inada . Shot in black and white, the film follows Inada through the streets of Fresno where he recites poetry from his 1971 book Before the War: poems as they happened over music by June and Dan Kuramoto, visiting friends and the family fish market. Later, he is shown working with other Asian American writers/editors on a new literary anthology (that will be published as Aiiieeeee!: An Anthology of Asian American Writers ), at work teaching at Southern Oregon University and walking among the ruins at the Tule Lake site. Between the poetry, Inada talks about his upbringing in Fresno where he related more to Chicano and African American classmates than to Japanese Americans, his family background, and the impact of wartime incarceration. No director, producer or writer is listed in …
"Putting Them Where They Could Do No Harm" (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Evils of racism, Heartbreak of betrayal, Power of words
- Widely available
Short film that makes the case for renaming Fletcher Bowron Square in downtown Los Angeles, named after the wartime mayor of Los Angeles who agitated for the removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Eschewing narration, the film uses Bowron's wartime radio addresses (voiced by Maciek Kolodziejeczak) as evidence of his anti-Japanese and pro-exclusion stance, juxtaposed with excerpts from Japanese Americans testifying about their wartime experiences in clips from testimony before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians . The film ends with many examples of entities whose names have been changed in recent years due to changing societal attitudes towards race, before calling for the renaming of Fletcher Bowron Square. The title comes from one of Bowron's radio addresses.
Six Weddings and a Dress (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Power of the past, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Short documentary film centering on Chiyomi Ogawa, a Nisei woman who had been incarcerated in Manzanar , and her wedding dress, which was subsequently used by five other women in the early postwar years.
Honor Bound: A Personal Journey (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Heroism - real or perceived, Power of the past
- Available
Documentary film that tells the story of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team through the story of one soldier, Haruo Howard "Howe" Hanamura, and his daughter, television reporter Wendy Hanamura, who travel to Europe in October 1994 for 50th anniversary ceremonies of the liberation of Bruyeres and Biffontaine by the 442nd. The film was produced by the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS) and KPIX, San Francisco, where Wendy Hanamura was a news reporter. After debuting on KPIX on March 5, 1995, it went on to be shown on over 100 PBS stations.
Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Expression through art, Quest for discovery, Rebirth
- Widely available
Documentary profile of performing artist and activist Nobuko Miyamoto tracing her early career as a precocious dancer and singer on Broadway and in Hollywood followed by a political awakening that saw her and her songwriting partner Chris Iijima become the musical voice of the Asian American Movement. The film traces her life as a single mother in Los Angeles, where she teaches dance out of the Senshin Buddhist Temple before forming the Asian American performing arts company Great Leap. The film also includes a brief segment of Miyamoto's memories of her and her family's wartime incarceration at the Santa Anita Assembly Center .
One Fighting Irishman: Wayne M. Collins and the Tule Lake Segregation Center (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Power of the past, Working class struggles
- Widely available
Documentary film profiling lawyer Wayne M. Collins that focuses on his years-long work to nullify the renunciations of thousands of Tule Lake inmates in the years after World War II. Built around a colorfully profane audio of a 1970s interview with Collins by historian Donald Collins (no relation), the film explores Collins' troubled early life, the broader Tule Lake Segregation Center story, and the wide ranging impact Collins' actions had on generations of Tule Lake families, including that of narrator George Takei.
Sowing Seeds of Life… of Hope (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Empowerment, Optimism – power or folly, Will to survive
- Widely available
Short film about Kumezo Hachimonji, an Issei seed store owner from El Monte, California, who brought seeds with him to Heart Mountain that were used to grow vegetables there. The film is based on an interview with Ike Hachimonji, Kumezo's Nisei son. The short film by Michi Tanioka came out Visual Communications ' Digital Histories program, a program to encourage older Asian American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander adults to tell stories through film.
The Ties That Bind: Generations of Faith (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Importance of community, Role of Religion – virtue or hypocrisy
- Available
Documentary film about this history of the Buena Vista United Methodist Church , a Japanese American church in Alameda, California , on its 100th anniversary. Using family photographs, home movies and other sources, the film takes us through the church's history in ten and twenty year intervals, highlighting its founding and early growth through the Issei era, the impact of wartime incarceration, and its evolution in the postwar period.
Yuki Shimoda: Asian American Actor (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Expression through art, Quest for discovery, Wisdom of experience
- Widely available
Documentary film profiling pioneering Nisei actor Yuki Shimoda that takes us from his youth in Sacramento, wartime incarceration as a young man at Tule Lake , and the ups and downs of his acting career. The film includes interviews with many of Shimoda's friends and contemporaries including Mako , Nobu McCarthy , and Soon Teck Oh, along with clips from key roles in Auntie Mame , Farewell to Manzanar , and Hito Hata among others. The film places his career in the larger context of Asian American actors who struggle to find meaningful parts and often are forced to play stereotypical roles to make ends meet.
Fujitaro Kubota and His Garden (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary, History
- Expression through art, Man against nature, Nature as beauty
- Widely available
Documentary on the life of Fujitaro Kubota and Kubota Garden. An Issei who cycled through various businesses before discovering landscape gardening, Kubota built a large garden in Seattle to showcase his nursery stock that became an attraction. He and his sons later designed Japanese-style gardens for large clients such as the Rainier Club, Bloedel Reserve, and the University of Washington. The Kubota Garden was eventually sold to the City of Seattle in the 1980s and continues to be operated by the city. The film also covers the Kubota family's wartime incarceration at Puyallup and Minidoka and the difficult postwar period. The film is based on interviews with Kubota family members, those who worked him, and historians tied to the Kubota Garden Foundation.