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Japanese Studies & Japanese Diaspora

…I Told You So
Alan Kondo
Producer: Visual Communications
1973, 18 min., BW, US
"All this identity thing. What is it you're looking for?" asks the elderly aunt of leading Japanese American poet, Lawson Inada. Through this intimate portrait, we explore Inada's answer to this compl...

Cruisin' J-town
Duane Kubo
Producer: Visual Communications
1974, 24 min., Color, US
This is the story of the formation of the popular jazz fusion band, Hiroshima, in the late 70s. The musicians reflect on their culture, musical influences, and the political movements of the 1960's ou...

December 7/September 11
Ann Brandman & Paul Nishijima
Producer: Third World Newsreel
2001, 15 min., US
A comparison of how the events and possible after effects of September 11th may mirror those of the attack on Pearl Harbor. A collection of interviews with Japanese-American veterans who witnessed the...

Devotion
Barbara Hammer
2000, 85 min., Color, Japan/US
DEVOTION investigates the extremely complex and hierarchical relationships among a loyal group of filmmakers who dedicated up to 30 years making films for one man--Ogawa Shinsuke. These heartbreaking ...

Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight: The Japanese War Brides
Lucy Craft, Karen Kasmauski & Kathryn Tolbert
2015, 26 min., Color, US
Three Japanese war brides trace their tumultuous journey to America as the young wives of US soldiers and civilians. Atsuko, Emiko and Hiroko were among tens of thousands of Japanese women who married...

Gaman...to Endure
Bob Miyamoto, Drawings by Betty Chen
1982, 6 min., Color
An animated film told through a young girl’s eyes, it combines the drawings of Betty Chen and haunting music of Nobuko Miyamoto to tell of 110,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in U.S. concentration...

Living Along the Fenceline
Lina Hoshino & Gwyn Kirk
Producer: Lina Hoshino, Gwyn Kirk & Deborah Lee
2012, 65 min., Color, US
LIVING ALONG THE FENCELINE tells the stories of seven grassroots women leaders from across the Pacific to Puerto Rico whose communities are affected by the U.S. military presence in their backyards. A...

Resistance at Tule Lake
Konrad Aderer
Producer: Michelle Chen
2017, 78 min., US
The dominant narrative of the World War II incarceration of Japanese-Americans has been that they behaved as a “model minority,” that they cooperated without protest and proved their patriotism by enl...

A Shortness of Breath
Ann Kaneko
1993, 15 min., BW, US
Mixing documentary and narrative this film is a candid account of one woman's struggle with breast cancer and her own imminent death. Delving into various attitudes towards death and dying, the filmma...

A Song for Ourselves
Tadashi Nakamura
2009, 35 min., Color, US
A SONG FOR OURSELVES is an intimate journey into the life and music of Asian American Movement troubadour Chris Iijima. Struggling to make sense of their father’s early death, Iijima's teenage sons l...

Wataridori: Birds of Passage
Robert Nakamura
Producer: Visual Communications
1974, 37 min., Color, US
Lyricism and visual beauty are evident in this film as four Issei (first generation Japanese Americans) describe a collective history through their personal memories. The filmmaker paints the canvas o...


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TWN acknowledges that in New York we are on the unceded territory of the Lenni Lenape, Canarsie, Shinecock, and Munsee peoples and challenges the harm that continues to be inflicted upon Indigenous and People of Color communities here and abroad, which is why we all need to be part of the struggle for rights, equality and justice.

TWN is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Color Congress, MOSAIC, New York Community Trust, Peace Development Fund, Humanities NY, Ford Foundation, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and individual donors.