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Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust

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Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust InterSection Films presents MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST Directed & Produced by Ann Kaneko Produced by Jin Yoo-Kim WORLD PREMIERE: Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, 2021 Documentary Competition | Closing Weekend Film OFFICIAL SELECTION: One Earth Film Festival, 2021 (Midwest Premiere) Milwaukee Film Festival 2021 (Wisconsin Premiere) DOXA Film Festival 2021 (Canada Premiere) CAAMFEST 2021 (Centerpiece Film) TRT: 84 mins. Country: USA Language: English Film Contact: Ann Kaneko, Director/ Producer & Jin Yoo-Kim, Producer www.manzanardiverted.com | [email protected] facebook.com/manzanardiverted twitter.com/MDiverted instagram.com/manzanardiverted PRESS STILLS: GOOGLE DRIVE LINK TRAILER:https://vimeo.com/428845064 Screening link please email [email protected] Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust / Press Notes - 1 SHORT SYNOPSIS From the majestic peaks of the snow-capped Sierras to the parched valley of Payahuunadü, “the land of flowing water,” MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST poetically weaves together memories of intergenerational women. Native Americans, Japanese-American WWII incarcerees and environmentalists form an unexpected alliance to defend their land and water from Los Angeles. LONG SYNOPSIS An inspired and poetic portrait of a place and its people, MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST follows intergenerational women from three communities who defend their land, their history and their culture from the insatiable thirst of Los Angeles. In this fresh retelling of the LA water story, Native Americans, Japanese-American WWII incarcerees and environmentalists form an unexpected alliance to preserve Payahuunadü (Owens Valley), “the land of flowing water.” Featuring breathtaking photography and immersive soundscapes, the film recounts more than 150 years of history, showing how this distant valley is inextricably tied to the city of Los Angeles. It reveals the forced removals of two peoples--the Nüümü (Paiute) and the Newe (Shoshone) who were marched out of the Valley in the 1860s by the US Army and the Japanese Americans who were brought here from their West Coast homes and incarcerated in a World War II concentration camp. Water lured outsiders in and continues to fuel the greed which has sucked this once lush place dry. Filmed over five years, MANZANAR, DIVERTED captures stunning and intimate imagery of this valley, combined with archival gems and careful research to narrate this epic story of the American West. It begins before colonizers came to the valley and then shows how the US Army and setters forced out the Nüümü and the Newe; how the Los Angeles Aqueduct sucked the Valley dry; how incarcerated Japanese Americans made the land green again; how the Owens Lake became a huge health hazard and how this Valley now bears the pain of these stories and the consequences of losing water to diversion. Manzanar is the name of the former concentration camp that was constructed where an apple orchard community had thrived before the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) took it over. Now, it has become a national historic site where its annual pilgrimage unifies descendants of those incarcerated and activists who strive for social justice. In a David and Goliath fight, Japanese Americans living in Los Angeles and Native Americans and ranchers from the Valley form a coalition that stops construction of a massive LADWP solar facility across the Valley from the historic site. The film offers a hopeful message of how communities can come together to overcome histories of oppression and halt further development and monetization of a land. Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust / Press Notes - 2 IMPACT CAMPAIGN The impact campaign will have long lasting effects. First, the film will raise awareness and amplify what is happening currently with the rise of hate crimes against the AAPI community, especially targeted at the elderly. These hate crimes illustrate the fear against the Asian American community that is similar to the fear that inspired racist laws to control an entire community of people. The film shows the repeated and shared histories of what happens when entire groups are scapegoated. Secondly, the film will be utilized by Southern California communities to gain an appreciation of water and land management and a clearer grasp of their impacts on distant communities where water has been extracted for their consumption. Third, the film will raise awareness of how metropolitan communities can become more water self-sufficient through civic participation and conservation techniques. Nation-wide audiences will have greater understanding of how forced removals of communities are motivated by racism and colonialist desires to control land and resources. We would love audiences to plug into our upcoming activities centered around these themes. We are currently fundraising to execute our Impact campaign. Our activities will include partnering with different groups and coalitions to hold virtual and pop up outdoor events, digital video and soundscape art installations, and we will be designing toolkits for academic and community partners to hold deeper conversations. Our interactive website will be built out like an archive to house footage that continues to go deeper into the histories. It will also have links and resources like downloadable tool kits, dialogue guide, and curriculum. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT I grew up hearing about “camp” as a child from my parents’ dinnertime conversations, but I never really understood what it was until fourth grade when my teacher called on me to be the spokesperson on the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. Then I realized that it wasn’t just a fun camp where my parents had been for a few years. This film is an attempt to make sense of this history and share with audiences an understanding of how this valley so far from Los Angeles has such profound connections to me and to my community. My family was unwittingly swept into a dark chapter of American history, and this film has become a platform for me to Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust / Press Notes - 3 unravel how our story is entwined in the formation of the West and LA’s development as a megalopolis. During hot autumn days, my friend, Ladan, and I would head up to Mammoth in search of golden aspens and deep blue skies, seeking respite from Los Angeles. Heading up Route 395, I was always stunned by the beauty of this two-lane highway that wended its way along the Eastern flank of the Sierras. The remoteness and lack of development, especially past Mojave always struck me as we made our way through long stretches of open desert until an intermittent town that looked like a holdout from a bygone era forced us to slow down to 35 mph. We always passed Manzanar and sometimes we’d stop on the way home, maneuvering around the unpaved roads, making sure to close our windows so that the dust wouldn’t enter. Situated relatively close to Los Angeles, I had visited Manzanar at different points in my life with my parents. I couldn’t quite picture how this quiet place had been a “camp,” which always seemed like such a bustling place of human interaction, according to my parents’ descriptions. I never questioned how or why this dusty, remote patch of land at the foothills of the Sierras became home for over 10,000 Japanese Americans. Of all places, why, here? As I began to do research on Manzanar and the Owens Valley, which I later came to know as Payahuunadü, I was dumbfounded when I read that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power owned over 90 percent of the Valley. As a third generation LA resident, I knew that much of our water came from the Sierras, but it was always a vague concept. I didn’t fully realize that LA held title to the land and water rights of so much land that was the watershed for the LA Aqueduct. I was embarrassed of my ignorance. Having grown up in the 1970s, I had lived through drought years, and my mother had a ritual of flushing our toilets with grey water. I learned how precious water was, but I had no idea that the place where Japanese Americans like my mother had been incarcerated was also where we got our water. What had made this a rich homeland for Native Americans was also the reason it was desirable to the LADWP. It was hard to fathom how this municipal entity held title to so much property in Inyo Country, outside of the city’s boundaries. Now I understood why this Valley was so untouched and dry—it wasn’t just a happy accident that it remained undeveloped. DIRECTOR Q&A How did you begin making this film? Although I am Japanese American and the incarceration experience is formative to who I am since both my parents and grandparents were incarcerated in Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas, I have always been skeptical about making a film about this story without it being really distinct. There have been so many amazing films about this story that I have been hesitant to go down that path, and, besides, I have probably spent a good portion of my life trying to explore other parts of who I am and affirm that this is not the only defining characteristic of my identity. But Stanley Hayami’s story and diary fell in my lap over 10 years ago. I felt like A Flicker in Eternity was very unique in how it narrated the WWII experience from the first person perspective of a Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust / Press Notes - 4 teenager, which came alive through Stanley’s drawings, instead of an older Nisei reflecting back on his/her experiences. So in 2014 when Jim Lee, a colleague and friend who teaches Asian American Studies at UC Irvine, asked me to join a group of humanities scholars to think about the Manzanar Pilgrimage as an interfaith, intercultural gathering for a Religion and Global Festivals Project, I already had one Japanese American World War II film under my belt.
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