February 19: Day of Remembrance Community Reading with Amy Hill!
Check out this event this Sunday at Theatre Off Jackson with special guest Amy Hill!
A dramatic reading of Momoko Iko's
two-act play, GOLD WATCH
1:00 - 3:00p.m.
Theater Off Jackson
409 Seventh Ave S.
(Below the Wing Luke Asian Museum)
Free to public and family friendly
GOLD WATCH is set in Wapato, WA between Labor Day 1941 and June of 1942. The play dramatizes the consequences of Pearl Harbor for the Japanese Americans in this rural, farm community and how they respond to the internment orders.
First performed in Seattle in 1977, the play this year features four members of the "original" Seattle cast: Bea Kiyohara (who is also directing the performance), Steve Sumida, Norm Kaneko, and, returning to her Seattle hometown from Hollywood to do this show, Amy Hill. The performance will introduce new members of the cast reading major roles: Tri Hoang, Isaiah Stanback, Sheldon Arakaki, and Ciony Bellande.
Other community members will also read parts in this multigenerational, multiethnic, multiracial presentation of GOLD WATCH, on a history that matters to all people of this nation.
Get DISORIENT-end this weekend!
News about a festival starting today in Eugene, OR! Consider a weekend drive to visit our neighbors to the south. The DisOrient organizers were at our festival in January, so it's a good bet that they'll have taken notes on how to one-up our festival. That's okay -- we can return the favor next year... Subject: SAVE THE DATE: DISORIENT Asian Am Filmfest of Oregon Feb 17-19th
DISORIENT ASIAN AMERICAN FILMFEST OF OREGON
THIS WEEKEND! (visit www.disorientfilm.org)
I would like to invite you to Oregon's Inagaural Asian/Asian American film festival this weekend starting on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Eugene. A very dedicated group of volunteers have been planning this festival for months.
DisOrient Filmfest is the first film festival in Oregon featuring independent films and video by and/or about Asian Americans. The festival opens at the Bijou Art Cinemas (492 E. 13th Ave) on Friday, February 17th with its Opening Night Gala and continues on Saturday and Sunday at the Asian Celebration at the Lane County Fairgrounds and at the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA) on 110 W. Broadway near the Eugene Public Library.
We have a number of films that you will not find anywhere else...and may never see again. We start with 'ONLY THE BRAVE' on Friday night with Actor, Director, and Producer Lane Nishikawa doing a Q&A with a reception at Blue Luna Club to follow. It is the tale of the 442nd/100th RCT, an all Japanese American fighting group who rescues the "lost Texas Battalion" from the Germans during WWII. A thousand Japanese Americans went in to save 211 Texans, but sacrificed 800 Japanese American lives to do so.
We have a number of social issue and social justice documentaries.
Check out 'GRASSROOTS RISING' about sweatshops in Los Angeles, 'NALINI BY DAY, NANCY BY NIGHT' a documentary about the use of Indian call centers, 'DASTAAR' a short film about Sikh life post-9-11, 'MONKEY DANCE' about three Cambodian teenagers and their story of resisting the genocide of their culture, amonst many. Also check out our special program of shorts about Japanese internment with the film 'STAND UP FOR JUSTICE' on Saturday afternoon about a Mexican American teenager during WWII who decides to go to camp with his Japanese American friends. A panel of Chicano scholars and former local Japanese American internees will talk about their reactions to the films.
There are local Oregon Asian American films such as my own 'SELLING LOUIE'S VILLAGE (Without Breaking the YOLK)', a tribute to Eugene Activist Martha Yamasaki ('MARTHA YAMASAKI PRESENTE!), short films by high school student and 20BELOW writer Chau Nguyen 'SMELLS LIKE FISH SAUCE', a hilarious infomercial spoof hawking the virtues of fish sauce.
Be entertained and moved by hilarious films such as our Closing Night Film, 'THE GRACE LEE PROJECT' where filmmaker Grace Lee finds others with her same name from around the world.
DisOrient is about breaking down stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans and creating positive images for our community to look to.
Please support us by attending this unique film festival and meet Asian American filmmakers from around the world!
VISIT WWW.DISORIENTFILM.ORG for a complete schedule and to purchase tickets.
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Jason D. Mak
Executive Director,
DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon
Feb. 17th, 18th & 19th @ Asian Celebration
Lane County Fairgrounds
www.disorientfilm.org
northwest asian american film festival is a production of northwest asian american theatre