Oh wow, I almost forgot about this. Check it out... Tad Nakamura's award-winning short documentary Pilgrimage was recently released on DVD. It's an important film that that tells the inspiring community story of how a wartime internment camp has been transformed into a current day symbol of retrospection and solidarity:
Although there are now numerous films on the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, this dark chapter of American history lay virtually forgotten until 1969 when two young Japanese Americans set out to find a place called Manzanar and ended up creating an annual event that has since attracted thousands of people. Calling it a "pilgrimage," it was the first public event in the nation to call attention to the reality of the WWII concentration camp experience that had almost been deleted from public understanding.Mixing archival footage, a hip soundtrack and a fresh visual style, it's a powerful, moving film with a story that needs be seen by as many people as possible. I can't tell you how valuable I think this film is. Special features include never-before-seen archival footage of the 1969 Pilgrimage to Manzanar, the 36th annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, Breaking the Fast: Gathering for Ramadan in Little Tokyo, additional interviews, and a discussion and resource guide. So get your hands on this DVD! Purchase it here. Then spread the word.
With a hip music track, never-before-seen archival footage and a story-telling style that features both old and new pilgrims, Pilgrimage is the first film to show how the WWII camps were reclaimed by the children of its victims and how the Manzanar Pilgrimage now has fresh meaning for diverse generations of people who realize that when the US government herded thousands of innocent Americans into what the government itself called concentration camps, it was failure of democracy that would affect all Americans. As the U.S. is again in tumultuous times, Pilgrimage is a timely and engaging film that brings new and much-needed insight to the lessons of the past for our post 9/11 world.
