Film Screening of Manzanar, Diverted And Panel Discussion on Feb 22
Film screening of Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust followed by panel discussion featuring filmmaker Ann Kaneko
Panel discussion after the film featuring Ann Kaneko, Noah Williams, and Hana Maruyama, on feb 22
A film screening of Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust will take place on Feb. 22 from 6 - 8 PM in the ATL (007-02) and will feature a panel discussion afterwards with guests, Ann Kaneko, Noah Williams, and Hana Maruyama. This event recognizes the annual Day of Remembrance, Feb. 19th.
The 2021 film, Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust, in Manzanar, is an inspired and poetic portrait of a place and its people, and 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.”
About our speakers:
Ann Kaneko is a filmmaker who is known for her personal films that weave her intimate aesthetic with the complex intricacies of political reality. An Emmy Award winner, her poetic feature Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust premiered at the 2021 Big Sky Film Festival and broadcast on PBS POV’s 2022 line up. She has screened internationally and been commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Endowment and the Skirball Cultural Center. She is currently in development on a food docuseries for MTV Films/Smithsonian Channel and 45/45 a personal film about the beginning and end of life. Her other credits include A Flicker in Eternity; Against the Grain: An Artist’s Survival Guide to Perú; Overstay and 100% Human Hair. She was a Fulbright, Japan Foundation Artist, Film Independent Doc Lab and Jackson Wild Multicultural Alliance fellow. She currently teaches Media Studies at Pitzer College.
Noah Williams is the Water Program Coordinator for the Big Pine Paiute Tribe and the vice-chair for the Tribal Advisory Committee for the California Environmental Protection Agency. Noah is a Bishop Tribal member who grew up on the Bishop Reservation in Payahuunadu.
Hana Maruyama (she/her/hers) is an assistant professor in history and Asian and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut. She completed her PhD in American Studies at the University of Minnesota. During that time, she co-produced/hosted the podcast "Campu" on Japanese American Incarceration during World War II and was a research fellow for American Public Media’s "Order 9066". Before returning to graduate school, she worked for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center. She is a yonsei (fourth generation Japanese American) descended from the Heart Mountain, Jerome, and Gila River concentration camps on her father’s side.