FILMS
PILGRIMAGE (2003) TRT: 22 Min.
PILGRIMAGE tells the inspiring story of how an abandoned WWII concentration camp for Japanese Americans has been transformed into a symbol of retrospection and solidarity for people of all ages, races and nationalities in our post 9/11 world.
With a hip music track, never-before-seen archival footage and a story-telling style that features young and old, PILGRIMAGE reveals how the Japanese American community reclaimed a national experience that had almost been deleted from public understanding. PILGRIMAGE shows how the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage now has new meaning for diverse generations 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.
Available on
DVD for $20
"A powerfully moving piece on the dehumanization and dislocations of war, and the community and hope that can be found in resistance."
-- Jeff Chang, Author of Can’t Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip Hop
Generation
"Pilgrimage updates the model for historic documentaries, creating a new soundtrack for archival footage and transforming a generation's rediscovery of the internment-camp experience into a veritable incantation. Nakamura takes the joy of activism and makes it downright contagious!"
-- B. Ruby Rich, Film Critic
"Tad Nakamura's inspiring new film opens up the Japanese American experience
of World War II to a new generation of multicultural activists."
-- Yuri Kochiyama, Asian American Activist
