‘Hidden Legacy’ Movie Night | SF

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Koto artist Shirley Muramoto’s documentary “Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the World War II Internment Camps” (2014, 57min.) will be screened for Asian Heritage Month. This film unveils Japanese traditional performing arts that continued while Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II.

Through historical footage and interviews with artists who were incarcerated comes the story of how Japanese cultural arts were maintained at a time when the War Relocation Authority pushed for assimilation and Americanization. Come hear from the director herself as she explains how she researched and collected information over a 20-year period to make this documentary, the first major presentation of the existence of traditional music, dance and drama in the camps.

Also presenting will be Brian Komei Dempster, author of Topaz, winner of the 15 Bytes 2014 Book Award in Poetry, and editor of From Our Side of the Fence: Growing Up in America’s Concentration Camps and Making Home from War: Stories of Japanese American Exile and Resettlement.

This event is co-sponsored by the Topaz Museum and also includes a koto performance by Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto and a presentation by Kimi Kodani Hill about the new Topaz Museum in Delta, Utah.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.