PRODUCER'S DIARY: Yuri Kochiyama Film

Photos from our all-day shoot at 44th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage at the Manzanar National Historic Site. Special thanks to the amazingly skilled crew who dropped down from Heaven to give everything they had to give to make our incredible video footage happen. The scenes and interviews we shot will "sew together" all the rest of the footage that has been shot over a 4-year period for What did you do in the War, Mama?: Kochiyama's Crusaders.

All photos are by Marlan Warren, copyright protected unless otherwise indicated. The title of this film project keeps changing, but the website remains the same. Please check us out at:

https://sites.google.com/site/bitsofparadisethemovie/

A separate short film project is in the works now--a collage of impressions from this 2013 Manzanar Pilgrimage. Parts of this Day of Remembrance will be incorporated in the longer feature film.

We especially want to thank the dedicated, sweet park rangers at Manzanar National Historic Site, Superintendent Les Inafuku and Park Curator Mark Hachtmann for not only granting us a permit to shoot, but inviting and encouraging us to please come. And we are especially grateful to the Manzanar Committee for granting us a permit, and ushering us through the long day.

Photo by Stephon J. Litwinczuk: Madlon Arai Yamamoto (R) with Marlan Warren (L)

We spoke with lovely, strong women who took us briefly inside their own personal struggles and victories, and each time acknowledged the need to keep ever-vigilant and resilient to keep freedom alive for every U.S. citizen and immigrant.

Soul Consoling Tower at Manzanar Cemetery

At day's end, all 3 of us felt transformed by the experience. The sound engineer, Rick J. Wilson, has relatives who were interned at Amache in Colorado, and the DP is married to a Japanese woman. They were determined to make this shoot happen, and the experience rewarded my own efforts as well.

Pilgrims in the Cemetery: Soul Consoling Tower: Photo by Stephon J. Litwinczuk

More details can be found on the film's website and Facebook page, but here are the photos that I took on the fly with my Canon point-and-shoot, and Blackberry cellphone:

(L) Hank Umemoto, Author of "From Manzanar to Mt. Whitney: The Life and Times of a Lost Hiker" with Master of Cermonies, Darrell Kunitomi (R)

 I heard a Muslim woman speak about how after 9/11 the Japanese Americans were the first to reach out to the frightened Muslim community, identifying with their fears and instrumental in preventing George Bush from sending these targets of prejudice into U.S. concentration camps.

As a woman who lost most of her family members in the Russian and Polish Holocaust, just the thought of concentration camps makes me furious. The sight of the tombstones at the Manzanar Cemetery made me weep. 

 Father of Taiko Drummer (L) and DP Stephon J. Litwinczuk (R)

 Sound Engineer Richard J. Wilson and the 1400-1700 strong who attended

UCLA Kyodo Taiko Drummer

DP Stephon J. Litwinczuk shooting the Guard Tower at dusk