Posters on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures outside the Ted Mann Theater for “Resettlement: Chicago Story” and “Day of Independence,” two of the four movies being shown Feb. 19 (Photo: George Toshio Johnston)
Oscar winner Chris Tashima, Museum’s Amy Homma to speak at four-film lineup.
By George Toshio Johnston, P.C. Senior Editor
Timed to the day to coincide with annual Day of Remembrance events, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will present its inaugural “Short Films Honoring the Day of Remembrance: Executive Order 9066” on Feb. 19 in Los Angeles.
The screenings begin at 7 p.m. in the 277-seat Ted Mann Theater at the Academy Museum, located at 6067 Wilshire Blvd. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in 2021 and is overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Scheduled to speak at the screenings are Academy Museum Director and President Amy Homma and AMPAS board of governors member Chris Tashima, who won an Oscar in 1998 for the narrative short film “Visas and Virtue” and curated the event’s lineup of movies.
Academy Award-winning director Chris Tashima (left) and Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Museum Director and President Amy Homma will speak at the Feb. 19 DOR event screening in Los Angeles. (Photos: Courtesy of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures)
The four short films will represent different filmmaking genres — documentary, animation, narrative — all with the common thread of the effects and aftereffects of the mass incarceration of ethnic Japanese in North America during World War II.
The four films are 1991’s “Days of Waiting” (28 mins.), directed by Steven Okazaki; 1992’s “Minoru: Memory of Exile (19 mins.), directed by Michael Fukushima; 2003’s “Day of Independence” (27 mins.), directed by Tashima; and 2023’s “Resettlement: Chicago Story” (16 mins.), directed by Reina Higashitani. “Days of Waiting” won a Peabody Award and an Academy Award for best documentary (short subject).
Tashima spoke with the Pacific Citizen about how the event came together. “It was, for me, several things kind of just falling into place,” said Tashima, who recalled a key lunch invitation by Homma after being elected to the Academy’s then-new short films branch.
In addition to their respective connections to AMPAS, they also both had relatives who had been incarcerated by the federal government during WWII.
“We had a very nice conversation about our families and how they were both incarcerated and immediately had sort of a bond as Japanese Americans,” he recalled. In Tashima’s case, his mother went to Gila River, and his father went to Poston.
“I mentioned to her that I really wanted to see shorts featured more prominently at the museum,” Tashima continued. “She was very open to that and understood completely and wanted to support short films.”
Later, it occurred to Tashima to combine a short films program and Day of Remembrance. “It kind of brings some things together for me,” he said. The next time he ran into Homma, he proposed it.
“She lit up and said, ‘Yes, that sounds great,’” he said. Homma also agreed to attend and speak. “She was at the very top of my list in terms of speakers we might be able to get because she’s a great speaker and just a wonderful person,” Tashima added.
General admission for the films is $10 ($8 for museum members), $7 for seniors and $5 for students/children.
“I would just encourage anybody who is able to come to come early and visit the museum. If they haven’t, it’s a fantastic museum,” Tashima said. “You can have a meal at Fanny’s (the restaurant at the Academy Museum) and finish off with our program.”
For more information about this Day of Remembrance films screening event and to purchase tickets, visit tinyurl.com/2s322p9a.
