American photographers expose veil of secrecy surrounding the WWII Japanese American Internment
THREE LENSES examines the role of three American Photographers in piercing
the veil of secrecy surrounding the WWII Japanese American Internment and
questions the possibility of a similar injustice happening in the future.
The injustice of the internment of innocent Japanese American Citizens
during WWII, the role fear, racism & greed played in bringing this about,
and the significance of the work of three iconic American photographers:
Documentary photographer, Dorothea Lange; Landscape photographer and
social activist, Ansel Adams and incarcerated camp photojournalist, Toyo
Miyatake, in bringing the news of this sad moment in American history to
the attention of present day Americans, is the focus of documentary
feature, THREE LENSES, currently in production at Santa Ana Media
Production Company, Video Resources Inc.
The story of the internment has great relevance for today’s world,
according to THREE LENSES Executive Producer, Ecar Oden. “Some Americans
possess a passing knowledge of the internment. But they may not
appreciate the role that fear, racism and greed played in the singling out
an entire race of people – most of whom were American citizens – largely
because they shared ‘the face of the enemy.’ THREE LENSES is not so much a
Japanese American story as it is an American story made all the more
relevant and timely by the very real possibility – recently confirmed by
Supreme Court Justice Scalia – that it could easily happen again. “A
greater knowledge by more Americans of this time in history is our
society’s best protection from similar injustices happening in the
future,” Oden concluded.
As of March, 2014, more than a dozen interviews with historians, camp
internees, family members and other contemporary experts have been
completed, with an equal amount on the books for the coming months.
However, finding former internees to appear on camera has been a
challenge, according to writer-producer, Jeff Redd. “More than 120,000
men, women and children were relocated to the 10 internment camps during
WWII, but few remain that are willing or able to tell of their first hand
experiences there. We would love to speak with any former internee willing
to share their stories, journals, home movies or photos.”
Joining Oden and Redd on the production team are writer/producer Denis
Donovan and director Brad Hagen. Donovan is an industry vet with dozens of
documentary features to his credit and Hagen is Video Resources founder
and CEO.
In October, 2013, THREE LENSES was awarded the prestigious Abel Cine
Documentary Grant, in competition with 86 other documentary concepts.
An IndieGoGo Crowdfunding campaign to help with postproduction and
marketing expenses will be undertaken later this spring.
Track THREE LENSES progress on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/threelenses
on Twitter@threelenses and on http://threelenses.org