Re: amazing film experience

[Paul Sorenson]

Any idea if this film will be available anywhere outside of the Bay 
Area?  It would be a shame for such an intimate documentary of this 
national tragedy were not widely available.

        -P
Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote:
Yesterday I was able to experience something truly unusual in film. No, 
this is not "film vs digital" or anything stupid like that.

There is an Asian film festival happening in San Jose this weekend. 
Yesterday, I was privileged to join the audience for a viewing of "A 
View from Topaz"  ... an amazing film, shot and edited by one of the 
people who lived in the internment camp in the Utah desert from April of 
1943 to May of 1945, displaced from home in San Francisco. The film was 
shot *during his internment!*, an incredibly difficult thing to conceive 
of since the mere possession of a camera by an internee, at the time, 
was deemed illegal, a criminal act, etc. That this was regular 8mm color 
film work, itself rare and unusual to see in home movies of that era. 
The circumstances which enabled him to obtain his movie camera, 
photograph the circumstances of his internment, have the film processed 
and actually be able to see it *while still in the internment camp* are 
without doubt unique.

The photographer passed away last year, having used the same small 
spring-wound 8mm movie camera to record his life from the early 1930s up 
to the 1980s. It was a glimpse into a very difficult time for Japanese 
Americans, and a special gift for those who appreciate what photography 
can help us see. It was an amazing experience, a true privilege to be 
able to participate in.

Godfrey