History and Memory logo cultural masq

image

Rea Tajiri,
USA, 1991,
30 min

In her personal exploration of the individual and collective memory concerning a less than glorious chapter in recent North American history, Rea Tajiri interweaves fragments from contemporary Hollywood films and authentic WWII propaganda material with interviews, documentary images and home footage of her own family. In a reflection on the difficulty of representing the past, on remembering and forgetting, she tells the story of her Japanese father, who was drafted into the American army before the attack on Pearl Harbour and upon his return found his family interned in a concentration camp amongst 110 000 other American Japanese who formed a "danger to the state". There are sufficient pictures to illustrate and justify the official version of events, but it demanded a real archaeological investigation to find an image that gave an account of the non-official history of the war. Tajiri's mother's only recollection of those years is a tactile one : she can still remember how the scorching heat and the refreshing water felt on her hands and face. That crucial area which is also the most difficult to visualize is at the same time the most private place, which the images of the US film news never succeeded in colonizing.

Fade to Black

Heidi

Middle East Trilogy

No other Possibility

Superstar

Videogramme einer Revolution


Liste Section EXPLICATION MAIL