Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust

MANZANAR, DIVERTED reveals the environmental history of the wartime concentration camp, expanding the story of Japanese internment to the removal of Native Americans and farmers and ranchers on Owens Valley. The film tells the history of how the powerful U.S. Army and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power prioritized the cultivation of water resources for Los Angeles’ growth over the humanity of the people of Manzanar. The film and website provide a fresh interpretation of the legacy of internment through the lens of environmental injustice and racism, past and present.

Ann Kaneko/2020/82 min/Historical Perspectives, Social Justice, Water, People & Cultures

FILM DESCRIPTION: “Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust” provides a fresh interpretation of the Japanese American confinement site by examining the environmental and political history behind the World War II camp. Prior to the war, Manzanar was where Native Americans were driven out and farmers and ranchers were bought out by the L.A. Department of Water and Power (LADWP). By connecting this camp to California’s environmental history, this film shows the intersectionality of how Japanese Americans, Indigenous communities, and locals have been mistreated by government entities that have not served the interests of all of their citizenry.

The film exposes the legacy of colonization, racism, and social injustice at Manzanar. Manzanar has both the violent history of Native American colonial cleansing and the legacy of being a concentration camp for Japanese Americans who were similarly pushed away from the coast. This film aspires to bridge these communities and engage in important public discussion. Manzanar is a site of conscience that all of these communities can claim as their own.

Sunday, March 7, 3 to 5:30 p.m. Central Standard Time

Tickets

Tickets available to U.S. viewers only.

Please stay for post-film discussion with:

Facilitator Susan Lucci, Founder of 2Big4Words and Co-Founder of Global Purpose Guides and FeelReal

Panelists:

  • Ann Kaneko, Director, Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust

  • Monica Mariko Embrey, Member, Manzanar Committee; granddaughter of film subject Sue Embrey

  • Kathy Jefferson Bancroft, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone)

 
 
 

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