| ENDURING DEMOCRACY: THE MONTEREY PETITION (63 min) US |
Description:
A group of women activists combat Asian hate crimes and resist racism in war-torn 1940s California. Recently, in a dusty filing cabinet in Monterey, California, a local historian made the amazing discovery of a 16mm film from 1938 showing the local Japanese American community having fun at the wharf and playing baseball. Along with this remarkable never-before-seen film of a community about to be destroyed was a trove of signed petitions demanding the restoration of civil rights to those same Americans. As historian Tim Thomas dug deeper into the origins of both the film and the petition drive, he discovered a story that stands as a lesson for all Americans interested in preserving our democracy. At a time when the fear of WWII gripped our nation, kitchen table conversations led to a door-to-door petition drive motivating citizens of the Monterey peninsula to resist economically motivated racism and welcome back fellow citizens held in concentration camps for 3+ years solely due to their Japanese ancestry.
Biographies:
David C. Schendel began his career at age 12 with his first film, Don't Show Mom This One! A graduate of the University of Washington School of Drama, he started with live-theatre directing before dedicating his talents to filmmaking. The Can, David’s first feature-length film premiered at the famous Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston and became an underground film sensation. His award-winning documentary about classic cars in Cuba, Yank Tanks was shown at film festivals around the world, screened on PBS and was opening night film at the prestigious NY MoMA Documentary Fortnite. Most recently David’s film, The Comedy Club, won a Jury Award for Best Documentary at Cinema at the Edge in Los Angeles. Currently he is in production on a new feature Painting at the Edge.
Contact Information:
w: https://jaclmonterey.org/documentary-film/
e: schendelfilms@gmail.com
