Film: The Ito Sisters

Date: March 10, 2018

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Save the date March 10, 2018 to see the film, The Ito Sisters and meet the Producer.

THE ITO SISTERS is a feature-length documentary film that captures the stories of three Japanese American sisters, interviewed in their 80’s and 90’s, as they recount how their immigrant parents struggled to make a life in America at the beginning of the 20th century. 

THE ITO SISTERS  captures the rarely told stories of the earliest Japanese immigrants to the United States and their American-born children. At the core of the film is the theme of citizenship and American identity, and how the rights of immigrants and their children have been restricted, tested and established-a theme that is particularly timely. In the current political climate of anti-immigrant scapegoating and the perilous status of immigrants and their children; the rejection of refugees seeking asylum; and the signing of executive orders banning immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, the heated rhetoric is remarkably familiar. 

The aim of this event is to inform audiences about this little-known chapter in US history, as told through the stories of three sisters whose lives spanned the 20^th  century and into the 21^st .
 
According to director and producer Antonia Grace Glenn, "While there have been several important documentary films that explore the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans, there are few if any films that focus on the Japanese American experience before the war.  Today, it is not widely known that there were segregated schools in Sacramento County to separate white and Asian children; or the central role that Asian laborers played in establishing California's agricultural wealth; or that arranged marriages were regularly practiced by Japanese Americans in California.  The film also is unique in that it gives voice to the stories of early Japanese American women, and their experiences with agricultural labor, domestic work and raising families under challenging circumstances."

Director and producer Antonia Grace Glenn, producer and editor Gregory Pacificar and scholar Evelyn Nakano Glenn will be on hand for a Q&A session following the screening.
 
We hope you join us for this incredibly meaningful event.
Members: Free, Students/Seniors: $5, Adults: $8
RSVP Required, Contact: publicprograms@jamsj.org , (408) 294-3138

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