Chicago Feminist Film Festival - The Orange Story
Koji Oshima is the proud owner of a small corner grocery store, but he must now abandon everything and report to an assembly center, to be taken off to a Japanese American incarceration camp.
Interview with Writer/Director, Erika Street Hopman
Congratulations! Why are you making your film?
The Orange Story portrays an important but shameful moment in American history - one that is too often skipped or glossed over in school history classes. By telling this story through narrative film, my hope is to help more people learn about Japanese American incarceration during WWII, and help them connect it to contemporary issues and events.
I hope this film inspires people to remember that small gestures matter. Each of us encounters moments in our own lives when we must decide whether to stand up against racism or perpetuate it. Those individual moments may be small, but they have a much larger context and significance.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
The Orange Story specifically examines the culture of xenophobia and fear that led up to the incarceration. These are topics that transcend this moment in history, and continue to be relevant and important now, especially with recent debates over immigration, refugees, and the Muslim ban. So while this is a period piece, its themes feel current. As a filmmaker, I was attracted to the script because there was so much richness to explore in such a small story – for example, the film touches on friendship, loss, and how racism gets passed from one generation to the next. I believe that audiences will connect to the story for the same reasons that I did.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The Orange Story focuses on the personal story of Koji, and chronicles his friendship with a young girl named Judith. So the film delves into important social justice issues, and provides the larger context of Japanese American incarceration during WWII, but it does so through the lens of Koji’s personal story. We hope that this approach makes the history feel more immediate and alive than it would if we were to make a documentary on this subject. As they watch The Orange Story, I hope people will relate to Koji and begin to connect with this history on a human level – not just look at it as a series of dates and facts and statistics.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
When the producer, Eugene Sun Park, first shared the script for The Orange Story with me, it centered on the moment when the little girl tries to sell Koji an orange. As we workshopped the script and began looking at how we could use the movie for education and outreach, the story naturally grew to include more of Koji’s experience and more backstory.
As someone who is not Japanese-American, it was critical for me to listen to a lot of oral histories from people who had been incarcerated during the war, and from their friends and family members. Many of the details and scenes we added were inspired by those oral histories.
Then we cast a non-actor named Joe Takehara for the lead role of Koji. Joe was in the incarceration camps himself as a child, so he brought all of that history and experience to the process. As we workshopped the scenes in rehearsal, we did some improv work, and Joe shared some of his family’s stories with me. That also informed the final shooting script – Joe really made the character his own, and I’m incredibly grateful to him for the hard work and emotion that he poured into this project.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We’ve been screening the film as both a stand-alone piece at festivals, and also as part of a collection of narrative shorts about Japanese American incarceration during WWII called “Hidden Histories.” The Hidden Histories screenings are typically followed by a panel discussion and Q&A. During these sessions, it’s been really rewarding to see people connect with this story, and I’ve been pleased by the fact that it seems to resonate with multiple generations. Some of the most profound discussions have come from high school students, some of whom were learning about this history for the first time. I’ve also had older audience members come up to me after a screening to say thank you for providing an entry point so that they can discuss this history with their kids or grand-kids. I’m thrilled that the film can be used in that way.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
When we started this project, I knew that this history wasn’t taught as widely as it should be, but I continue to be surprised by how many people are completely unaware that the incarceration even happened. And for those who do know about it, we’ve had a lot of students who don’t think of it as being part of American history: they see it as “Japanese American history” or even “Japanese history.” These are exactly the types of assumptions and attitudes that we want to help overcome. I hope that this film encourages more people to educate themselves about the legacy of internment and to see it as a critical moment in American history – one that we need to make sure doesn’t happen again.
We were also very surprised (and saddened) by how relevant this movie became so quickly. When we started this project several years ago, it was a labor of love, and we thought it was a very important story. But in the past year especially, Japanese American incarceration during WWII has come up more and more often in the news, so we felt a lot of urgency to get the story out there so that it can make a difference in the world.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We want as many people as possible to watch this film and share the story with their friends, families, and colleagues or classmates. Our goal is for this film to instigate discussion and encourage more people to learn about this critical moment in American history, in the hopes that we can prevent history from repeating itself.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We’re always looking for people who want to host community or school screenings of either The Orange Story or the full Hidden Histories program.
We’re also hard at work on an educational web site that will accompany the film. On the web site, students (and others) will watch the movie in chapters. In between chapters, they’ll be able to delve into carefully curated and sequenced archival images, oral histories, and videos. The goal is to have the archival content provide more context for the movie; meanwhile the movie will inform students’ understanding of the historical resources. When the web site is complete, we will be offering it as a free educational resource for teachers to use in the classroom, so we encourage any interested educators or institutions to contact us.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
I think some of the most provocative questions tend to be: 1) Why do you think so few people know or talk about this moment in history? 2) Do you think history could repeat itself? 3) What moments in the film do you connect with? Are there parallels to things you’ve experienced in your own life or that you’ve witnessed in your own community?
Would you like to add anything else?
Thanks for sharing this story!
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
We are working on creating the educational web site that will accompany this film, and also exploring the idea of turning the story into a children’s picture book. Eugene Sun Park, the producer, just finished producing a feature film called Signature Move that premiered at SXSW. I’m working on writing a feature, a coming-of-age story set on a family farm, and have continued my ongoing work producing syndicated environmental radio programs.
Interview: April 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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The Orange Story
Koji Oshima is the proud owner of a small corner grocery store, but he must now abandon everything and report to an assembly center, to be taken off to a Japanese American incarceration camp.
Length: 17:33
Director: Erika Street Hopman
Producer: Eugene Sun Park, Jason Matsumoto
Writer: Eugene Sun Park & Erika Street
About the writer, director and producer:
Erika Street Hopman is a producer and director of documentaries, short films, radio programs, and educational videos.
Eugene Sun Park is a filmmaker and producer working in narrative and experimental forms. His films have screened at festivals, micro-cinemas, and galleries around the world.
Jason Matsumoto is a fourth-generation Japanese American from Chicago. He is a director of pricing for financial derivative products at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Key cast: Joe Takehara (Koji); Kylie Sullivan (Judith); Jules Reid (Joan); Lou Derosa (John Wilson); Colleen Mooney (Mrs. Kelly)
Looking for: journalists, educators looking for material on Japanese American incarceration, programmers
Social media handles:
Facebook: The Orange Story; Full Spectrum Features
https://www.facebook.com/fullspectrumfeatures/
Twitter: @fullspectrumnfp
Instagram: @fullspectrumfeatures
Funders:
National Park Service; Chicago Filmmakers; Illinois Humanities Council
Made in association with: Full Spectrum Features
Where can I see it in the next month?
Hollywood Theatre (Portland, OR)
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL)
Touring calendar: http://fullspectrumfeatures.com/tos-screenings