A.C.E. / COMMUNITY
September 7, 2020
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 13
Rare Japanese-American 16mm home movies,
ca. 1925-1960, now available for viewing online
The Oregon Historical Society
(OHS) has announced that 15
reels of 16mm home movies shot
by the Tsuboi family are now
available for viewing on the OHS
Digital Collections website. The
films document the day-to-day
activities
of
a
Japanese-
American family living in the
Pacific Northwest spanning
multiple
generations
and
contain rare scenes of family life
both before and after World War
II.
With his older brother Suma,
Teruo Tsuboi ran the Tsuboi
Brothers store located at 315
Burnside Street in Portland. The
store sold western-style clothing
and jewelry, and after World War
II, added an optometrist exam
room.
Teruo and Suma Tsuboi
emigrated
from
Okayama,
Japan, to Portland in the early
20th century. They had four
children (called nisei, or the
children of Japanese immigrants
born in the United States) —
Teruhisa “Ted,” Akiko, Sachiko,
and Kazuko.
Films include, in part: family
visits
to
the
Pendleton
Round-Up, drives through the
snow in downtown Portland,
RARE HOME MOVIES. The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) has announced that 15 reels of 16mm home movies shot by the Tsuboi family are now available for viewing on the
OHS Digital Collections website. The films document the day-to-day activities of a Japanese-American family living in the Pacific Northwest spanning multiple generations and contain
rare scenes of family life both before and after World War II. Pictured are screenshots taken from video of trips to Mount Hood (left) and the Pendleton Round-Up (right). (Images
courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society)
Rose
Festival
parades,
a Nikkei Legacy Center), noted relatively high cost of film and a visit <https://digitalcollections.
Japanese baseball team at Civic that the “Tsuboi films provide a camera. As 16mm became more ohs.org/tsuboi-family-home-movi
Stadium, family members posing magical window into Portland’s affordable, with the added ability es>.
To learn about efforts being made to
near Mount Hood, trips to and past. The films also show that to shoot in color, it became the
preserve the experiences of Asian
from Japan via ship, a brief Japanese Americans have been main method of documenting
Americans through home movies, visit the
glimpse of the ruins of the part of Portland’s social fabric for twentieth century family life,
Memories to Light website at <https://
Minidoka incarceration camp in generations — participating in before being displaced by
caamedia.org/memoriestolight>;
Idaho, a trip to Los Angeles in the Rose Festival parade, riding a 8/S8mm, magnetic videotape,
Memories to Light is a project of the
1931, and various Pacific bike down a neighborhood street, and digital video.
Center for Asian American Media.
To view the reels, including
Northwest vacations and scenes and playing baseball.”
The Center for Home Movies, <www.
When 16mm film first hit the those titled “Model T,” “Portland
from family life.
centerforhomemovies.org>, is another
Lucy Capehart of the Japanese consumer market in the late Winter Scenes,” “Color Parade,”
resource that is documenting the
“Sea
Scenes
Aboard
American Museum of Oregon 1920s, it was available mainly to and
importance of collecting and
preserving home movies.
(formerly called the Oregon those who could afford the Freighter — Japanese Scenery,”
“Don’t shut up!” film spotlights Filipino journalist
By Ryan Pearson
The Associated Press
OS ANGELES — Maria Ressa says she didn’t
take Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte
seriously when he declared four years ago that
“corrupt” journalists weren’t “exempted from
assassination.”
“In 2016, it was really, really laughable. And I
thought, ‘Oh, doesn’t matter.’ I laughed,” said the
country’s most well-known journalist and leader of the
independent Rappler news organization.
Grim reality set in as Ressa was arrested and thrown
in jail, targeted in a series of criminal cases, and
convicted this summer on libel and tax evasion charges
seen widely as attacks on press freedom. She now faces
six years in prison.
A Thousand Cuts, a new documentary from
Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz, tracks
Ressa’s dual life in recent years. She’s seen smiling
while accepting international media awards and praise
from the likes of George Clooney, then grimly facing
down online harassment, legal action, and real-world
threats for Rappler’s reporting on extrajudicial killings
in Duterte’s drug war.
The film argues that Americans should learn from
the recent history of the Philippines, where social
media has helped to divide the country and critical
press outlets are regularly lambasted by the president.
ABS-CBN, the country’s largest TV network, was shut
down by the government’s telecommunications regula-
tor in May.
Promoting the film in a Zoom interview from her
home in Manila, Ressa shook her fists and laughed
with dark humor — “Urgh! Angry!” — about what she
called her “war of attrition” with the government. She’s
pleaded not guilty and is appealing her convictions.
“You don’t know how powerful government is until
you come under attack the way we have. When all the
different parts of government work against you — it’s
kind of shocking,” she said. “I can’t wait to really write
this — because I can’t write at all right now, because
then I would be in contempt of court.”
Facebook has become the center of the internet for
most Filipinos, and Rappler utilized it to grow rapidly
as a startup news site. But the film shows how
Duterte’s populist campaign harnessed the platform to
spread its message and target Ressa and other
journalists.
Duterte supporters live-streamed protests at the
Rappler office, and death threats flooded the comments
alongside red heart emojis. Disinformation on the
EVENTS
TBA 2020
L
September 10 through 30
The 2020 edition of the Portland Institute for Contemporary
Art’s (PICA) Time-Based Art (TBA) Festival will be nothing like
prior events. Featuring a mix of virtual and in-person events,
the annual convergence of contemporary performance, dance,
music, new media, and more takes place September 10 through
30. All indoor and outdoor TBA events follow Multnomah
County guidelines for gatherings, including wearing masks,
maintaining a six-foot distance, and limiting numbers. For more
information, call (503) 242-1419 or visit <www.pica.org/TBA>.
To view virtual events, go to <www.picatv.org>.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. Maria Ressa (pictured), the
award-winning head of a Philippine online news site, Rappler, talks
to the media after posting bail at a Regional Trial Court following an
overnight arrest by National Bureau of Investigation agents on a libel
case in Manila, the Philippines, in this February 14, 2019 file photo.
A Thousand Cuts, a new documentary by Filipino-American filmmaker
Ramona S. Diaz, tracks Ressa’s dual life in recent years. (AP Photo/
Bullit Marquez, File)
social-media platform exacerbated the problem, she
said.
“Social media, the tech platforms have created a
system where lies laced with anger and hate spread
faster than facts. And it has placed people like me at
risk,” Ressa said.
Ressa began wearing a bulletproof vest because of
threats. She is seen in the film repeatedly pleading
with Facebook representatives to delete violent posts
or cut livestreams. In July, she grew frustrated
watching Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and
other tech leaders speak before the U.S. Congress.
“For the tech giants, it’s willful blindness, willful
ignorance, willful arrogance — because people like me
are feeling the impact of the decisions they make,”
Ressa said.
Diaz, who spoke from her home in Baltimore, hopes
her film can help protect Ressa — and other
independent journalists.
“It’s a global story,” she said. “There are very many
Marias around the world. And that’s why it’s key to
keep the story of press freedom ... and the importance of
independent media alive.”
Even during a pandemic shutdown and under
court-ordered restrictions, Ressa is doing her part.
“Part of the reason we’ve survived the last four years
is because I haven’t stopped talking,” she said. “That’s
the best strategy so far to deal with a government that
wants you to shut up. Don’t shut up!”
“Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival”
September 11 through 13
The “Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival,” part of Seattle
Center Festál, is streaming online Friday through Sunday,
September 11 to 13, beginning at noon. The virtual festival
features three days of online programming, including
presentations, spoken word, music, food demonstrations, virtual
workshops, and more. For more information, call (206) 684-7200
or visit <www.seattlecenter.com>. To view virtual events, go to
<www.seattlelivealohafestival.com>.
Virtual “Under the Moonlight”
September 13, 5:00pm
The Lan Su Chinese Garden is celebrating its 20th
anniversary. During the past two decades, the garden has
become a hub of Chinese culture, history, art, music,
performance, celebration, and more. Join Lan Su virtually to
learn more about the garden and to support the peaceful oasis in
downtown Portland. For more information, call (503) 228-8131
or visit <www.lansugarden.org>.
Portland Taiko and No-No Boy
September 26, 7:00pm to 8:30pm
View a free online concert video event featuring Portland
Taiko and No-No Boy on Saturday, September 26 at 7:00pm. For
the past month, members of Portland Taiko have been recording
videos in outdoor locations — farms, parks, forests, and vine-
yards — that will be featured. The show will present musical
stories based on the immigrant history of Japanese Americans
in Oregon — from Orient to Ontario and Toledo to Portland. Why
is there a town called Orient? Who harvested the sugar beets and
onions in eastern Oregon? Who faced an angry mob in Toledo?
Why were thousands of Oregonians of Japanese descent
stripped of their civil liberties and imprisoned? While the history
is specific to the nikkei community in Oregon, the stories of
hardship, racism, perseverance, and community are familiar to
many. For more information, call (503) 288-2456 or visit
<www.portlandtaiko.org>.