The documentary “Baseball Behind Barbed Wire” (2023, 34 minutes) will be shown along with other short films on Tuesday, June 25, at 4:45 p.m. at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Hollywood, as part of Dances with Films.
Guard towers and barbed wired confined Japanese Americans during the forced incarceration of the World War II. But there was no containing their love of baseball and it provided solace and hope at all ten War Relocation Authority camps.This bitter history is told with moments of cheer and laughter as the incarcerees rallied to build baseball fields, play ball and even travel long distances to proclaim their American heritage through their be-loved baseball.
Interviewees include Tets Furukawa, Howard Zen-imura, Kerry Yo Nakagawa and Bill Staples Jr.
Directed by Yuriko Gamo Romer; written by Romer and Shirley Thompson; produced by Romer and Marc Smolowitz; co-produced by Loi Ameera Almeron.
For tickets, visit the link at https://danceswithfilms.com/baseball-behind-barbed-wire/
Based in San Francisco, Romer holds a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking from Stanford University and is a Student Academy Award winner, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences scholar, and American Association of Japanese University Women scholar. Her current documentary project, “Diamond Diplomacy,” explores the relationship between the U.S. and Japan through a shared love of baseball.
She directed and produced “Mrs. Judo: Be Strong, Be Gentle, Be Beautiful,” the only biographical documentary about Keiko Fukuda (1913-2013), the first woman to attain the 10th-degree black belt in judo. “Mrs. Judo” has traveled to more than 25 film festivals internationally and was awarded the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at the 2013 International Festival of Sport Films in Moscow and broadcast nationally on PBS.
Romer’s short films include “Occidental Encounters,” “Reflection,” “Kids Will Be Kids,” “Sunnyside of the Slope,” “Fusion” and “Friend Ships,” a short historical animation about John Manjiro, the inadvertent Japanese immigrant rescued by an American whaling captain.
Visit her website: www.flyingcarp.net