The artist and filmmaker Cindy Mochizuki discusses her new documentary Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama, with Joseph Planta.

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

I, like a lot of people in this town, have seen the photographs of Tamio Wakayama without realising who took the often stunning photos. He was the longtime photographer of the Powell Street Festival, helping found it, and doing many other works of service here in Vancouver, in and around the Japanese Canadian community, and other arts communities. A new documentary sheds some light on the life and times of Wakayama, who died in 2018. Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama is the title of the important film by the artist Cindy Mochizuki. In the film, she illuminates the work of Wakayama, whether it’s the midst of the Civil Rights movement in the United States in the 1960s, or in trips to Japan later on, or back in Vancouver when he returns to find his roots on the west coast. He was born in New Westminster in 1941, when he and his family are declared enemy aliens, and forced into an internment camp. This experience made him not just sympathetic but moved to action during the 1960s, when he goes to the United States to join SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was an important organisation in the Civil Rights movement. Wakayama arrives and does what he can like drive people or sweep up. He’s soon given a camera and told to document various events like protests and marches, and through SNCC’s publication The Student Voice, photography of what was going on was able to be circulated through the south and throughout the United States. As the film beautifully illustrates through interviews, animation, as well as the beautiful photographs Wakayama took, we see how Wakayama reconciles his early experiences with the internment, and his own cultural and political identity back in Canada. He’s such a unique and remarkable artist, that this journey to finding peace with his heritage and his family’s history, makes the film fascinating and visually stunning. Cindy Mochizuki is a multimedia Japanese Canadian artist, who works in various media like drawings, installations, performance, video works, and film. Visit www.cindymochizuki.com for more information. The first screening of this film is already sold out, but you know what it’s like in this town, if you show up Sunday afternoon at 5.00pm at The Cinematheque, there might be standby tickets. The next showing is next Thursday, 09 May 2024 at 12.30pm at SFU Downtown. Visit www.doxafestival.ca for tickets and information. We taped this interview one week ago. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Cindy Mochizuki; Ms. Mochizuki, good morning.

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