A Santa Ana based media production company, Video Resources Inc., has begun production on their first documentary feature film, Three Lenses. The film will explore the internment of innocent Japanese-American citizens during World War II, as seen through the camera lenses of three famous photographers: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Manzanar Relocation Camp internee Toyo Miyatake.
Three Lenses Executive Producer Ecar Oden believes the story of the internment has great relevance for today's world. "Some Americans possess a passing knowledge of the internment. But they may not appreciate the role that fear, racism and greed played in the singling out of an entire race of people - most of whom were American citizens - largely because they shared 'the face of the enemy.' Three Lenses isn't so much a Japanese-American story as it is an American story. It could easily happen again, as (Supreme Court) Justice Scalia recently pointed out.
"Thanks to the work of these three photographers, Adams, Lange and Miyatake, we have a visual record of this injustice, as seen from three very different viewpoints."
As of February, 2014, more than a dozen interviews with historians, camp internees and family members have been filmed, with more scheduled in the coming months. However, finding former internees to appear on camera has
been a challenge, according to writer-producer, Jeff Redd. "More than 120,000 men and women were relocated to the 10 internment camps during WWII, but few remain that are willing or able to tell of their first hand experiences there. We would love to speak with any former internee willing to share their stories, journals, home movies or photos."
Joining Oden and Redd on the production team are writer/producer Denis Donovan and director Brad Hagen. Donovan is an industry veteran with dozens of documentary features to his credit, and Hagen is Video Resources' founder and CEO.
Three Lenses was awarded the prestigious Abel Cine Documentary Grant, in competition with 86 other documentary concepts, last October. A crowdfunding campaign planned for later this spring will help cover
additional production costs. Production updates and interview clips are available on the Three Lenses Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/threelenses, and on Twitter @threelenses .
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