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Behind the Scenes with Rob Mikuriya, producer of Face to Face
Interview conducted by Johanna Zorn
Editor's Note: Face to Face was created as an
interactive website through ITVS Interactive's Electric Shadows new
media initiative. The complete site contains a comment page, a teachers' guide
and links to many informative sites.
> Why did you choose to juxtapose the stories of Pearl Harbor and 9-11
in your documentary? Why is this an important and relevant comparison?
Our guiding principle for this project centered around the old saying: "Those
who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I felt that the
juxtaposition of these two events would help people gain more understanding,
tolerance and compassion for the people and issues involved, so that what
happened before will never happen again.
> You say that Face to Face "explores what it means to be an American
with the face of the enemy." Were you motivated to tell this story because of
discrimination you or your family members have experienced?
I am a third generation Japanese-American or "sansei." The forced incarceration
of Japanese-Americans during WWII was a big part of my family's history so I
have always been looking for a context in which to explore, illuminate and gain
insight into what happened. As my perspective cleared following the horrifying
and tragic events of 9/11, I realized that a strong connection was developing
between what happened to my parents and other Japanese Americans in the
aftermath of Pearl Harbor and what was happening to Arab and Muslim Americans
today. Face to Face was a way to place both of these traumatic events into a
context that was meaningful and engaging and that would impinge on as wide an
audience as possible.
> Did you approach this documentary expecting to find similarities in
the stories you were told? And, if so, we're you surprised by any of what you
heard?
I definitely expected to find similarities, but I never thought they'd have so
much in common. If you read some of the accounts without reference to age or
time period, you could almost substitute the stories from the 1940's with those
from today. It was also a very gratifying experience for me to get back in
touch with my family's history and find out more about the Japanese American
experience back in the early 1940's. And it was illuminating for me to hear the
experiences of Muslim/Arab/South Asian Americans today as it helped put what
happened to my parents into a modern context.
> Face to Face pulls listeners along in such an interesting way because
there's no narrator to guide us, and we don't even know who's talking at first.
Why did you choose to make the program this way?
Since the stories are so similar in subject and tone, we decided to let them
play by themselves and let the listener figure out which group was talking and
which event was being discussed. It does become obvious rather quickly who is
speaking, but the point we were trying to make is that these two situations are
very similar, yet they occurred 60 years apart. Also since there was just the
slimmest of dramatic threads running through the linear narrative, I felt that
the "mystery" presented by the unadorned voices would help draw the listener
into the stories.
> What does the Face to Face website add to the experience of this
project that the documentary alone doesn't provide?
I felt that the emotional power of the personal stories could be combined with
the interactive power of the internet to create a new kind of media experience.
One in which the user has the ability to explore those aspects of the material
which are most interesting to him or her, creating their own unique narrative
experience each and every time they visit the site. I like to think of the Face
to Face website as an "interactive documentary."
> Now that the U.S. is at war with Iraq do you feel that Face to Face offers any additional relevancy?
The specter of war in the Middle East only increases the public's uneasiness
and mistrust of people who have the face of the enemy. And if there is another
terrorist attack on our country, the antipathy, prejudice and hatred will
escalate to unseen proportions without regard to the constitutional rights that
all Americans possess. Right now, it is imperative that the issues presented by
Face to Face be communicated to and discussed by as many people in as many
situations and venues as possible.
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