Rating: Not Rated
Movie Release Date: March 2, 2007
DVD Release Date: April 8, 2008
Plot 411: A woman takes in a homeless artist into her home and learns about the life of an interment camp survivor.
Movie Release Date: March 2, 2007
DVD Release Date: April 8, 2008
Plot 411: A woman takes in a homeless artist into her home and learns about the life of an interment camp survivor.
Review: Linda Hattendorf introduces us to a grandmaster artist named Jimmy (Tsutomu) Mirikitani, who she met living in the streets around the corner from her New York apartment. Jimmy was born in Sacramento and educated in Japan. He lived through World War II at Tule Lake, an internment camp for people of Japanese ancestry. This documentary chronicles Linda's friendship with him and her attempt to find him a place of his own. This movie is beautiful, sad, poignant, heartfelt, enraging and so many other things. It begins in New York in early 2001 and, ironically, is able to contrast the events of 9/11 with World War II through first person experiences. It is almost unbearable to know that Jimmy has lived through two of these tragic events and that people have not learned from past wrongs. The racial profiling and prejudice continues 60 years later, but this time it is focused on another minority group. Jimmy's artwork is really something. He carries his supplies in an old shoebox, and the things he can do with Crayola crayons are amazing. It's sad to know that someone with such talent was kept from fully reaching his potential. But, Jimmy's strength to continue to work at something he loves despite his financial situation is inspiring. I guess he really does have an artist's soul. The one thing I found lacking in this doc was a complete history about Jimmy and his situation. It's good to have his testimony, but it'd be more interesting if there was factual data to support him. However, I'm sure there's only so much that you can do to research and find that kind of information. And who knows? Maybe the government destroyed it all as it documents a very dark period in America.
Watch It: For a personal look at prejudice and its psychological, emotional and social effects.
Skip It: Unless you've got a tissue handy because the it's an emotional overload.
2 comments:
hi skycastles, glad you reviewed this documentary. He had this life-long single minded purpose to produce art that you cannot help but admire. His story was very heartwarming. I recently watched "Seraphine" which told a similar true story of a French painter who lived as a poor domestic worker and obsessively painted at night. She was discovered as an important painter later in life but unlike Jimmy, she end up tragically in an insane asylum. I wasn't familiar with her art but the film presented her paintings brilliantly. I have one of her paintings as my computer screen wall paper.
In July, you review another indie I enjoyed, "Long Life, Happiness Prosperity." The Death Note trilogy were very good films as well.
Seraphine sounds interesting so I might need to check it out.
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