I graduated from USC Film School in '90. Since then, I've sold some feature scripts that died horrible deaths in "
Development."
I co-produced and co-edited a documentary ("Reunion") with Oscar winner Chuck Workman that was the official selection at numerous film festivals. I'm currently in need of post-production assistance to push my documentary, "What did you do in the War, Mama?: Kochiyama's Crusaders" over the Finish Line. It grew out of my play, "Bits of Paradise," about the women of the Japanese American Internment who were led in a campaign by fellow prisoner of war, Yuri Kochiyama, who would go on to hold Malcolm X's head while he died (a famous photo) and be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Shooting began in 2009. Only a few pick-up shots are left. Otherwise, the material is good to go for assembly. Last year, a staged reading was performed of "Bits of Paradise" at Hollywood's Rogue Machine Theatre. In 2009, "Bits of Paradise" debuted at The Marsh Theatre in San Francisco. I directed and co-produced with Ariel Kayoko Labasan. I also professionally ghostwrite screenplays, and taught Screenwriting at the now defunct Pacific Film Factory in Santa Barbara. I currently reside in Los Angeles. Oops! I hit SAVE before posting a trailer for my film-in-progress. Oh, well. Them's the breaks!
So here's the mockup for the film's poster.
Hello Everyone. Just thought I'd drop in and say hello to everyone. Like many of you I am a writer first and foremost. I am also a small business owner, a Poet, an author, a lyricist and a producer. Success thus far has been very interesting to say the least. That being said, KEEP YOUR DAY JOB!
I see there are many requests that I need to reply to and I will do so for everyone listed.
Oh and yes I'm looking for as many Features or Shorts Screenwriting opportunities that are available to me. They can be any Genre, Any rating, Union and Non-Union. Lyricist and Poetry as well.
Since you have interest in WWII Japanese Internment, may I suggest similar topics. There is a wonderful book called, "One Sunny Day", written by Hideko Tamura Snider. I met this lady in the 1990s. She was a little girl when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Her father was away in the Japanese military, and she was at home with her family when this occurred. The book is her account of that day, and is a wonderful and very interesting telling. After the war, she moved to America, married a Jewish man and lived in Chicago. I used to keep email contact with her, but I've lost contact over the years and I don't know if she is even still alive.
I had personal interest because my father Sergeant H.C. Nixon was captured in Guam a few days after Pearl Harbor and spent the entirety of WWII in Japanese POW camps. After the war, he and a friend, Lt. E.L. Guiery, who was in the POW camps with him, narrated their experiences to author Stephen Marek in a book published in 1954 called, "Laughter In Hell." I was separated from my father because my mother left him before I was born. He lived in Los Angeles, and my mother was from the backwoods of Arkansas. She came back to Arkansas while still pregnant with me, and then was killed when I was five years old. My grandparents raised me and would not allow me to contact my father. From what I can discern, she left him because of his behavior related to PTSD due to his experiences in the war. When I was eighteen, I reached him by writing the publishing company of his book, and he came to Arkansas to meet me for the first time just before I started college in 1973. We then began our relationship from that point. Up until that point, my only connection with him was the copy of his book that he had autographed to my mother. There is an article about my father called, "Standing in the Shadow of Courage" which is published on the blog page of my website, if you would like to read it. www.karlyletomms.com
WWII was a very troubling and interesting time, and out of it came multiple stories, some true and some created for Hollywood. It seems that the European theater has received the greatest attention because of Hitler, but the Japanese experience both within the United States and within Japan, has not received the attention it deserves.
Someday, I would like to visit Japan and see the places where my father was held in Umeda and Tsuruga. If you have any interest in talking further, I would be happy to share my own experiences. My father's book is out of print, and at the present time, my sister is attempting to get it republished. I understand that my father's journal, which he kept during internment, and hid from the Japanese, is in the National Museum of USMC. That is also on the list of places I want to visit someday.
In the meantime, blessings to you and to your work.
KT.
1 person likes this
Thank you for this information. I don't see anything that indicates that you understand that most of the people who were interned in the Japanese American internment camps were Americans and not Japanese. They were Japanese Americans who were born in the U.S. These young men volunteered to fight in World War II to prove their patriotism while their families were held behind the barbed wire of US camps. It's very easy for ignorant Americans--when they hear about this topic--to misunderstand and think my film is about the Japanese.
Yes, I do understand that. I was only suggesting that you might also have interest in related topics, specifically my father's book.
Ah development hell. Such a thrill, no? Glad to hear you are still charging on, Marlan!