History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige is a 1991 documentary film by Rea Tajiri. In her film, Tajiri recalls her family's experience of the American internment of the Japanese during World War II.
History and Memory explores the story beyond the recorded history of the internment of the Japanese and Japanese Americans. The film premiered at the 1991 Whitney Biennial exhibition, and has since been screened over 250 times.
Tajiri presents collective history from mainstream mediums, whilst presenting her own history through the memory of real people. To create her own personal history, Tajiri utilizes memory through her family members' experiences, along with photographs and 8mm footage. She also uses mainstream mediums such as, newsreels, Hollywood feature film, and government propaganda.
1991: Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association (Whitney Biennial, World Premiere)1992: Special Jury Prize: "New Visions Category" (San Francisco International Film Festival)1992: Best Experimental Video (Atlanta Film and Video Festival)Named one of the Top 100 American Films by Women DirectorsAll screenings below can be found on the Rea Tajiri Website.
2003-06:
Southern Connecticut State, Asian & Pacific Women Studies ConferenceOnly Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self, ICP, New York1992-93:
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PAInternational Documentary Association Congress, Los Angeles, CAJapan: Inside, Outside, In Between, Artists Space, NYCNational Educational Film & Video Festival, Oakland, CARelocations & Revisions: The Japanese-American Internment Reconsidered, LongBeach Museum of ArtFrancisco International Film Festival, San Francisco, CAUniversity Art Museum, Pacific Film Archives, Berkeley, CAHuman Rights Watch Festival, NYAtlanta Film and Video FestivalFilm &Video Festival, Toronto CANADAIndependent Eye, Broadcast KCET, Los AngelesRotterdam Film & Video Festival, Rotterdam NETHERLANDSBerlin Film Festival, Berlin W. GermanySaratoga Public Library, Saratoga NYVideoscape, Asian Cinevision/ CUNY TV, NY50 Years of Remembrance: Center for New Television, Chicago, ILAsian American Studies Presentation, Univ of Wisconsin MadisonProgram for African Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston ILColumbia College, Chicago, ILA Question of Culture: Interrogating Identity, Madison Art Center, Madison WIUniversity of California Los Angeles, Asian American Film Classroom, Los Angeles, CAAsian American Film and Video Festival, NAATA, Berkeley CAThe Asian American Experience, Walker Center, Minneapolis MINVisible Women, Cycles of Identity, Hallwalls Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo NYCommitted Visions, Museum of Modern Art, NYVideo and Sound: Video Viewpoints series, Museum of Modern Art, NYViper Video Festival, SwitzerlandNew York Center for Urban Folklore, NYWomen’s Media Project, TexasWomen In the Directors Chair FestivalVancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver British ColumbiaFinnish Film FestivalAsian American Women Filmmakers, Wesleyan University, CTUniversity of Chicago, Chicago ILSociety for Cinema Studies Conference, PADanish Film Inst Workshop, Kobenhaven, DENMARKTerritory Series, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin TXEuropean Media Arts Festival, Frankfurt Main GERMANYUniversity of Oklahoma, School of ArtBlackburst, Universitat Salzburg Inst for Publizistik/KommunciationsExperimental 92 Filmclub Xenix,University of Arizona, PhoenixUniversity of Hawaii at MauiFranklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Library, NY1991:
Hawaii Intl. Film FestivalYamagata International Documentary Film FestivalColumbia University, NYPearl Harbor Symposium, Japan Society, NYThe Hybrid State Films, Exit Art and Anthology Film Archives, NYRecent Works by Rea Tajiri, SAW Video Gallery Co-Op, Ontario CANADAFestival D’Ammiens, Ammiens FRANCETriply Split: Subject Bound Three Part, Long Beach Museum of ArtIndependent Feature Project, NYSyracuse University, NYNew Works by and About Asian American Women, LACE and Visual Communications,Los Angeles, CACultural Transitions: Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago ILAFI Video Festival, Los Angeles, CAViper Video Festival, Lucerne SWITZERLANDRobert Flaherty Seminar, Aurora NYWhitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYRace to the Screen, The Euclid Toronto Canada“Tajiri approaches her subject like a poet. She weaves together images and allows them to enrich one another in skewed and subtle ways as their resonances slowly emerge.” (Caryn James, New York Times)American Historical Review Review by Kathleen HulserNew York Times Review by Sarah IngLos Angeles Times Review by Robert Koehler