Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama
(71 minutes), 2024
live action and animation documentary
Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama tells the epic journey of the late Japanese Canadian photographer Tamio Wakayama who decides to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the deep south during the 1960’s American civil rights movement. Learning the art of dark room photography along the way, this transformative moment in time allows him to confront his own identity and return ‘home’ to the west coast of Vancouver to begin a body of photographic work that continues to celebrate, re-present and document the spirit of Japanese Canadians who resided in the former Paueru Gai/Powell Street neighborhoods.
Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama will be part of Doxa Documentary FIlm Festival. For more information, please visit here.
Director, writer, producer, & animation: Cindy Mochizuki
Cinematographer & editor: Milena Salazar
Lead production artist & animation compositing: Wen Wen (Cherry) Lu
Narrator: Hiro Kanagawa
Interviewees: Judy Richardson, Mas Nakawatase, Leslie Kelen, Michiko Sakata, Linda Hoffman, Bryce Kanbara, Paul Wong, Kathy Shimizu
Sound Design, composer & musical collaborator: Chiyoko Szlavnics
Guitar: Seth Joel
Taiko, percussion & shamisen: Onibana Taiko (E. Kage and Noriko Kobayashi)
C & bass flutes: Rebecca Lenton
Shakuhachi: Takeo Yamashiro
Recorded at Studio Adam Asnan, Berlin
Recording Engineer: Adam Asnan
SEM, akademie de Künste, Berlin
Recording Engineer: Malte Giesen
Monarch Studios, Vancouver
Recording Engineer: Alex Penney, Aaron Klassen, Michelle Irving
Colourist: So Young Park
Distributions Producer: Kazuho Yamamoto and Alex Rosenthal
Tailer Editor: Candelario Andrade
Medio Production Assistant: Amanda Sum
Camera Assistant/Transcription Support: Jacob Willcott
We acknowledge the encouragement and guiding support of Mayu Takasaki through the re-telling of this incredible journey of the late Tamio Wakayama (1941-2018).
Produced in the support of: Telus Originals, The Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, The Audain Foundation, and The Asian Canadian Studies Society.
Community sponsors: Powell Street Festival Society and the Japanese American National Museum.