Forgotten People

This page is to promote the short film "Forgotten People" and also to find collaborators for its feature length version. Filmmaker's HP: www.kenjihayasaki.com

[khayasaki]

I’m happy to announce that our short documentary film “Forgotten People” is selected for international competition and screened at @cinelebu, until March 21st!! It’s such an honor to be selected for this prime film festival (Chile’s sole Oscar qualifier) I hope it gets viewed by many!

https://cinelebu.cl/v3/entra-aqui/competencia/cdi/?fbclid=IwAR2xiqri6ADVchB88i6GM-4Lo4tzizUga0SH0_N8o9j3Cgp2YS_0fv0Guf0

¡Me complace anunciar que nuestro cortometraje documental "Forgotten People" está seleccionado para una competencia internacional y proyectado en @cinelebu, hasta el 21 de marzo! Es un gran honor ser seleccionado para este excelente festival de cine (el único clasificado al Oscar de Chile). ¡Espero que muchos lo vean! 🙏

[khayasaki]

Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund, organized by Ethel Branch

WITHOUT ADDITIONAL SECOND WAVE FUNDING THE NAVAJO & HOPI FAMILIES COVID-19 RE… Ethel Branch needs your support for Navajo & Hopi Families COVID-19 Relief Fund

Major media outlets finally started reporting how badly Navajo Nation was hit by Covid-19 (the worst in the nation, worse than New York), and the support from government came in very late. 

It seems the most urgent / dire situation has passed, but they can still use your help. They have chronic poverty they’ve long struggled with- and second wave is also hitting hard.

The link above is one of the fundraiser sites that I confirm as legit. And the below is another resources that seems reliable (it may be a little outdated - was published in May).

https://mashable.com/article/how-to-help-native-american-communities-coronavirus/

[khayasaki]

Stills captured from “Forgotten People”

[khayasaki]

The film festivals that has selected “Forgotten People” so far 🙏

[khayasaki]

A poster used for film festivals, where the short version of the film is selected.

[khayasaki]

Mission Statement

My intention for this documentary is primarily to record Navajo people’s resilience and their attempt to preserve the culture and traditions, through the lens of an outsider like myself.

As an expat from Japan who had lived in the U.S. for a significant amount of time, I was struck by the similarities Native American people share with the Japanese, when I was first introduced to them. We share not only similar values on old traditions and a family oriented society, but also we both have witnessed its disintegration as a result of rapid modernization, and the subsequent generational gap.

I was born in the suburb of Tokyo at the height of the Japan’s economic boom, and raised to believe in American ways of life and ideology. I remember some of our elders were resentful at Japan’s Americanization and abandonment of our own uniqueness, but in my young mind I thought they were just being backward. 

Our post-war bubble burst shortly after, leaving many with the loss of self-identity and confidence. I left Japan at 17, still uncertain of my own identity, and still naively believing America has everything I looked for.

When I met “Forgotten People”, a group of Navajo elders who had fought to protect their rights and heritage in Navajo reservation in Arizona more than 10 years ago, I felt an inexplicable urge to capture it on my outdated camcorder without having concrete idea of what to do with it. 

I stayed in touch with Navajo people since then, and got to know different generations and learn of their past and present reality. I revisited the Navajo reservation to learn what they have gone through, to understand their perspectives on their current state, and to explore their hopes for the future.

The loss of identity and culture has been a universal phenomenon. I hope this documentary provide the audience with the sense of exploring this common theme, together with me.