PROGRAM 14

SAT, MAY 1 | DOUBLE FEATURE PRESENTATION | 2:00 PM | DGA 1

GEORGE & BRAD IN BED + LT. WATADA + SING CHINA! DATE: SAT, MAY 1 TIME: 2:00 PM VENUE: DGA 1 BUY TICKETS

From Academy Award winning director and five-time Oscar nominee Freida Lee Mock (MAYA LIN: A STRONG CLEAR VISION, 1995) come two very different documentaries that showcase the broad scope of her vision and her impeccable skills as a storyteller. Actor George Takei (“Sulu” of STAR TREK and the subject of GEORGE AND BRAD IN BED will host today’s screening event.

LT. WATADA
(United States, 2009) Dir.: Freida Lee Mock
HD CAM, 40 min., color, documentary

LT. WATADA does what documentary does best: investigation and advocacy. It’s an in-depth look at the case of Lieutenant Ehren Watada who was court marshaled for refusing deployment to Iraq on the grounds that the current war is both immoral and illegal. Inspired to join the Army after 9/11, Watada was encouraged by his battalion commander to learn everything he could about Iraq and the war. This research led him to conclude that the U.S. invasion was an act of aggression based on lies. He also found it was in violation of the oath he swore as a soldier to uphold and defend the Constitution. The film charts his emergence as a public speaker and activist who has become a hero of the anti-war movement and a target for pro-war protestors. It also chronicles the tense days of his trial, in which the military flatly denied his primary defense. This thoughtful and incisive documentary is both an inspirational portrait of one man’s act of conscience and a powerful investigation into questions that threaten to unravel the government’s justification for the Iraq war.

SING CHINA!
(United States, 2009) Dir.: Freida Lee Mock
HD CAM, 72 min., color, documentary, in English and Mandarin w/E.S.

Striking an entirely different note, SING CHINA! is Mock’s follow up to her 2002 Oscar-nominated short SING! about the much lauded, community-based Los Angeles Children’s Choir. It follows the multiracial, 60-person group, whose members are all between the ages of 11 and 17, on a whirlwind tour of China, from Shanghai to Xian, Beijing to Hong Kong. As they perform at venues large and small and take in the sights, the film captures China’s rapidly changing landscape from a child’s perspective. The kids trade songs with a flashy Shanghai children’s choir, perform under the shadow of Mao in the Great Hall of the People, and learn how to barter in Beijing’s street markets. Throughout, their enthusiasm and sense of wonder are heartwarming, and their surprisingly insightful responses to cultural difference offer hope for the future of international relations. But above all, the film is a testament to the power of musical education, not only as a means of personal growth, but as a way of bridging the gap between cultures.
— Sharon Mizota

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COMMUNITY CO-PRESENTERS: Asian Pacific American Legal Center; IDA

Preceded by

	GEORGE AND BRAD IN BED (United States, 2009) Dir.: Jessica Sanders Video, 6 min., color, documentary Profiling the recent marriage and 21-year relationship between actor George Takei (Star Trek’s Captain Sulu) and his husband and lifelong partner Brad Altman, this film pays an homage to John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “bed-in” by interviewing the two in bed.