Behind the scenes doc about the 1994 movie, The Myazaki Family: Missing In Action. The 6 minute documentary reveals how noble intention can bind a talented team to work on a minimally funded motion picture project of high production values.

Technical: Overlook the low res interview (original Hi-8 edited to analog 3/4SP.) The film sections (16mm neg) was transferred on a Rank at Monaco, mastered from 3/4 SP to 1" analog using a CMX 340. The deal: three weeks off-hours editing time in exchange for a local screening on PBS station KRCB.

Awards: The fiction film won the CINE Golden Eagle and the National Educational Film Festival Silver Apple. Funded by California Council for Humanities and the Japanese-American Council of Sonoma County. Some 30 prints were sold at $250 to libraries and schools through a small educational distributer.

Story: Watching the 20 minute film, we witness the perspective of a man who ruined the farm of his Japanese-American neighbors during their internment. The film, sold to libraries for use in cross-cultural education, stimulates discussion of what Studs Terkel called the key American Dilemma -- how during a time of national stress (such as Pearl Harbor, 9/11, or a depression) communities can be broken by differences in race, class or culture. Or, people can rise to the challenge.

Crew Credits: Based on a story by Gerry Haslam, Script by Michael Litle, Co-directed by Michael Litle and Amy Glazer; Camera by Hillary Morgan; Lighting by Joshua Atesh Litle; Sound by Miguel Mund; editing by Michael Litle.