Buena Vista United Methodist Church
Getting ready for the screening
Reverend Michael Yoshii and filmmaker Konrad Aderer
Post-screening discussion
It was an uncanny feeling to be screening Enemy Alien at Buena Vista Union Methodist Church, a site with deep historical roots in the Japanese American community and a congregation heavily involved in progressive social change both in the U.S. and abroad.
The meeting hall where the screening was held was built by Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrants to the U.S.) in 1926. Reverend Michael Yoshii has been their pastor the last 21 years, spearheading the church’s active engagement with a full range of human rights issues including affordable housing, LGBT Pride, halting violence and kidnappings by paramilitary groups in the Phillippines, and support for Palestinian communities in Gaza and the West Bank.
At the screening, Michael spoke of the meaningful chain of events that brought Enemy Alien to his attention.
A young Palestinian named Amer Shurrab was at my April 12 screening of Enemy Alien in Manhattan. Some time later he put me in touch with Michael, who happened to be making a trip to NYC. It was then that I learned Amer’s brothers had been killed by Israeli forces during last winter’s attacks on Gaza (Watch & read Amer’s story on Daily Kos and Democracy Now!). Michael Yoshii had helped organize a public hearing in CA where Amer gave testimony about what happened to his family. At that hearing, Amer told Michael about my documentary Enemy Alien.
BVUMC also sends delegations to Gaza and the West Bank to help Palestinian communities overcome the economic isolation imposed by the Occupation. This was in effect the documentary’s debut for Japanese Americans. To find a JA community so engaged with the Palestinian struggle, and for them to receive the documentary with such enthusiasm was very inspiring.
