ENEMY ALIEN awards, reviews & Tule Lake pilgrimage

“Of great importance to American democracy, Enemy Alien is both timely and moving. We ignore its message at our peril.” - Gary Y. Okihiro, coauthor, Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment

Jason D. Mak Social Justice Award, 2012
PAC Alliance Award for Courage, 2012

RECOMMENDED for Young Adult Curriculum: “a strong reminder of the fragility of human rights and an excellent discussion prompter” – Booklist Online

This week Konrad will present the film at the Tule Lake Pilgrimage 2012 (June 30-July 3), where internment survivors and the larger community gather to learn and share about one of the most egregious episodes of the World War Two incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Konrad continues what began with his life-changing encounters with Tule Lake Segregation Center survivors when he presented Enemy Alien as a work in progress at the 2010 pilgrimage. The relationships formed there have led to the development of his next documentary, the Tule Lake Project (working title).

Other recent news:
Enemy Alien Garners Awards and More at DisOrient 2012
Enemy Alien Recommended by Booklist, Purchased by Universities

After this summer the director will be bringing the film to Japanese American National Museum (September 8) and the Middle East Caucus of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies in Chicago (March, 2013).

Documentary, 2011, 81 minutes
a Palestinian activist’s fight for freedom draws a Japanese American filmmaker into confrontation with detention regimes of past and present.
A project of Life or Liberty

Enemy Alien, a first-person documentary, is the gripping story of the fight to free Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a gentle but indomitable Palestinian-born human rights activist detained in a post-9/11 sweep of Muslim immigrants. Told through the eyes of the filmmaker, the grandson of Japanese Americans interned during World War II, this documentary takes on unprecedented intimacy and historical resonance.

As the filmmaker confronts his own family legacy of incarceration, his involvement in the current struggle deepens. Resistance brings consequences: In retaliation for organizing a massive protest from inside detention, Farouk is beaten and locked in solitary confinement, and his American-born son Tarek is arrested in a counterterrorism investigation into the documentary itself.

Enemy Alien is a project of Life or Liberty, http://lifeorliberty.org  
Film website: http://enemyalien.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EnemyAlien

Twitter: @enemyalien  
Enemy Alien educational distribution & screenings: Third World Newsreel