A CROSSROAD CALLED MANZANAR is a completed feature-length screenplay written by Cindy Fang and Alice Kim. An adapted short film version is available for purchase through our online store.

GENRE: Coming of Age, Historical Drama

SYNOPSIS:
Months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, racial tensions deepen in Los Angeles, California. As anti-Japanese xenophobia grips the city, the Chinese residents feel pressured to distinguish themselves from their unpopular Japanese neighbors. In the midst of the turmoil, two best friends spend their final moments together, not realizing that their lives will soon be forever changed by the Japanese internment.

OBJECTIVE: We were inspired to make this film when we came across the 1941 Time-Life magazine article, “How to Tell Japs From the Chinese”, a primer on how to physically distinguish between Japanese enemies and Chinese friends. In writing A CROSSROAD CALLED MANZANAR, we wanted to explore how anti-Japanese bigotry during World War II might have affected other Asian American groups.

Our aim is to bring awareness to the general public about this overlooked period of American history. As part of the Civil Liberties grant, a copy of the finished film will be available at the California State Library, and will later be made available on this website. This film will be accompanied with informational materials that can be used by educators and organizations as part of their own teaching modules. We hope this will open dialogue in public school classrooms about the internment and its effects on the community. We also plan to submit the film to festivals, to spur further interest in the topic and the feature version of the story.