Mist Theater

We Came Back for You is a film poem based on a poem by the same name by Satsuki Ina, a psychotherapist and activist who is one of the featured “heroes” in the exhibition, Transcendients: Heroes at Borders. The film features Ina reciting her poem over a montage of photographs of her during and after her incarceration during World War II, footage preserved in the archives of the Japanese American National Museum, and images of Ina’s current activism that connect the travesty of democracy then to the present-day crisis occurring on the U.S.-Mexico border, where immigrant refugee families are being separated and held in detention centers indefinitely.

Projected onto a screen of mist, the constantly moving and changing imagery evokes the fluidity of a dream state, as the film plays on the vivid yet enigmatic nature of memory, emotions, and imagination. Employing the “found footage” technique, We Came Back for You is a creative collaboration between artist Taiji Terasaki, filmmakers Akira Boch, Karen Ishizuka, Evan Kodani, and Yuka Murakami, and Satuski Ina. We Came Back for You, suggests that the work does not refer solely to the past, but rather highlights the need of trauma survivors to address similar injustices taking place today.

Credits:
We Came Back for You
Produced by Taiji Terasaki and Karen Ishizuka
Poem written and performed by Satsuki Ina
Directed by Akira Boch
Edited by Evan Kodani
Sound Design by Yuka Murakami
Music by Dave Iwataki
A Production of the Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum 2020