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In this polarized moment, how can the acknowledgement of shared histories really bring about steps towards positive change? The answers continue to unfold after the highly anticipated screening of documentary film MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST. Join community leader and activist, traci kato-kiriyama, in a panel conversation with Danelle Bacoch-Gutierrez (Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley) Monica Mariko Embrey (Manzanar Committee, Sierra Club Organizer) Andy Lipkis (Founder of TreePeople and Accelerate Resilience LA), Ann Kaneko (Director and Producer, MANZANAR, DIVERTED), and Jin Yoo-Kim (Producer, MANZANAR, DIVERTED). This group will discuss concrete ways to get involved in healing our converging and ever-changing communities in the face of climate change.
Featuring:
traci kato-kiriyama (Moderator) is a writer/actor and one half of the award-winning PULLproject Ensemble; director/co-founder of Tuesday Night Project – presenter of the Tuesday Night Cafe series (currently the longest-running Asian American-produced mic series in the country); and Writ Large Press author of a new book still in the birthing process. She has been presented as a performer, poet, theatre deviser, guest lecturer, speaker, facilitator, emcee and Artist-in-Residence at innumerable venues from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington and Hawai’i to Philadelphia, Florida, New York and Toronto.
Andy Lipkis is the Founder of TreePeople and Accelerate Resilience LA. Andy started planting trees to rehabilitate smog and fire damaged forests as a teenager. By age 18, he founded TreePeople, and served as its president from 1973 to 2019. Lipkis is a pioneer of Urban and Community Forestry and Urban Watershed Management. The Society of American Foresters and the American Society of Landscape Architects have, respectively, granted Lipkis the honorary titles of Forester and Landscape Architect in recognition of his life’s work.
Ann Kaneko (director and producer of MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST) is known for her personal films that weave her intimate aesthetic with the complex intricacies of political reality. She is an Emmy winner, and her work has screened internationally and been broadcast on PBS Independent Lens and the Newshour. Fluent in Japanese and Spanish, Kaneko has been a Fulbright and Japan Foundation Artist fellow and been funded by JustFilms/Ford, VisionMaker Media, CAAM, among others. She is a 2020 Film Independent Doc Lab fellow and participated in the 2020 Big Sky Pitch. She is a member of New Day Films, an educational distribution cooperative. She has an MFA from UCLA in film directing, teaches at Pitzer College and is the artist mentor for VC’s Armed with a Camera Fellowship.
Danelle Bacoch-Gutierrez resides on the lands of her Dad, Michael Bacoch, Sr. and is a citizen of the Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley (BPPT), indigenously known as, Tovowahamatu. Her Mom, Geraldine Lundy-Bacoch, is from the Kutzudikah People and their lands are of Mono Lake, Lee Vining areas. Danelle has served many roles for her people and was elected to be the Secretary and Vice-Chairwoman for the Big Pine Paiute Tribal Council, serving five years. She was an elected Owens Valley Indian Water Commissioner, EPA Environmental Advisory Board Member and was a writer for the American Indian Writers Sub-group for Nellis Air Force Base (NAFB), Bighorn Sheep Committee NAFB, Document Review Committee for Dept. of Defense NAFB, Tribal Monitor for NAFB and BPPT, Tribal Revegetation Committee Portland State University and DOI, Ethnographic Manuscript Transcriber and Cultural Committee member for her Tribe where she worked with the Elders of her People and was taught many traditional information to protect and preserve.
Jin Yoo-Kim (producer of MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST) is a Korean Bolivian American filmmaker who is the impact producer for TRY HARDER!, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. She co-produced A WOMAN’S WORK: THE NFL’S CHEERLEADER PROBLEM and K-TOWN ’92. Jin served as the digital engagement impact producer for WAKING DREAM, and was the LA theatrical impact producer for BLOWIN’ UP. She directed a short film as part of the A-Doc #AsianAmCovidStories called SPAMFIGHT! and is developing a food docuseries and writing a feature comedy. She is a 2020-2021 Sundance Creative Producers Fellow, a 2020 Film Independent X CNN Original Series Docuseries Intensive Fellow, a 2020 Film Independent Doc Lab fellow, and was a 2017 Firelight Media Impact Producing Fellow. She received her MFA in Film & TV Production from USC and a BA in Psychology and Cinema & Media Studies from Wellesley College.
Monica Mariko Embrey is the granddaughter of Sue Kunitomi Embrey, who founded the Manzanar Committee and led the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage starting in 1969. As a community organizer based in Los Angeles, Monica follows her grandmother’s footsteps and is a member of the Manzanar Committee. For the last 15 years, Monica has worked to advance climate justice, leading efforts to phase out fossil fuels and advance affordable and accessible clean energy solutions. She is currently a Senior Associate Director at the Sierra Club leading California’s five energy campaigns.
