KEET scores grants for unique doc that uses Japanese woodblock animation

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KEET-TV in Eureka, Calif., one of the smallest stations in the pubTV system, has received two grants for its documentary, J.A. JIVE: Jazz Music in the Japanese American Internment Camps (w.t.), which uses Japanese woodblock animation. The National Park Service selected it as one of 24 projects to get $2.9 million to “preserve and interpret sites where Japanese Americans were confined during World War II.” The hourlong work by local artist Amy Uyeki won $96,465 and was one of three projects cited in a press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The documentary also received $22,000 from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

KEET-TV producers Claire Reynolds and Sam Green are collaborating with Uyeki to tell the stories of former internees who played music in the camps, through interviews and historical footage combined with a 10-minute animated short based on actual events. Uyeki’s parents were both interned with their families at Gila River and Minidoka Internment Camps. The doc will be offered free in late spring 2012 to PBS stations.

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