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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT " Conscience and the Constitution, an emotionally charged documentary about Japanese American draft resisters during World War II, scored the festival's audience award for best feature. After refusing to be drafted out of U.S. internment camps until their constitutional rights were restored, the resisters spent years in federal penitentiaries-followed by decades of ostracism from members of their own Japanese American community. Director Frank Abe's crew included Eyes on the Prize II editor Lillian Benson, who helped weave the admittedly complex, multifaceted story into a cohesive narrative, as well as some of the top Asian American voice talents in the business."Abe gave the film a sense of urgency by incorporating recent events into the film-most notably, the ongoing discussion on whether the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), the community's leading civil rights organization, should make a formal apology to the resisters for its past actions against them. Anti-JACL sentiment ran high in the packed house: when resistance leader Frank Emi described a pro-JACL war hero as an "asshole" in the film, the crowd erupted in laughter. In addition to raising consciousness about a long-forgotten part of history, Abe's powerfully persuasive film-due to air on public television early next yearwill probably have a major impact on the Japanese American community's current debate over this hot-button issue" The Independent Magazine "Director Frank Abe rejected the traditional internment camp film narrative -- with the US government as sole villains, and the Japanese Americans as victims/sheep -- in favor of a critical look at the actions of the Japanese American community itself. His film particularly blasts members of the Japanese American Citizens League, the community's leading civil rights organization, for its mistreatment and decades-long ostracism of the "resisters of conscience" who refused to be drafted out of the camps. Considering the Japanese American community's historical tendency to fund more positive, "uplift the race" types of projects, Abe's documentary, seven years in the making, took a great deal of courage both to create and present. The powerful film generated a lot of favorable fan buzz and media attention -- probably helped along by the appearance of several of the draft resisters who appeared in the film at a post-screening reception-and went on to win the festival's audience award for best feature film." Robert Ito, International Documentary Magazine "Incendiary… There's no pulling at heartstrings or brow-beating here. There's no need to, the material speaks for itself…. Guaranteed to raise controversy, this documentary really is a case of conscience and constitution no longer being swept under the carpet." Allan deSouza, VC FilmFest program notes "A thoroughly watchable piece of untold history which should find a well-deserved home on public television and in educational distribution." Greg Pak, AsianAmericanFilm.com HOME | DOCUMENTS | STUDY CENTER | NEWS | LINKS | ABOUT US | E-MAIL Updated: September 6, 2000 |