Please note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has been cancelled.

NON-ALIEN, a feature documentary by Rea Tajiri

Professor Rea Tajiri will present research materials for a work-in-progress hybrid documentary funded by Chicken & Egg Pictures, and the USA Artist Fellowship.

In 1946, an unemployed Nikkei photographer wanders the streets of Chicago, searching for community through the viewfinder of his camera. On a strip of beach bordering Lake Michigan, he encounters Paul Robeson, Hisaye Yamamoto, Sun Ra, along with his three children who have yet to be born. In the future he will find work as the founding photo editor for Playboy Magazine. In the present, he spends his days surrounded by the spirits of his past and future worlds. In this speculative documentary, filmmaker Rea Tajiri examines the phantom nature of citizenship through the history of the Japanese American Resettlement in Chicago, via the writing and documentary photography left behind by her father, photojournalist Vince Tajiri.