1992 | United States | Documentary

Who's Going to Pay for These Donuts Anyway?

  • English - 58 mins
  • Director | Janice Tanaka
  • Writer | Janice Tanaka
  • Producer | Janice Tanaka

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

This experimental documentary chronicles Janice Tanaka’s search for a father she has not seen since she was three years old. Possessing only sketchy information—that he had protested the internment of Japanese Americans citizens after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by writing letters to the President, that he had been arrested by the FBI and subsequently diagnosed as a schizophrenic with paranoid tendencies and institutionalized—Tanaka searched for her missing father for three and a half years. Tanaka blends social and personal memory into an evocative portrait of identity and loss, addressing issues of culture from the perspective of someone who feels pulled in two directions. Blending documentary, diary, narrative and experimental genres, Who’s Going to Pay is emotionally powerful and beautifully made.

Japanese-American Family History Personal Journey WWII Internment Father-Daughter Relationship Autobiographical Experimental Documentary Memory Identity
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