More on Good Luck Soup

Good Luck Soup is a transmedia documentary project on the journey of Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians before, during, and after World War II.

Told through both a traditional film and an interactive documentary, the feature film tells the story of one Japanese American family, while the interactive film tells the stories of many.

Description from Project Site

I’m particularly drawn to this project for several reasons. It originates from the desire of the filmmaker, Matthew Hashiguchi, to document his family’s stories. It functions as a space for his family, and other Japanese Americans, to easily share their stories and images. And, it offers a model for supplementing and providing additional perspectives to Hashiguchi’s own telling of the story through his documentary.

For my The Farm project, I’m interested in collecting and sharing stories from people who visited, lived or worked at my family’s farm. I’m hoping to use those stories to supplement/complement my own narrative/s about the Farm. I’m always looking for models for how to do that online.

Since the full version of this site won’t launch until October 6th, I can’t write a lot about how it works online right now. But, I wanted to mention Hashiguchi’s method for collecting stories:

  • Oral histories collected through “interview gathering sessions” conducted in select cities
  • Online submissions
  • Submissions e/mailed to Hashiguchi

I look forward to checking out the full site and how stories are submitted and displayed online. I checked out the Kickstarter video and I like how the stories will be mapped and how submitters can provide a name and stories/photos about their birthplace, internment camp and current location. Will that still be possible in the final version? I hope so.

In addition to collecting stories and photos from family/community members, Hashiguchi is also using archival footage:

The historical footage and photographs used were available, royalty free, through the National Archives. I’d say a majority of the historical footage comes from WWII propaganda films. Photographers Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange also made much of their work from the internment camps available to the public and for educational purposes, which is certainly what we’re doing.

Matthew Hashiguchi

Is footage like this available for the UP/Amasa?

Good Luck Soup

This morning, I came across the interactive documentary Good Luck Soup. I want to spend some more time exploring it tomorrow. Here are some sources:

After spending just a minute skimming the story bench article, I’m excited to read more about how/why the creator, Matthew Hashiguchi, created the interactive documentary to complement his traditional, feature-length documentary. He writes:

While I continued to work on the documentary film about my family, I discovered many unique stories on the Japanese American and Japanese Canadian experience that didn’t fit within the single narrative of my family. So I created the interactive web experience for people like myself and family members to share their own stories and experiences as Japanese Americans or Japanese Canadians.

Matthew Hashiguchi

Confessional Writing

Over the past few days, I’ve encountered several online discussions about confessional writing. I hoped to write a blog post today in which I put some of the key ideas from these discussions into conversation with each other. But now, with only a few minutes left before my daughter gets home from school, I must concede defeat. I’ve hardly begun the post.

I’m struggling to put into words why discussions about confessional writing matter to me. I know it has something to do with all of my pre-dissertation research and writing on the importance of personal experience within feminist theory. Conversations abut confessional writing and the benefits and drawbacks of using personal experience are so central to my introduction to feminism in college that I don’t know where to begin writing about them here.  

So, I’ll stop trying. Instead I will just archive the essays here in the hopes that I can return to them tomorrow…maybe after a good head-clearing walk?

In addition to reading these carefully, I want to put them into conversation with this blog post: On Empathy.

And…even more running stories

I’m struggling to find running stories that counter the dominant narrative of the “My Running Story.” I’ve been talking about this “master narrative” for the past few posts.

Here’s a brief description of the “my running story” narrative:

It has a beginning (I was never a runner), middle (I found a love for running and got fast) and end (I struggled with injury or motivation but have triumphed).

It often includes a list of races/personal best times.

It is usually centered on signing up for and running/competing in races–often marathons.

It is frequently found on blogs with running/training tips + corporate sponsorships + product reviews. 

In many ways, this narrative resonates for me. I think a lot about my times. I like running in races. I frequently understand my own story as about “someone who never thought that they could run” and then learned to love it. But, this narrative is not the only way that I experience/understand myself as a runner. I’m interested in reading other stories about running, stories that offer different perspectives on why and how we run.

I’m having some trouble finding these counter narratives. I’m sure that they exist, they just don’t come up as easily in my google searches. I’ll keep looking. For now, here are two counter stories:

Running with the Pack

by Mark Rowlands, a philosopher. I just recalled this from the library. In an interview with Runner’s World, Rowlands encourages us to think about the  intrinsic (running for running’s sake) value of running instead of just the  instrumental (running for achieving goals, races, losing weight) value.

What I Talk about When I Talk about Running

by Haruki Murakami, a fiction writer. Shortly after starting to run in 2011, I bought this audiobook. I frequently listened to it as I struggled to work up to a 5k distance. Now, after combining iTunes accounts with my husband, I can’t seem to find it. I’d like to listen to it again and see how my perspective has changed. I wonder, should I buy the book again?

The Runners, a short documentary

A few minutes ago, I randomly remembered this great documentary that I watched over a year ago: The Runners. Here’s a brief description:

Pounding the tarmac through the seasons, a band of runners are brazenly challenged with intimate questions as they pace their routes. Liberated from responsibilities, their guards drop dramatically, releasing funny and brutally frank confessions, and weaving a powerful narrative behind the anonymous masses.

Sheffield Documentary Festival

I’d like to write more about it, but I need to pick my daughter up from school in 15 minutes. For now, I’ll just post it.

Related Link:

The Runners: why we interviewed people jogging