April 2nd at 7 pm
I G Greer Theater
A Sustainability Film Series Event
Patrick Nagatani: Photographic Innovator • Storyteller • Artist
Director and Editor: Lynn Estomin
52:05 min. ©Women’s Film Project, 2018
SHORT SYNOPSIS:
Living in the Story documents thirty-five years of art making by the distinguished photographic artist Patrick Ryoichi Nagatani, one of the most brilliant photographic artists of our era. In the late 1970s, he pioneered the Contemporary Constructed Photographic Movement in Los Angeles, developing a new visual vocabulary by constructing tableau photographs from sets, sculptures, models, and paintings. The film portrays an artist deeply concerned and well informed about world events who uses imagery, storytelling and narrative fiction to raise awareness about modern anxieties, with an emphasis on the threat of nuclear weapons technology. Nagatani has also explored healing techniques and states of consciousness in which the material world is transcended. Despite the serious content of his subject matter, his innovative images are compelling and entertaining. An engaging raconteur and teacher, Nagatani talks in the film about his projects, his unorthodox photographic techniques, and his subtle weaving together of fiction and fact. Scott
Nagatani’s hauntingly beautiful music score provides the film’s soundtrack.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:
Over twenty years ago, I had the privilege of meeting and becoming friends with Patrick Nagatani, a truly exceptional artist, activist and storyteller. Patrick was an amazing mentor whose enthusiasm for life and photography and his innovative approach to combining storytelling, history, politics, identity, community and multiple mediums into seamless imagery greatly influenced my own approach to creating art on political and cultural issues. He was a kind, gentle, thoughtful, compassionate and generous person. I was honored and humbled to collaborate on creating Living in the Story, a documentary about his life and work. I say collaborate because filmmaking is always a collaborative process; but also, because Patrick was very much a partner in this project. It is his story; the film is driven by his personality, storytelling and art. – Lynn Estomin
DIRECTOR’S BIO:
Lynn Estomin is a video and interactive media artist who creates art that speaks to social issues. As an artist who deals with political subjects, she is interested in human stories and what they tell us about society. Estomin has directed nine documentaries on a variety of human rights issues including domestic violence, women in the military, garment workers, Katrina, teenage pregnancy and racial profiling. Her award-winning documentaries have been exhibited at film festivals internationally and broadcast nationally on PBS. Her web art won awards from Adobe Corporation and The Webby Awards. She received grants and fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Art Matters Inc., Cincinnati Commission on the Arts, Kodak Corporation, Ilford Corporation, Sony Corporation, SIGGRAPH, the Luce Foundation, and the Women's Film Project. Estomin is Professor of Digital Art and Design Emeritus at Lycoming College in PA.
COMPOSER’S BIO
Scott Nagatani started playing piano at the age of 5. He studied classical music until his teens, graduating to rock & soul music, later jazz improvisation. Musical director credits include: East West Players theatre (1980-2005), the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles (1993- 2008), Grateful Crane Ensemble (2001-present). He composed the music for Visas & Virtue (1997), which won an Academy Award in the short live action category. CD productions - Readers’ Theatre Project: Celebrating Children's Books, East West Players Sings Sondheim, Nihonmachi - The Place To Be. Scott has composed music for about 150 children’s books - many on YouTube. He was honored by the Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California for musical contributions to the community. He is currently focusing on bilingual (English and Japanese) music. One of Scott’s lifetime ambitions was to collaborate on something with Patrick, and hopes that the music for Living In The Story honors his brother’s work.
PATRICK NAGATANI SHORT BIO:
Patrick Ryoichi Nagatani was a distinguished Sansei (third-generation Japanese American) photographer and multimedia artist who pioneered the Contemporary Constructed Photographic Movement in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, developing a new visual vocabulary by constructing tableau photographs from sets, sculptures, models, and paintings. In 1987 Nagatani moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to teach photography at the University of New Mexico. Over the next three decades he produced a number of significant bodies of
work: “Nuclear Enchantment” (1988-1993) - 40 photo-dramas depicting New Mexico as the birthplace of the Nuclear Age; “10 Japanese American Concentration Camps”(1993-1995); “Novellas” (1991-2004) - photo-collages about western culture’s popular obsessions; “Ryoichi/Nagatani Excavations” (1985-2000) - a fictional “documentary” about automobiles anachronistically buried at famous pre-historic sites around the world; “Chromatherapy” (2000-2015) - a series about healing the body through colored lights; “Tape-estries” (1982- 2010) - large colored prints of Asian Buddhas and Bodhisattvas selectively “veiled” with masking tape, and “The Race: Tales in Flight” (2013) - photographs and stories of solo flights as told by women pilots.
WEBSITE AND CONTACT:
http://www.patricknagatanilivinginthestory.com Lynn Estomin, estomin@lycoming.edu, 570-974-1703
©Women’s Film Project, 2018
AWARDS:
Best Feature Documentary Film, Dalmatia Film Festival, Split, Croatia
Best Medium Length Film, Festival Internacional de Cine de Autor, Guadalajara. Mexico
Honorable Mention Documentary Award, Asians on Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA
PAST SCREENINGS:
Asians on Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA Film Festival of Columbus, Columbus, OH Benicia Film Festival, Benicia, CA
Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA
Alexandre Trauner Art/Film Festival Panorama Section, Szolnok, Hungary Cinalfama Lisbon International Film Awards, Lisbon, Portugal
Festival Internacional de Cine de Autor, Guadalajara. Mexico Dalmatia Film Festival, Split, Croatia
NewFilmmakers @ Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Griffin Museum of Photography/Laconia Gallery, Boston, MA
Society for Photographic Education (SPE) National Conference, Philadelphia, PA The Neon Theater, Dayton, OH
Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Pittsburgh, PA
Center for Contemporary Photography, Tucson, AZ
Vermont Center for Photography/Insight Photography Project, Brattleboro, VT Max Kade Theatre, Colorado Springs, CO
Anderson Center for the Arts, Oneonta, NY Antioch Community Cinema, Yellow Springs, OH Edgewood College, Madison, WI
University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Arizona University, Tucson, AZ Otterbein University, Columbus, OH Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA
UPCOMING SCREENINGS:
MICA/Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD Appalachian State University, Boone, NC
Duke University, Durham, NC
Los Angeles Center of Photography, Los Angeles, CA
FEATURING:
Patrick Nagatani
PRODUCERS:
Lynn Estomin Miguel Gandert Patrick Nagatani Andrew Smith
DIRECTOR/EDITOR:
Lynn Estomin
CINEMATOGRAPHER:
Miguel Gandert
CREDITS:
SOUND ENGINEERS:
Tim Breon Matthew Davis Austin Gorrigan Hiro Morozumi
ANIMATORS:
Lynn Estomin Daniel Nienhuis
PHOTOGRAPHS/ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE:
Patrick Nagatani Lynn Estomin
COMPOSER/MUSIC PRODUCER:
Scott Nagatani
VOCALS:
Keiko Kawashima Lynn Estomin
POST PRODUCTION:
Matthew Davis editfreak cut/fx
INTERVIEWERS:
Andrew Connors Miguel Gandert Michele Penhall Andrew Smith
Linda Old Horn
KNME-TV Albuquerque Library of Congress Periscope Film LLC
Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA) PA-MU-233.2
Los Alamos National Laboratory VideoBlocks
FUNDING:
Lycoming College Professional Development
Women’s Film Project Andrew Smith Galler