LOS ANGELES– Screening of Redefining Community: The Evolution of Sawtelle Japantown, a machinima documentary short

LOS ANGELES– The public is invited to attend a public screening of Redefining Community: The Evolution of Sawtelle Japantown, a machinima documentary (short animated documentary film) about the history of Japanese Americans in the Sawtelle area of Los Angeles (now officially recognized as Sawtelle Japantown).  The documentary is intended to appeal to people of all ages because of its engaging animation style. The movie consists of animation, historical photographs, archival video footage, and audio narration in a documentary-style format. The animation is created using the video game Minecraft, which is used to recreate a 3D virtual environment of Sawtelle in the 1930s-70s along with animations of people living there.  Narration of the machinima come from over 20 oral history interviews of people who resided in Sawtelle before and after World War II. The use of the oral histories as narration in the machinima brings to life the significant stories embedded throughout these first-person accounts of the history of Sawtelle.   Wednesday, June 20, 2018, 7:00 pm @ West Los Angeles United Methodist Church West Los Angeles United Methodist Church 1913 Purdue Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90025 For more information, go to http://japantownproductions.com or contact Randall Fujimoto, Producer/Director at randall@japantownproductions.com. This project was supported by California Humanities through a Community Stories grant.