American Documentary

  • Watch
  • Engage
  • Create
  • Donate
  • POV
  • America ReFramed
  • Interactive
American Documentary
  • Impact
  • Resources
  • Events

Discussion Guide

Manzanar, Diverted Screening Guide

Film Summary & About This Guide

manzanar-diverted.png
  • Film Summary & About This Guide
view full resource
  • Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust

Every mountain up here has a story behind it. Those are part of who we are and where we come from. If they come in and change the land, those stories become meaningless.

Kathy Jefferson Bancroft, Lone Pine Pauite-Shoshone Tribe
Film Summary

At the foot of the majestic snow-capped Sierras, Manzanar, the WWII concentration camp, becomes the confluence for memories of Payahuunadü, the now-parched “land of flowing water.” Intergenerational women from Native American, Japanese American and rancher communities form an unexpected alliance to defend their land and water from the City of Los Angeles.

Filmed over five years, the documentary captures stunning and intimate imagery of Payahuunadü/Owens Valley, combined with archival gems and careful research to narrate this epic tale of the American West. It begins before colonizers came and then shows how the US Army and settlers forced out the Nüümü and Newe; how the LA Aqueduct sucked the Valley dry; how incarcerated Japanese Americans made the land green again; how Patsiata/Owens Lake became a health hazard and how this Valley now bears the pain of these stories and the consequences of losing water to diversion.

Using this Screening Guide

This resource created for Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust supports educational and community screenings. It encourages viewers to consider our responsibilities to our past and how we might confront and build a better future. How can you use this guide to build community as well as form coalitions with other communities?

Every mountain up here has a story behind it. Those are part of who we are and where we come from. If they come in and change the land, those stories become meaningless.

Kathy Jefferson Bancroft, Lone Pine Pauite-Shoshone Tribe
Film Summary

At the foot of the majestic snow-capped Sierras, Manzanar, the WWII concentration camp, becomes the confluence for memories of Payahuunadü, the now-parched “land of flowing water.” Intergenerational women from Native American, Japanese American and rancher communities form an unexpected alliance to defend their land and water from the City of Los Angeles.

Filmed over five years, the documentary captures stunning and intimate imagery of Payahuunadü/Owens Valley, combined with archival gems and careful research to narrate this epic tale of the American West. It begins before colonizers came and then shows how the US Army and settlers forced out the Nüümü and Newe; how the LA Aqueduct sucked the Valley dry; how incarcerated Japanese Americans made the land green again; how Patsiata/Owens Lake became a health hazard and how this Valley now bears the pain of these stories and the consequences of losing water to diversion.

Using this Screening Guide

This resource created for Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust supports educational and community screenings. It encourages viewers to consider our responsibilities to our past and how we might confront and build a better future. How can you use this guide to build community as well as form coalitions with other communities?

About the authors

Screen Shot 2020-07-24 at 12.24.04 PM.png

Blueshift

Blueshift is a team of education specialists with background in environmental and social impact work. The team recognizes and builds on the power of documentary film in reaching broad audiences to spark energy for deep and lasting social change. The team works with filmmakers, photographers and writers to develop innovative educational strategies, experiences, tools and resources that bring stories off the screen and into viewers' lives.

Press Room

American Documentary Receives Four News & Documentary Emmy Awards Nominations ‘POV’ Follows Peabody Award-Winning Director Judith Helfand As She Lives Through Her Mother’s Good Death and Asks: What Do We Really Need to Leave Our Children?, in Love & Stuff 'POV' presenta la galardonada Faya Dayi, una mirada íntima en cómo las fuerzas geopolíticas, económicas y climáticas están moldeando a una generación de etíopes
More from The Press Room

Discover

Discover more great
Discussion Guides

Create

Explore resources &
funds for filmmakers
American Documentary
Follow us on:
    • About Us
    • Careers
    • Press Room
    • Privacy Policy
    • Watch
    • Engage
    • Create
    • Donate
    • POV
    • America ReFramed
    • Interactive

    Subscribe to our newsletter:

    PBS
    MacArthur
    Open Society Foundations
    Wyncote Foundation
    Perspective Fund
    National Endowment for the Arts
    Reva and David Logan
    Acton Family Giving
    Park Foundation
    NYSCA
    NYCA
    © 2022 American Documentary
    American Documentary is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization (EIN: 13-3447752)