Screening and Discussion: “Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust”

Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust (2021) details an intergenerational story of a small parcel of land with its own complex environmental and political history. Prior to World War II, Native Americans were driven out of the place they called Payahuunadü, the “land of flowing water,” marking the land with colonial violence. Local farmers and ranchers who worked the land were bought out by the LA Department of Water and Power. During the war, Manzanar served as an incarceration site for Japanese Americans forcibly displaced from their homes. Filmmaker Ann Kaneko recounts this history of government mistreatment and social injustice with interviews from the Native American descendants and Japanese American incarcerates of Manzanar, tracing the intersectional connections of the parched valley and the water that trickles through it. Manzanar, Diverted sheds light on the ongoing environmental and political activist struggle by communities still defending their land and water from Los Angeles. Born out of work from a team of scholars from UC Irvine and UC Riverside, the documentary chronicles an important chapter of California history.

The Carsey-Wolf Center is delighted to partner with UCSB Arts & Lectures in presenting this film. Director Ann Kaneko will join moderator Kelsey Moore (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust.