The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, which kicked off its 25th year on Friday, has partnered with the Hot Springs National Park Sister City Foundation to present Sister City Night at the festival today.
A collection of four films related to Japan and the Sister City program will be shown between 4-8 p.m. today at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa.
"We have an extremely active Sister City program thanks to almost 24 years of relationship between our city and the city of Hanamaki, Japan," said Mary Neilson, the program's executive director. "We have focused on educational exchange and we have two student groups coming this fall to stay with host families and visit schools, which really allow our students as well as the general public an opportunity to get to know and spend time with friends from our sister city and learn about another culture."
Neilson said that the ultimate goal of the Sister City program is to promote world peace and the opportunity for cultural and educational exchange, adding, "because when you get to know someone through exchange, you find that even in spite of your differences, you have so many similarities."
Ben Bell, a graduate of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts, spent two years interning at a brewery in Japan near Hanamaki. Now back in Arkansas, Bell is moving forward with plans to open a sake brewery in Hot Springs with hopes of building a sake industry in Arkansas.
"Ben's ultimate goal is to make Arkansas the Napa Valley of the sake industry," said Neilson.
Bell will be present for a Q&A session after the final film of the evening, "Kampai!: For the Love of Sake," and will offer up a sake toast following the session.
The following films will be shown during Sister City night:
• 4 p.m. -- "Relocation, Arkansas" explores the effect of the Japanese American incarceration experience in Arkansas during World War II on the generation that was born after the camps closed. It is an unlikely tale of those Japanese Americans who remained behind, and the even more unlikely tale of how a small town Arkansas mayor of Italian descent became a legend in the Japanese American community. With its themes of the complexity and hypocrisy of race relations in America, journeys toward forgiveness and healing, and cross community understanding, "Relocation, Arkansas" transcends regional and cultural constraints to offer an in depth view of the Japanese American incarceration experience. The filmmaker will be in attendance.
• 6:20 p.m. -- "Journey to Japan" is a film about a group of American teenagers who travel halfway around the world as they share insights and are fully immersed into another culture through the Sister City Program linking Hot Springs, Arkansas, with Hanamaki, Japan.
• 6:30 p.m. -- "Paper Lanterns." On Aug. 6, 1945, an atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. A little-known fact is that the estimated 140,000 casualties of that day included 12 American prisoners of war. For decades, many of the families of these 12 Americans were never informed of the fates of their loved ones. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Shigeaki Mori, himself a hibakusha (A-bomb survivor), the names of these 12 are now included in the Hiroshima Peace Museum, and the relatives have learned the truth. "Paper Lanterns" documents the story of Mori and his dream of reaching out to the relatives of these lost U.S. airmen.
• 8 p.m. -- "Kampai!: For the Love of Sake." Discover the art of sake. An age-old staple of Japanese culture and cuisine, the fermented rice wine has recently been winning fans all over the world. "Kampai! For the Love of Sake" journeys from rice paddies in Japan to breweries around the globe as it chronicles three passionate proponents of the increasingly popular beverage: a British expat who has become Japan's first foreign master brewer, an American journalist known as the "Sake Evangelist" and a fifth-generation Japanese brewer determined to shake up the industry. Together, their stories form a fascinating snapshot of how ancient traditions are adapting to the demands of a growing global market.
Local on 10/10/2016