Jimmy Murakami: Non Alien

Synopsis

The Japanese animator Jimmy T Murakami has enthralled cinema goers all over the world and children still grow up watching his classic ‘The Snowman’. When Murakami released ‘When the Wind Blows’ audiences got a powerful wake up call to the horror of the Nuclear Bomb. After a glittering career in moviemaking Jimmy had one more project that would reveal a dark chapter in his childhood that he had never dealt with – until the making of ‘Non-Alien’. One of the greatest stains on the history of American Civil Liberties occurred after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour during WW2. Japanese-American citizens like Jimmy and his family were evacuated to Tule Lake concentration camp in the California desert. Jimmy was only nine years old when his family had to quit their small farm to be imprisoned for four years for a crime of which they had no part in. Jimmy Murakami still rages against the America that scarred his life. This film goes on a powerful journey with Jimmy, from his adopted country, Ireland, through his film career, culminating in his return to Tule Lake to confront his childhood and his ever-present anger with the American government that put him there. Jimmy speaks for thousands of other internees that were imprisoned for years in the camp and recalls the deprivations his family endured and the horror of witnessing his sister Sumiko die from leukemia. Jimmy Murakami – Non Alien features six specially commissioned animation sequences based on Jimmy’s paintings of life in the camp. They create a powerful recreation of Jimmy and his family losing all their worldly goods as they were cast out of the American dream.