About

Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama brings to the screen the artistic journey of B.C.-born photographer Tamio Wakayama. Wakayama, alongside his family, was interned during WWII and forced to uproot. After the release from the camps his family moved to Chatham, Ontario–the end of the Underground Railway. 

Wakayama voluntarily joins the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the deep south during the 1960’s American civil rights movement and learns the craft of dark room photography. The life-changing experience gives Tamio the courage to face his own family’s effects of racism. He begins to form alliances with a unique group of Asian Canadian artists, creating a large community festival in Vancouver’s Paeru Gai/Powell Street neighborhood. Here he creates a body of work that  archives the Japanese Canadian community’s disappearing and untold experiences through pictures.

The documentary features eight artists, activists, and friends of Wakayama from Vancouver, B.C. and the USA that remember Tamio’s photographic journey towards his own authentic voice. The transformative story of a young Japanese Canadian photographer in the deep south makes a profound and startling connection to Vancouver’s history of early art activism and its interconnected influence of the civil rights movement that shapes the identity politics of Asian Canadians living in Vancouver.

Live action interviews, archival photographs, and hand painted animations define Mochizuki’s signature style of visual storytelling. Working once again with her long-time collaborator, Cinematographer and Editor, Milena Salazar, this film features a collection of interviews that began filming in 2021-2023. Wakayama’s powerful and insightful friends that are interviewed include: Judy Richardson, Mas Nakawatase, Leslie Kelen, Paul Wong, Michiko Sakata, Linda Hoffman, and Kathy Shimizu. A soundscape of music and sound compositions are created by Chiyoko Szlavnics with an ensemble of musicians including: Onibana Taiko, Takeo Yamashiro, Seth Josel, and Noreen Jensen creating a haunting and heartfelt tribute to Tamio Wakayama’s life work and story.