The film has a total running time of 16 minutes 50 seconds. [15:50 before credits]
If you only have time to watch the short film and have a discussion, here are some themes and guiding questions you may choose to incorporate:
1. Character arcs
There are turning points in the character development for the three protagonists in the film, for example: Mary throwing the catalog away, Kimiye buying Mary a dress, and Sam getting out of his chair to dance.
- What moments do you think each character showed growth or change?
- Why is it important to notice when growth and change occurs at a personal level when we study history?
- What connections can you make between the characters’ moments of growth?
- How do you think the idea of personal growth could be complex for many Japanese Americans during the resettlement period?
2. Use of color in select scenes
There are three distinct scenes in the film that switch to color then back to black and white. Each color scene highlights a strong emotion, for example: when Mary is twirling with the blue dress reflects desire; when Sam dreams about his time as a strawberry farmer before incarceration reflects a fond memory and feeling of purpose; and when the Yamamoto family dances together in the dry cleaning shop reflects the joy of embracing the present moment.
- How do the emotions emphasized in the color scenes extend your thinking about resettlement history?
- What messages do these scenes convey?
3. Holding complex emotions
Mary struggles with her anger. She shows deep frustration with her mom, slaps Polly for stealing her dance partner, raises her voice at her principal, and demands an apology from Mrs. Hall. However, there is a lot of personal history that informs the emotions Mary holds. For example, when Mary was seven years old, she was released from the concentration camp in Poston, Arizona, with her mother and grandfather. And when Mary and her family resettled in Chicago, she and other Japanese Americans were “in between” established social structures in Chicago (like the racial dividing lines that Betty Magness and Patricia Glenn mention in their oral history video).
- What do you think could have contributed to Mary’s anger?
- What kinds of things do you think Mary could remember from her childhood?
- What do you remember from when you were seven years old?
- For you personally, what does it feel like not to belong?
To find the video clip of Betty Magness & Patricia Glenn: use the hyperobject hovering over Two Students Dancing. Then Click on the last tab, titled "Watch".
4. Present day racism & racism during the resettlement period
Mary and her family faced many racist attitudes after they were released from camp and often had to defend themselves as Americans. What many people in the Yamamoto’s community did not understand was the complexity of what it means to “be American” and how a single definition of being American can be a limited way of thinking about national belonging.
- What are some of the complexities in associating race with “being American”?
- What comes to mind when you think of race-based discrimination today?
- What connections do you see between the racist encounters Mary experienced and the everyday experiences and stories of racism and oppression that you have learned about or experienced?
