Double Feature: Japanese Photographers Who Captured America
January 23, 2027 @ 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Please join us for a special double feature film event of A Life Reimagined: The George Masa Story and Our Mr. Matsura hosted by the Japanese American Museum of Oregon. A Q&A with directors Paul Bonesteel and Beth Harrington will follow.
These documentaries highlight the lives of two noteworthy Japanese immigrant photographers whose works provide unique insights into place and identity. Both men arrived in the Pacific Northwest during a wave of emigration from Japan in the early 1900s and forged their own paths in America.
George Masa was an avid mountain climber and became the first Japanese member of the Mazamas, a mountaineering organization based in Portland. He eventually made his way to North Carolina where his landscape photographs and advocacy work helped establish the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
- Director: Paul Bonesteel
- Year: 2026
- Country: United States
- Runtime: 86 minutes
Frank S. Matsura took a job at a hotel in Okanogan County, Washington and later opened his own photography studio. He became a beloved community photographer, documenting life in the Okanogan and capturing the residents through a nuanced, often playful lens. His portraits of the Indigenous people of the area are especially impactful; Matsura did not present his Indigenous neighbors as a vanishing race the way his contemporaries often did. Instead, they appear as modern people, adapting to the times.
- Director: Beth Harrington
- Year: 2025
- Country: United States
- Runtime: 98 minutes
