A new half-hour film about racism in World War II, "Our World War II Fathers," has been selected for showing at the San Diego Black Film Festival Jan. 27 to 30. The festival was established in 2003 and is hosted each year by the San Diego Black Film Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c) organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of African American and African Diaspora cinema as well as the education of media arts. Held each year in late January, the festival is one of the largest black film festivals in the country.
Bill Lair of the Herald-Review writes that "Our World War II Fathers" all started when filmmaker Les Easter put together a photo book of his two dads' trip to Washington to see the World War II Memorial. But, says Lair, Easter felt both World War II veterans - his father and his father-in-law - had unique stories that rated a wider audience.
Easter's father, Holly Easter, 92, was a Marine who was wounded in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Easter's father-in-law, Fred Drew, 94, was a member of the Army Air Corps who was an African-American who served his country while dealing with segregation in society and in the military. He was in the Philippines when the war ended in 1945. The documentary weaves their stories around video of their trip to Washington in 2009.
Easter told Lair:
