KIYOSHI Trailer
KIYOSHI is a feature length documentary film that presents the remarkable life of Kiyoshi Kuromiya – Japanese American author, civil rights, anti-war, gay liberation and HIV/AIDS activist. His story begins in a WWII incarceration camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming, and intersects with many watershed moments in American history.
"There is a continuous thread that links the civil rights, antiwar, homosexual rights, and healthcare movements.”
from Kiyoshi Kuromiya speech "Martin Luther King Jr.’s Impact on a Gay, Japanese-American AIDS Activist"
Kiyoshi Kuromiya’s story is an epic journey through key moments of America’s history that changed the course of our lives.
Our film shows Kiyoshi as an activist at the turning points of history (civil rights, HIV/AIDS, the dawn of the internet). It is visually infused with Kiyoshi’s spirit of invention and restless resistance.
This is the first feature length film to tell Kiyoshi’s remarkable story.
Kiyoshi’s life was about taking action to ensure justice for all.
KIYOSHI functions not only as historical documentation but as connective tissue across generations of activism. His life, and our film, offer a roadmap and inspiration for activists today.
Kiyoshi Kuromiya was born in prison — an incarceration camp — in 1943, and he never stopped trying to ‘get free.’
— Ché Gossett
KIYOSHI is a film where history is alive, archives are animated, and storytelling is blended with other traditional documentary elements in untraditional ways, immersing the viewer into a time and place, with Kiyoshi’s voice always at the center.
Please support KIYOSHI.
Kiyoshi organized for equal access to education, civil rights, HIV drugs and treatment, and the internet. He was well informed and respected by the science community. He reported in layperson terms on the latest developments in AIDS research and shared the information widely through his newsletter, The Critical Path, which was one of the earliest and most comprehensive sources on HIV treatment. He also fought for research that involved the community in its design – particularly people of color, drug users, and women. Kiyoshi went on to fight new laws that limited expression on the internet, participating in the successful lawsuit against the Communications Decency Act.
KIYOSHI will preserve the legacy of this exceptional Philadelphian and explore the lasting impact his life has on our world today. The full-length film combined with community participation and a rigorous screening series is an opportunity to reintroduce his expansive view of social justice and strategy in the context of his full humanity, and present his full, complex story in creative and imaginative ways.
KIYOSHI is produced by Glenn Holsten, Teresa Jaynes, Che Gossett, Rob Buscher, Chris Bartlett and Keith Brand. William Way LGBT Community Center is the institutional partner.
Primary support for KIYOSHI has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with major support from The Calamus Foundation DE, Maguire Foundation, The People’s Media Fund, Waterman II Fund of The Philadelphia Foundation, and The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation.
Additional support came from The George and Sakaye Aratani CARE Award and UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, Barefoot Artists, Rowan University, The SACHS Program for Arts Innovation, University of Pennsylvania, and the William Way LGBT Community Center.
In addition, we are grateful to the following individuals for their substantial contributions: Sally Freund, Korin and Larry Korman, and Bill and Nancy Sluys.
KIYOSHI has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Photo by Harvey Finkle