Documentary 16mm 90:00 2004 Midwest Premiere

Roddy Bogawa’s I WAS BORN BUT… is an experimental essay film exploring the abstract notion of assimilation and the inherent contradictions of those born into the ‘melting pot’ culture of America. Appropriating the title from a film by the Japanese Director Yasujiro Ozu, Bogawa examines many of the themes to which Ozu dedicated his life’s work ­ tradition and change, the shifting of family structures, and the impact of history and memory.

“Starting with the death of Joey Ramone I WAS BORN BUT… is an exterior and interior road movie, a journey looking back at youth and the tenuous and tender moments that form one’s identity. Starting in New York and traveling to Los Angeles to re-visit punk clubs from the late seventies / early eighties and then further west to Hawaii and finally back to New York, the film floats back and forth between a recollection and an investigation. Featuring live footage of the alternative rock band Seam, material from the last tour of Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros in America and an original score by Chris Brokaw (of Come and Codeine), as well as photographs taken some twenty-five years ago of bands such as X, Killing Joke, Stiv Bators, The Minutemen and others, I WAS BORN BUT… is also an examination of race and difference, landscapes both emotional and literal constantly in flux, and how each of us is defined and re-defined within a lifetime.” ­ RB

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