‘AOKI’ to screen Friday at cinema

Third-generation Japanese-American Richard Aoki was a controversial civil rights activist who became one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party.

The IU Cinema will screen a biography of his life, “AOKI: A Documentary Film,” at 3 p.m. Friday.

The gun-toting, sunglasses-wearing, outspoken master-swearer was one of the most influential Asian-American civil rights activists in history.

Born in 1938, Aoki and his parents were interned, along with 120,000 others, at Japanese-American internment camps from 1942 to 1945.

He attended kindergarten and the first years of elementary school imprisoned in barracks surrounded by barb wire in the middle of the desert.

At Merritt College, Aoki became close friends with Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, the founding members of the Black Panther Party.

After a life of political activism, Aoki died in 2009 from complications from dialysis.
Directors Ben Wang and Mike Cheng, in their directing debut, intersperse interviews and speeches by Aoki with commentary from friends and colleagues, including Seale and Aoki’s biographer, Diane Fujino.

The 55-minute film is sponsored by the Asian Culture Center and the Black Film Center/Archive. The screening is free and no tickets are necessary.

— John Seasly