PORT ANGELES — “Ebb & Flow — A Japanese Family, an Oyster and How They Influenced Pacific Northwest History” will be screened at 5 p.m. Saturday.
The 77-minute documentary will be presented in the Little Theater on the Peninsula College campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
General admission tickets are $20 online and $23 at the door. They include wine from Port Townsend Vineyards and fresh oysters from the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, whose members will discuss their experience growing the Pacific oysters featured in the film.
Students and alumni with identification will pay $8, while audience members younger than 21 who are not students will pay $13. Those younger than 21 will not receive wine.
The film created by Shelly Solomon and Kent Cornwell of Leaping Frogs Films of Marrowstone Island, tells the story — through 93-year-old Jerry (Elichi) Yamashita and his son, Patrick — of Jerry’s father, Masahide Yamashita, who figured out how to bring the Pacific oyster to Washington state and helped to create the largest shellfish industry in the United States.
The native oyster had declined due to demand and overharvesting, Solomon said, leaving the industry suffering. Japanese vendors at Pike Place Market wondered if the oysters they ate as children would grow in Washington waters.
Masahide Yamashita used baby oysters called “seeds” that survived the long journey on the shell of the adults. They were planted in Pacific Northwest waters, grew quickly, and thrived.
He also formed a cooperative of Japanese growers that set a consistent price. Demand grew and the industry recovered.
In addition to the history of the oyster, the film tells of Masahide Yamashita’s internment during World War II at Tule Lake, Calif., and his struggles to rebuild his business after years of confinement.
Today the shells of the Japanese oysters — now renamed Pacific oysters — are used as substrate to grow the native Olympia oyster.
For more information, and to buy tickets, see http://buytickets.at/leaping frogfilms/136715.
Leaping Frog Films’ website is at https://tinyurl.com/PDN-Leaping.
