EXCERPTS OF 'HOGOZ', ONLINE COMEDY SERIES SET IN WW II CAMP, TO BE SCREENED APRIL 3

Creator/Writer John Powers to Discuss His Series Set in Fictional Concentration Camp

An online comedy series, "Hogoz", set in a fictional government-run World War II camp, will have excerpts from five of its episodes screened at the Japanese American National Museum on Sunday, April 3, beginning at 2 p.m. with the show’s creator/writer John Powers on hand to discuss his series and to answer questions.

Pronounced "hoe-goes", the series creates a fictional situation based on actual history. During World War II, the U.S. government unconstitutionally incarcerated over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American-born citizens, in concentration camps located in desolate areas of the country. "Hogoz" is a fictional version of one of those camps, but its inmates are mostly Japanese American teenagers and others that the government viewed as troublemakers and separated from their families.

The series has been described as "South Park" meets Manzanar and as an online series, it freely uses profanity and adult-references. Powers, who worked as a producer for the City of Torrance’s cultural programs, got to know several Japanese Americans who went to camp, which inspired him to create this series. "Hogoz" is a fictional name for a camp based in Arizona. The series is a low-budget production shot with a Canon DSLR and edited on Powers’ MacBook. "Hogoz" is shot in front of a green-screen backdrop with drawings of barbed wire, guard towers and scenery inserted after each taping.

"I’ve been developing this concept for about two years, and I knew that once I got into it that I needed to find a way that it could be sustainable without breaking the bank or injuring my marriage," he said. After accumulating six months of episodes, Powers is making them available through YouTube and through the web site at www.hogoz.com. New scenes from on-going episodes are released weekly on Mondays.

A cast of 15 actors play recurring roles, including Calvin "Coolidge" Asaho (Keye Chen), Sachi "Babydoll" Sakata (Lisa Cullen), Yehudi "Yerry" Garcia (Matthew Groves), Toru "Tex" Ohka (Lawrence Kao) and Elizabeth "Lizzy" Emi (Cortney Lee).