Independent Lens . SHORT STACK 2006 . Someday Flowers Bloom

(L-R):

A white man with a short goatee, wearing a cowboy hat and printed shirt, smiles next to a smiling Asian woman with sunglasses and shoulder-length black hair

A picture of an Asian woman with her hair curled back with yellow flowers in it, smiling

An Asian woman wearing a long skirt and yellow top stands in an empty sidewalk on a grassy street, looking down

The Short

SOMEDAY FLOWERS BLOOM explores the experiences of Chiyoko Lewis as she faces the challenges of being a Japanese woman transplanted by marriage to Montana. Born in Kagoshima, Japan in the late 1950s, Chiyoko was injured accidentally as an infant by an old Japanese heater system, called a Kotatsu. With a severely injured leg, her life was difficult, but when she meets Jim Lewis in Kumamoto, Japan, where he is performing at a country music concert, both their lives change forever. Even though they can barely speak each other’s language, they communicate with love, overcoming cultural and physical obstacles.

Filmmaker Bio

Mai Heiselmann

Originally from Osaka, Japan, Mai Heiselmann came to Wyoming in 1999 to study English. She planned to go back to Japan after graduating, but instead met and married filmmaker Bill Heiselmann, and stayed in Montana for seven years while they finished their degrees.

During that time, Heiselmann went back to school at Montana State University to study film and television, and she learned what it takes to make a movie that sends a powerful message. Eager to make her own project from a Japanese woman’s perspective, she completed SOMEDAY FLOWERS BLOOM as her senior project and looks forward to making more documentaries about other women’s lives from around the world.

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