After coming out as gay in 2005 to protest then-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto of a same-sex marriage bill, original Star Trek cast member George Takei has carved out a career championing human rights and publicly addressing various social causes.

Recently, he has been speaking out against the anti-Asian attacks in the U.S. (which have also taken place in Canada as well).

In addition to advocating for LGBT rights, he has also aimed to raise awareness of the Japanese American internment.

His own experiences of growing up in an internment camp are chronicled in his 2019 manga They Called Us Enemy and drew upon for the 2012 Broadway musical Allegiance.

Takei also spent time learning about the Japanese Canadian internment while he was filming Season 2 of the TV series The Terror here in Vancouver in 2019,

He’s set to return to the city—albeit through virtual means, as is the case these days.

And Then They Came For Us, a documentary about the Japanese American internment, will open the 2021 edition of KDocsFF, a social-justice documentary festival from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, at 7 p.m. on Friday (March 12).

Takei is among the Japanese American activists featured in the film, including those who speak out against the Muslim registry and travel ban in the U.S., along with newly uncovered photographs from Dorothea Lange.

Takei will also participate in a live online panel discussion with author Diana Morita Cole (Sideways: Memoir of a Misfit), who will also deliver a keynote speech; psychotherapist Satsuki Ina, who is featured in the film; and the film’s producer and director Abby Ginzberg.

There’ll also be a special message from author Joy Kogawa, who wrote the novel Obasan about the Japanese Canadian internment experience.

Meanwhile, KDocsFF, which continues on until March 21, has a comprehensive lineup that covers an array of pressing issues with films, speakers, Q&A sessions, and more. 

Among the subjects addressed are the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil (Chão), the weaponization of communications and public relations (Influence), deepening economic inequalities (Capital in the Twenty-First Century), the attempt to grow a green belt across Africa (The Great Green Wall), and efforts to combat anti-LGBT repression and persecution in Russia (Welcome to Chechnya).

All selections are available to screen at VIFF Connect. For further details, visit the KDocsFF or Vancouver International Film Festival websites.