May 7, 1998
Contact: Mayerene Barker,
(818) 677-2130
mbarker@exec.csun.edu
Participating with Craig in a question and answer session after the free screening will be Tim Toyama, Chris Tashima, Chris Donahue, the film's producer, and other cast and crew members.
Craig, is one of four actors featured in the film which won the Oscar for best live-action short film at the March 24 awards ceremony.
"It's a film I'm very proud of, work I'm very proud of," said Craig, who graduated from CSUN in 1991 with a theater degree.
The 26-minute film, based on a one-act play written by Toyama, tells the true story of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat credited with saving between 2,000 and 6,000 lives by issuing some 1,600 visas to Lithuanian Jews during World War II.
Craig said the low-budget film was shot in one week in the backyard of Tashima's parents' house in the Los Feliz area. He and the some 200 other professionals it took to produce the movie volunteered their services.
Since winning the Academy Award, "Visas and Virtues" has been screened around the world. It also has won various other awards, including the 1997 Humanitarian Award from the 1939 Club, a Holocaust survivors' association.
For more information, call Ed O'Brien at (818) 677-2969.
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