beenfrom los angeles, i am tavis smiley. with the academy awards just around the corner, there is a focus on the stars and the popular films, but as with a recent years, some of the best work being done in the filmmaking community these days continues to be in the documentary category, so we will highlight two of the oscar- nominated products. first up, "the barber of birmingham: foot soldier of the civil rights movement," the story of a barber and his journey through history. then, in conversation with lucy walker on her latest "the tsunami and the cherry blossom," a film which chronicles the japanese efforts to heal from last year's devastating earthquake and nuclear crisis. a look at to of this year's

oscar-nominated documentaries, coming up right now. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: robyn fryday is a first- time filmmaker who has been nominated for the first time, i am laughing, the first time for an academy award for her short subject documentary, "the barber of birmingham," telling the

story of a world war two veteran and barbara, james armstrong, so here is a scene from "the barber of birmingham: foot soldier of the civil rights movement." >> i always grew up thinking the worst thing a man to do was nothing. everybody that was doing something. when we started to struggle, i remember some terrible day is. i thought about what was said, "i have been to the mountaintop, and i looked over and saw the promised land. i may not get there with you, but you will get to the promised land. just keep on keeping on." tavis: back to my point, your first film, and you are an academy award nonee. how does that feel?

>> it is a bit surreal and wonderful, and i am sorry to not be able to share this with my co-director passed away last fall, but she is here in spirit. tavis: and to that, mr. armstrong passed away. >> yes, he passed away in 2009. tavis: tell me about him. >> he was a barber who dedicated his life to the fight for civil rights. he carried the original flag on bloody sunday in the march from selma to montgomery. he integrated his two sons into an all white school, and he used his barber shop as a place to educate and teach voting rights and really dedicated his life to justice. tavis: how did he end up being the flag bearer on the march from selma and montgomery? >> he was a world war two

veteran, and when he came back to alabama, he carried that flag in that bloody sunday march. tavis: tell me about him being out front. this was a seminal moment, hoisting the flag. >> it was for him, and hwas so proud to carry that flag, and he carried it every single year they had a commemoration march in selma, and mr. armstrong was always out there, the first one in that march carrying that flag, and he was so proud to represent this country and what it meant to be an american. tavis: how did he come to your attention? >> i decided to make this. my background is in photography. this was my first film. we started going into the 2008 election, and i started to think about how we got here, those who

paved the way. a lot of the foot soldiers, a lot of people do not know about the foot soldiers. a lot of people know about dr. martin luther king and rosa parks, but a lot of people do not know about those who risked their jobs and integrated into the schools, so i decided it was important to focus on those people, the unsung heroes, and i went to birmingham, which was known as the most segregated city in the south. and i took a trip there and started meeting some of the foot soldiers, and somebody said to me, "have been at the barbara." so i took a trip to the barbershop, and as you have seen from the clip in the film, you look around, and every inch of space and a barbershop was covered with memorabilia from the civil rights movement. tavis: it was like a museum.

>> hopefully it wilbe a museum now that he has passed. when i started talking with him and learning of his own personal struggle, i decided he would be the person to tell the story through. he would represent all of the foot soldiers. tavis: i assume that you knew pretty immediately, this guy was special. >> i looked at him, and he was wearing his plaid pants and his bow tie, and i just fell in love with him immediately with his personality, but then when i started to hear of his dedication to civil-rights and what he has done, the sacrifices that he has made and his family has made to bring us to this day, with the election of the first african-american president, i thought it was an important story to tell. tavis: what about this, with the

election of barack obama? >> gail and i were surprised that for mr. armstrong and the other foot soldiers, for them, it was another step. it was not the end of the struggle. it was just one more step towards making things better. tavis: i am glad to hear you say that. inside the african-american community, i find myself saying this to my brothers and sisters over and over again. some of them have missed what this moment was, sometimes making more of it, and it is almost sacrilegious or an african american to say we cannot make more of it. i tried to explain that what barack obama is, it is a down payment on dr. king, a down payment on the dream. it is not the fulfillment of the

dream, but i am happy to hear you say that, and i have done research on this, but i do not know that anybody saw this as a fulfillment. maybe this people who were the oldest in our community who endured the most common never thought this day would have come, and there are some that do see this as the fulfillment, but interesting that mr. armstrong did not see it for that. he saw it as a downpayment, just another step. >> another step, it was, and we were fascinated by that. tavis: and so am i.. i am glad that you have that opinion because so many people do not. he passed away in what year? >> skipass away in 2009. a and -- he passed away in 2009. tavis: where were you born?

>> chicago. tavis: what was it like to be baptized in the movement? >> i have lived there for many, many years. i fell in love with the south. i did not know how i would be received, and they were so hospitable and open to me and willing to tell their stories and share their stories, and mr. armstrong was, i think he knew the importance of passing on to the next generation, and he opened up to his home and his life to was, and so we were very, very pleasantly surprised. tavis: did you have any fear or trepidation? you wore a white woman from the bay area. >> exactly. i did not really know.

i just had an idea that this was an important moment to capture, and i went to the south, but i really did not know how that would be received, so like i said, i was pleasantly surprised at how open people were in wanting to share their stories. tavis: does he have relatives living? >> yes, he has grandchildren. tavis: he must being pleased. the nomination. >> very much so, and two of his sons are in the sun, integrated into the school, and his grandson who was seen carrying the flag at the end, he has been carrying on mr. armstrong's tradition of carrying the flag in commemoration of bloody sunday. tavis: what does it mean to have

a film like this be so honored? what does it mean to the life of a film? >> i think it means is the recognition of the foot soldiers will get, it will just bring that much more attention to the work that they have done, and that was the aim that we always had for the film, that this is history, and to teach the youngsters who do not know the story and do not know what it took to get the right to vote, and mr. armstrong does not want the young people to take those rights for granted. somebody paid a price for those rights, said that is what i think this nomination does. it makes more of the country aware of that. tavis: so you do your first film, and it gets nominated as an academy award. do you get out now before it starts going downhill?

>> the first thing she said to me was, "be careful, robyn, you are going to get hooked." tavis: was she right? lucy walker on the program for her films. it can happen. it is a great topic, and i am honored to have you. >> i am honored to be here. tavis: congratulations on your nomination. coming up, lucy walker, another oscar-nominated film. stay with us. lucy walker is now a two-time oscar-nominated director joined us with her project "waste land," and she is up with her latest film, "the tsunami and the cherry blossom," and here is a scene from "the tsunami and the cherry blossom."

>> [speaking foreign language] ♪ >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] tavis: so i am just asking you, how soon were you there after the tsunami hit? >> a couple of weeks. tavis: a couple of weeks, so you saw. >> it was devastating. a lot of people cleaning up a

small area, and after the tsunami last march in japan, there was a giant area that was affected, hundreds of miles of coastal land and two miles of land, and because of the radiation and contamination, it was not as clean up as you would think. it was a very strange horror movie, after the apocalypse kind of situation, people trying to get their belongings or rescue workers. it was a very strange, empty landscape, very few people around compared for the large area, devastated. tavis: obviously, the people live there had to endure the hell of that tsunami when it came and the aftermath. you did not have to go there. obviously, you had to go there for your work, but you did not have to go there, the radioactive air that you were breathing. you did not have any concern? >> a lot of concern for the

crew. we took a very calculated risks, information around the exclusion zone around the fukushima plant. a lot of the exposure risk is actually about time. if you live there, you are in really big trouble. we were sort of on the edge of the zone very briefly, upwind of the really tricky area. we were careful. it was scary. tavis: so, unlike "waste land," you could not plan to do a documentary about a tsunami or the cherry blossom, because you did not know the tsunami was coming. how did it come to be? >> a classic story, real life, responding to a real-life situation as it unfolds. i had been in japan to promote my film "countdown," and that was preparing for that trip when the tsunami hit on march 11, and

i was watching the news, horrified. i have japanese friends, and i was planning to go right there, and being very moved, wanting to encourage and support japanese friends who ran having such a difficult time, it was like a triple whammy. this terrible tsunami in which thousands of people were killed, many more displays, and then you have this terrible nuclear disaster which was still fighting, and i felt like i wanted to help. i had always wanted to see the cherry blossoms in japan, and i thought that when i was there promoting my film "countdown to 0," about nuclear weapons, i thought it would cheer myself up because with nagasaki, i thought i should go to japan, but it was difficult, said work. so i wanted to see the cherry blossoms, and i had been

thinking about making a film about the cherry blossoms when the tsunami hit, and then they postponed the release of "countdown to 0." the idea kept going in my head. this was a time that japan needs people to go there and listen to the people. what are they going through? what is it like for them? what do they need? do they need encouragement put into they need support? the cherry blossom image, it wae life. the japanese were cebrating. where you go out in a spring evening and you luck and reflect on precious life. i thought it was very beautiful. reflecting on precious life. very tragic.

i kept thinking that maybe this is a film that is much more. maybe this was a story. that i am ready to tell. when i got there, i was not sure if people were going to want to talk to me. japanese. people wanted to share their story. they were really touched. you do not have to forge an area -- forced a view of the cherry blossom. when they are standing in a destroyed area, poking up through the debris, a beautiful cherry blossom just budding beautiful. when you say, "how are you doing," people would say the cherry blossom is encouraging. if it has not drowned in the water, i will not give up

either. tavis: so is about healing. >> it is very much about how to human beings carry on. something tragic happens in your life, how do you get up the next day and clean up and carry on when you have got so much loss and grief in your heart. tavis: actually seeing the cherry blossoms? >> i love cherry blossoms. i think they are so beautiful. i wish the world would celebrate them a little bit more. i think it is a wonderful tradition, it is a beautiful symbol, and they are beautiful to photograph. whenever i see them, in los angeles, the oscar nominee luncheon, all of the bugs are around, spring time coming. -- the buds around. tavis: washington,d.c., our nation's capital has a big one. >> the gift of the cherry

blossoms. i did not know that until recently. tavis: to your point, a nice and white, whether or not there is something special and unique about watching the cherry blossoms in japan versus in washington or someplace else? i know that after the tsunami -- >> last year, it was very somber because people weren't reading and having lost loved ones. i'd think the cherry blossoms, for me, it is a human symbol of hope and renewal and springtime in our hearts, and the film is at once very specific about the people in the northeast and japan who were just so devastated by the tsunami last march, but it is also how we as human beings, how it leads us into the future, it just makes

us keep marching on, some house spring and renewal and hope. it is very optimistic. after the very tragic shot of the town literally being washed away, very shocking image. tavis: now that you have been nominated to two years in a row as a documentarian, have you figured out what they are looking for? halfies figured out what they like to honor? i am just trying to figure out what the process is, and i am not suggesting you are making documentaries to be nominated, but all of us want to be appreciated for the work that we do, but to be nominated to two years in a row. >> it seems like it is too easy, but it is not. i am just lucky. it was just a very amazing responsibility i had with this film to tell this story this year, and i would like to think

that it is good, old-fashioned filmmaking that i have made. i made another film in tibet that did not get nominated, "blindsight," but this is special, and i think people watching it feel very connected to the people in japan. the cherry blossoms are gorgeous. then there is a cherry master, whose family has been attending this nursery of the cherry trees or hundreds of years, and he can talk about the significance of the blossom and about the spirit and the natural world, live, confronted with constant change. so it is a symbol that really talks a lot about howife is very precious, and we are only

here for a very short time, and the natural world around us is very beautiful but very tragic, creation and destruction in nature, so i think that bill is very powerful and just speaks about that, and the academy and like to think recognis proper, good movie making, and it was a properly well-made music. we had amazing music and amazing editing. a japanese editor. we have amazing cinematography. really talented, talented filmmaking team. tavis: so how do you go about choosing the projects that you do? you have done so many different things, whether it is the cherry blossoms or "waste land"? >> i feel so lucky that the

things that i am interested in -- tavis: it is a pretty eclectic list. >> with blind people, i wanted to make a film about what it was like to be a blind person. with the college kids, and what it is like to grow up on it. with "wasteland," what is it like when you are picking through garbage, and some people are in that position, and i just sort of feel that what i love about a documentary film making is that you get the chance to walk and other people's shoes and get to find out what it is like to be a different person, and film is such a meeting of the tissue are connected to the people in the film. you can walk and someone else's shoes. a good movie with a good story combined, then you are in the money, i think. tavis: lucy walker has a very

fertile and imaginative minds, and for us, and she goes out with cameras and microphones and all of that and captures it for us on film, and she does some good stuff, so much so that the academy has for two consecutive years nominated her as a documentarian, so congratulations, and who knows? maybe this time next year, i will be seeing you again. >> i will have to get back with you. tavis: hold a slot for lucy. good to see you. "the tsunami and the cherry blossom." that is our show for this time. until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a

conversation with musical legend stephen vanzandt and his latest series. that is next time. we will see you then. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more.