In 2011, Taylor Anderson was traveling Japan and teaching English to schoolchildren as a participant in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program. On March 11, the earthquake and tsunami hit the country, and Taylor was the first confirmed American casualty, last seen helping her students. Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story is about Taylor, her colleague Montgomery “Monty” Dickson, who also perished, and other JET teachers who dedicate themselves to building bridges between their two nations.

Director Regge Life writes:

This film is a story about Taylor Anderson and all the young people who travel the world trying to make a difference. Taylor was an extraordinary American who dedicated herself to teaching Japanese children, living her dream right up to the events of March 11, 2011. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan was a disaster that no one could have expected. In my 21 years of working on Japan based projects, I had witnessed earthquakes, but never the devastation of a tsunami.

Taylor’s story came to me via the internet as stories from the areas that were affected began to be shared. I had met JET teachers in the course of my previous film work, so I knew the dedication and the hard work that goes into being an assistant English teacher, but there was something special about Taylor’s story that touched me. A passion and zest for the people of Ishinomaki where she was based, that not all teachers feel while in Japan. I began to seek a way to reach out to Taylor’s family and share my interest. I am so humbled to have their consent to tell Taylor’s story.​

Please join us at Cinema Detroit on Saturday, September 13 for a special screening of Live Your Dream, as we honor Taylor, Monty, and all those affected by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and celebrate those who build bridges between cultures.

6:30 p.m. Reception
7:15 p.m. Remarks
Dr. Kazuyuki Katayama, Consul General of Japan in Detroit
Faye Valtadoros, President of the JET Alumni Association
Regge Life, director, Live Your Dream
7:30 p.m. Screening of the film Live Your Dream

GET TICKETS ONLINE

Tickets for the event are $10, with $2 going directly to the Taylor Anderson Memorial Fund, or $8 for students with ID. Additional donations to the Memorial Fund will also be accepted. The Fund was established to help students, schools and families in the Ishinomaki and Tohoku regions recover from the earthquake and to pursue Taylor’s dream of being a bridge between the U.S. and Japan.