The Highline Botanical Garden Foundation and Highline Historical Society will co-host the premier of award-winning filmmaker Ken Slusher's latest documentary, The Seike Garden: An American Story, on Saturday, Feb. 2.

This 30-minute movie, which will be shown at 2 p.m. at SeaTac City Hall, 4800 S. 188th St., recounts the five-year community effort to relocate the Seike Japanese Garden from Sea-Tac International Airport's third runway flight path.

It chronicles the history of the garden, cooperative efforts by local governments, nonprofits and private citizens to save the garden, and the physical challenge of relocating and replicating a 45-year-old living work of art.

The story of the Seike Garden begins with Shinichi Seike, who emigrated from Japan in the early 1920s and opened an import/export business in Seattle. Like thousands of other Japanese Americans, the Seike family was interned during World War II.

Upon regaining their freedom, the family opened Des Moines Way Nursery just north of SeaTac airport.

In 1961 the family, under the direction of Hiroshima designer Shintaro Okada, constructed a quarter-acre Japanese garden as a memorial to middle son Toll, who was killed in action while serving with the U.S. Army 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Germany during World War II.

Construction of the third runway necessitated that the garden either be relocated or sold.

Using personal interviews and images drawn from family photos, 8 mm. footage of original garden construction, and more recent still and motion photography, the film details the fascinating array of social, financial and logistical hurdles involved in moving the garden to the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden at the Sea-Tac Community Center, 13735 24th Ave. S.

It also highlights the seminal roles that immigrant families have played in building the Highline community, a story that has been repeated in thousands of communities across America.

A question and answer session with the filmmaker will follow the premiere.

The Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden is managed by the Highline Botanical Garden Foundation and is funded and maintained by a partnership between the Foundation and the city of SeaTac. The City of Burien contributes additional maintenance funding for the Seike Garden.

For information on either the Seike Garden or the Highline Botanical Garden, visit www.highlinegarden.org or call 206-391-4003.

For information about Slusher and his work, visit his website, www.openmondays.com.