NEW YORK — Producer Janet Yang has been elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group’s board of governors announced Aug. 2, making her the first Asian American to lead the film academy. Yang, the 66-year-old producer of “The Joy Luck Club” and “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” becomes the […]
Film and Television
Japanese American seniors tell stories through film
May 12, 2022 by Leave a Comment
In keeping with a long-standing tradition of Asian elders passing down their stories to their children and grandchildren, Visual Communications, a Los Angeles-based Asian American media arts center, created Digital Histories, a project that provides Asian Pacific American older adults the unique opportunity to tell their stories — as directors of their own short films. […]
Activists help shape story in ‘Free Chol Soo Lee’
May 12, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Chol Soo Lee is a little-known icon of Asian American solidarity whose difficult life inspired many to action. The “Free Chol Soo Lee” documentary film tells his story, as well as the pan-Asian movement that it inspired. The film will be the closing night feature at the Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival May 22. Lee, […]
Michelle Yeoh shows Asian immigrant women are ‘Everything’
April 28, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Michelle Yeoh was adamant about one script change before committing to “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” The main character’s name had to go. She was named Michelle as a love letter to her from the directors. “I’m like ‘No, no, no’ because I believe this person, this character that you’ve written so rich, deserves […]
Japan film ‘Drive My Car’ wins best international feature Oscar
March 31, 2022 by Leave a Comment
LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) — Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” won best international feature at the 94th U.S. Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 27, becoming the first Japanese film in 13 years to bag the prestigious Oscar for the category after having garnered a string of international accolades. “We’ve got it,” Hamaguchi said […]
‘Voices’ brings Hawai‘i story to life
February 17, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, FBI agents appeared at Japanese American homes with guns and bayonets and began arresting Issei immigrants without cause and threw them in local jails. “They just grabbed him,” said Laura Miho, remembering how the FBI took her father, Koichi Iida. “We were all so scared. We […]
A story of many communities in ‘Manzanar Diverted’
February 17, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Though known as a dusty desert and a site of injustice for Japanese Americans, filmmaker Ann Kaneko delved into the intricate history of water rights and the people of California’s Owens Valley in “Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust.” The documentary primarily focuses on the Paiute and Shoshone people who have lived in the region, […]
Four short films take artistic look at camp
February 17, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Four short films at the 11th annual Films of Remembrance will highlight filmmakers’ artistic interpretations of the wartime experience of Japanese Americans during World War II. Under the Artistic Interpretations Shorts Program, the Nichi Bei Foundation will present “Hanami” (4 min., 2021) by Lisa Maeda; “An Uninterrupted View of the Sea” (15 min., 2020) by […]
Filmmaker seeks to educate about L.A.’s racist past
February 17, 2022 by Leave a Comment
Former educator and “Putting Them Where They Could Do No Harm” filmmaker Steve Nagano seeks to rename Fletcher Bowron Square, which is named after the former Los Angeles mayor who supported the wartime incarceration of persons of Japanese decent in U.S. concentration camps. The Nichi Bei Weekly interviewed Nagano via e-mail about his short film […]
‘Reparations’ explores struggle to atone for slavery
February 17, 2022 by Leave a Comment
In Jon Osaki’s film, “Reparations,” Blacks and Asian Americans address the four-century struggle to atone for slavery in the U.S., and discuss the critical role that solidarity between communities plays in addressing systemic racism in America. Osaki, an award-winning filmmaker and director of “Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066,” spoke to the Nichi […]
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