Sharon Yamato is a writer/filmmaker who wrote, produced and directed “Out of Infamy: Michi Nishiura Weglyn” and “A Flicker in Eternity,” based on the diary and letters of WWII veteran Stanley Hayami. She is the author of the book, “Moving Walls: Preserving the Barracks of America’s Concentration Camps,” and co-author of “Jive Bomber: A Sentimental Journey,” a memoir of Bruce T. Kaji, the founding president of the Japanese American National Museum. As a consultant to the Japanese American National Museum, she has served as editor of the Museum Magazine and project director of “The Encyclopedia of Japanese American History from A to Z (revised edition),” “An American Son: The Story of George Aratani,” and “More than a Game: Sport in the Japanese American Community.”
Brett Ryoji Kodama is a Japanese American filmmaker currently based in New York City. His collection of work includes short films, documentaries, music videos, and more, screening across the country, as well as internationally. In addition, he works with nonprofit organizations such as Asian CineVision and the Japanese American Citizen League, New York Chapter, and currently freelances as a cinematographer and editor.
Jason Matsumoto is a fourth-generation Japanese American from Chicago, a graduate of the University of Washington. Matsumoto is the director and composer for Ho Etsu Taiko, a Chicago-based ensemble centered around Japanese drumming. Most recently, he became producer for “The Orange Story.” Matsumoto serves as Director of Operations of Full Spectrum Features, a Chicago-based 501(c)(3) production company committed to increasing diversity in the media arts and utilizing the power of cinema to educate the public about important social and cultural issues.
Robin Takao D’Oench is a movie lover, a history buff and an avid Rangers fan from New York City. He is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts in Film & TV (’12) and NYU Stern School of Business in Entertainment, Media & Technologies (’12). He has produced and assistant directed more than 30 independent movies and commercials. Robin is dedicated to making films that are socially aware, historically relevant, contemporarily contextualized and entertaining.
Abby Ginzberg is a Peabody-award winning producer who has been producing award-winning documentaries about race and social justice for the past 30 years. Her film “And Then They Came for Us” has been screening at theaters and film festivals around the country after premiering at DocLands Film Festival in May, 2017. She is the co-producer and co-director of “Agents of Change,” which premiered at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles and won the Jury and the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary.
Konrad Aderer is a documentary filmmaker and television journalist based in New York City. Konrad’s independent documentaries (lifeorliberty.org) have focused on resistance arising in immigrant communities targeted by “national security” detention and profiling. His 2011 feature documentary “Enemy Alien” (2011), on the fight to free a post-9/11 detainee, was honored with a Courage in Media Award from Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Konrad has received grants from the Center for Asian American Media, New York State Council of the Arts, National Park Service and other funders.
Born and raised in Hawai‘i, “Alternative Facts” consulting producer Lauren Kawana currently works in the San Francisco Bay Area as an independent documentary film producer, shooter and editor. A recent project — “Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw” directed by Rick Goldsmith — tells the story of a former women’s professional basketball player as she learns to cope with mental illness. Lauren received her master’s degree in documentary film at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Before moving to California, she served as managing editor for Element Media, a Honolulu-based publishing firm which produces “Pacific Edge” and Las Vegas Bound magazines. She also worked on the award-winning film “Ahead of the Majority: The Life and Times of Patsy Mink.”
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