Center for Asian American Media
A Song for Ourselves
During the 1970s when Asians in America were invisible to the country -- and more importantly even to themselves -- the late Chris Iijima's music provided the voice and identity an entire generation had been in search of. Through animated photographs, intimate home movies, archival footage and Chris' own songs, A SONG FOR OURSELVES shows how Chris' music unleashed the contagious energy of the Asian American Movement with an unrelenting passion for social justice and a life...
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Daughters of the Cloth
DAUGHTERS OF THE CLOTH is a stirring portrait of a Korean immigrant family, working in the downtown Los Angeles garment industry. Mr. and Mrs. Bang worked for over 17 years in the business, starting out as sewing laborers and later founding and operating their own sewing contracting company. Now retired, they watch as their three daughters, who decided to strike it out on their own, struggle anew. Navigating at various levels of the industry – from a retailer at the...
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Campaign
Can a candidate with no political experience and no charisma win an
election if he is backed by the political giant Prime Minister
Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party? This cinema-verite
documentary closely follows a heated election campaign in Kawasaki,
Japan, revealing the true nature of "democracy."In the fall of 2005, 40-year-old, self-employed Kazuhiko "Yama-san"
Yamauchi's peaceful, humdrum life was turned upside-down. Japanese
Prime Minister...
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Shonenko
SHONENKO reveals the untold stories of Taiwanese child laborers (Shonenko), from 12 to 14-years-old, who manufactured fighter planes in the Japanese naval arsenals during the Second World War. They left their families, homelands, and childhood with the dream of receiving an education. But their dream was to be shattered - first by the war and again by cruel post-war politics in Taiwan, Japan, and China.
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Passing Poston
During World War II, almost 120,000 Japanese-Americans were forcibly relocated and spent the war years in one of ten internment camps located in remote and desolate areas throughout this country.One such camp was the Poston Relocation Center.Situated on an Indian reservation in the Arizona desert, Poston was the place that Ruth Okimoto spent her childhood years.PASSING POSTON is about Ruth's lifelong journey of coming to terms with her past. Of trying to reconcile the years...
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The Time is Right for Mee
In January of 2002, Mee Moua became the first Hmong American to be elected to a statewide political office for the first time in United States history. THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR MEE details Moua's historic and whirlwind campaign to become Minnesota State Senator while navigating a competitive political field and and mobilizing her immigrant Hmong community to become registered voters and a part of the American political process.
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