Mele Murals Los Angeles Premiere Featuring Paula Fuga!

I'm extremely excited to announce the LA Premiere of MELE MURALS on Friday, August 5, 2015 at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC) in Little Tokyo.

There will be many special guests including Paula Fuga, one of my favorite vocalist from Hawai'i:


Prime and Estria - the artists featured in the film, and the filmmaking team from ʻŌiwi TV will be in attendance for Q&A following the screening.

Friday, August 5, 2016 at 6:30p
Japanese American Cultural and Community Center

244 S San Pedro St, Los Angeles, CA 90012

6:30p - VIP Garden Concert with Paula Fuga (VIP ticket holders only)

8:00p - Film Screening

9:30p - Q&A with filmmakers and featured artists Estria and Prime

Purchase tickets HERE
$40 VIP, $20 General

Special $15/ticket for groups of 10+.

Mele Murals World Premiere

Cinematographer Justyn Ah Chong, me, Executive Producer Keoni Lee, Associate Producer Aina Paikai

We did it! The sold-out World Premiere of Mele Murals at the Oakland Museum of California was exactly what we had envisioned! We were privileged to have our premiere at CAAMFest which has been supporting my work since my first film.

A huge thank you to everyone who came out. The strength of our communities were on full display that night and left me grateful and inspired. The event started with live paintings by Prime and Estria - the artists featured in the film - and ended with performances by Bambu, Geo and Sabzi.

The premiere was part of Friday Nights @ OMCA featuring Off The Grid food trucks.

Prime and Estria (the artists featured in the film) doing what they do best.

Me and the rents!

Cast and crew.

Prometheus Brown and Bambu performed at The Bar after the screening.

Impromptu Blue Scholars set! Sabzi produced the score for Mele Murals.

The Mele Murals 'Ohana in San Francisco's Japantown after the second sold-out screening.

SFIAAFF Screening at The Castro - 03/14/12

The screening of the Jake Shimabukuro film at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival was a huge success. 1,300 people packed the Castro Theater on a rainy night. The film played well but the highlight of the night was when Jake was joined on stage with his mother Carol and his brother Bruce. Below are some of the highlights of the night (including me lookin hella uncomfortable in front of the camera) shot and edited by Alex Ferrari:






My Dad enjoyed the red carpet treatment.


The Boss Don Young, producer of the film.


My mom, Jake's brother Bruce and Jake's mom Carol


Had a great time all week causing trouble with my 808 folks. Lehu from Paliku/Oiwi TV with Amber, Leanne and Micky from Pacific Islanders in Communications who all helped make the film happen.




Auntie Carol AKA The Karaoke Queen doing her thing backed up by he sons. Best moment of the night!

Photos from CAAM's Facebook

Bambu performing "Chairman Mao" in Honolulu

Couldn't shoot Bam & Phatty's performance at the premiere but did shoot them the next night at The Loft.

Honolulu Weekly Cover Story

One of the coolest parts of the Hawai'i trip was going to Boots & Kimo's to eat this (banana pancakes swimming in macadamia nut sauce)... ...and then walking over to Foodland and seeing this:
The small print along the yellow fist reads "Long Live Chris Iijima"!
Read the whole article here.

Flicks from Hawai'i Premiere on Honozooloo

I had the privilege of meeting a grip of inspiring and talented people while in Hawai'i and photographer Aaron Yoshino was one of them. I became a fan of his photos earlier this year through his website honozooloo.com. After hanging out with all these filipinos, it was really good to see a fellow buddhahead making a name for himself and doin it big! SEE ALL THE PHOTOS AT HONOZOOLOO.COM

Asian Pacific Arts Video and Article on LA Premiere

asian pacific arts recently posted an article and video of the some of the highlights of last months LA premiere of song.  read and watch them here.  big ups to liann, ada, warren, and the rest of the apa staff for covering the event!

why does this photo look like geo, bam, kiwi and phat are starring in a filipino re-make of barbershop?

speaking of barbershop scenes...

Song Gets Write-Up In LA Times!

robert ito wrote a really nice article on song that ran in the la times on saturday.

"The film is at turns celebratory and wistful, a paean to Iijima and the L.A. that, despite its rap as a town without a center or a sense of community, nurtured the artist like no other."

read article here

i sat down with robert a couple of weeks ago. being japanese american himself, he really understood the history and significance of the asian american movement and the relevance of chris iijima's story. another reminder why we need more people from our respective communities with access to mainstream media outlets like the times.

LA Premiere After-Party at Oiwake in Little Tokyo!

for everyone who's going to the LA premiere OR for those who were't able to get tickets, there will be an official after-party at oiwake restaurant just a block away from the theater.  the after-party is hosted by the tuesday night project/tn kat family and will be going down from 10p-2a.  only $2 cover with your ticket stub from the premiere and $5 without.  dj's will be spinning all night, the line-up includes: dj phatrick (devil's pie) dj et (mass movement) +he op+imis+ (tuesday night cafe)

here are walking directions from the JACCC theater (premiere) to Oiwake (afterparty).

Kogi Korean BBQ Taco Truck Will Be At The LA Premiere!

it's official, the ridiculously popular kogi korean bbq taco truck will be at the JACCC following the song premiere this saturday night starting at 10pm. the truck is gonna pull up right in front of the theater so people can go straight from the show to truck! for all of you who will be at the show from out of town you NEED to experience the korean bbq taco...

you can read more about the kogi truck here.

Asian Pacific Arts Interview

asian pacific arts, an online magazine published by the ucla asia institute, asked me to sit-down with them to talk about Song and the premiere and concert this sat (2/28).  the way they posted the interview is dope because they have both the audio from the interview and the transcript so you can pick and choose what you want to hear rather than having to hear my dumb-ass ramble.  you can check it out here.

shouts to my cuzzo liann for setting this up!

A Song For Ourselves MIXTAPE!!!

The much anticipated A Song For Ourselves Mixtape is finally here! Produced and mixed by DJ Phatrick this compilation includes exclusive tracks from Bambu, Kiwi and Geologic of Blue Scholars who will all be performing live at the film's premiere on 2/28. The mixtape also includes songs off the historic A Grain of Sand album by Chris Iijima, Nobuko Miyamoto and Charlie Chin. DOWNLOAD MIXTAPE HERE FOR FREE!

Download directions:

1. Click on link above 2. When zshare page opens, click on "Download Now!" button at bottom of page 3. Wait until "Download link will appear in 45 sec" turns into "Click here to start your download 4. Click highlighted "here" link and you will automatically start downloading zip file 5. Once the download is complete double-click on zip file on your desktop to "unzip" file 6. A folder named "ASongForOurselves Mixtape" should appear on you desktop where you will find all the mp3's and mixtape cover

Tracklist: 1. Iijima, Miyamoto, Chin - "We Are The Children" (Intro) 2. Blue Scholars - "Cornerstone" 3. Native Guns - "Slave Thinking" 4. Native Guns feat. Geologic - "Agitation Propaganda" 5. Iijima, Miyamoto, Chin - "Jonathan Jackson" 6. Bambu - "When Will The Time Come?" prod. by Will Bracy 7. Kiwi - "Gaza 2 Oakland" prod. by DJ Phatrick 8. Blue Scholars - "Back Home" 9. Chris Iijima - "Vietnamese Lament" 10. Iijima, Miyamoto, Chin - "War Of The Flea" (Senz of Depth Remix feat. Bambu) 11. Bambu - "Chairman Mao" (Paper Planes edit) 12. Blue Scholars - "Fire For The People" 13. Kiwi - "Cause" 14. Native Guns feat. Geologic - "Said It" (Asi Remix) 15. Iijima, Miyamoto, Chin - Divide & Conquer (Fatgums Remix feat. Geologic, Kiwi, & Bambu) 16. Chris Iijima Soliloquy 17. Kiwi - "Imagine" 18. Bambu - "Seven Months" 19. Blue Scholars - "Life and Debt"

Meet Kiwi

looking back, one of the most influential stages of my life was the time i spent as an undergrad at ucla. not because of the classes i took, but because of the people i met and the inspiration they hit me with. one of the people who had a huge impact on me was this brotha they called kiwi.

"I felt like there were many parallels of his experience that I could relate to myself, in terms of reclaiming our culture, finding identity and purpose through music, and standing by the idea of art for the people (as opposed to art for art’s sake)."

--- Kiwi on Chris Iijima

having seen him spit on stage and featured in the classic film beats, rhymes, and resistance, kiwi was one of the first superstars of the community that i really looked up.  along with artisits like faith santilla and wendell pascual, kiwi really opened me up to the power of creativity combined with grounded political expression.  i can honestly say that i would not be making films today if it were not for this dude...

kiwi was one of the first people to see a cut of a song for ourselves and has been supportive of the project ever since.  i'm so honored that kiwi will be performing at the premiere of Song on the 28th!

Trailer For 2.28.09 Premiere

in the final stretch!  final sound mix session tomorrow and color correcting on saturday. in the meantime here's the trailer for the big LA premiere:

if this video is taking too long to load you can watch the trailer on youtube.

after a month of mainly meetings, e-mails and phone calls this trailer was hella fun to cut!

"Song" Premiere Gets Love On Angry Asian Man

angry asian man was probably the first blog i ever got into...and now look at me.  the premiere for a song for ourselves got a big shout on angry asian man last week!  if you wanna keep up with any kinda asian american anything in the media, this is the place to go.  

good looks phil for always having my back! 

Premiere Shout on Prometheus Brown

geologic (one half of blue scholars) mentioned the premiere of a song for ourselves on his blog. between touring, recording music and raising a kid, geo aka prometheus brown somehow finds time to watch and review a gang of flicks (almost one a day)! peep the blog for articulate and socially conscious reviews of films both new and old, hollywood and indie, local and foreign.

earlier this year he reviewed my film pilgrimage. good looks geo!

"Like Us" by Bambu

one of the good things about making films is that i'm able to build with other creative people. over the last 3 years i've been able to work with bambu, one of my favorite hip-hop artists. when his street classic self untitled album dropped i was an undergrad at ucla hungry for anything community-oriented in hip-hop. that album had such an impact on me that i used "rear view" for the opening song of my first film yellow brotherhood. in grad school me and fellow filmmaker eric tandoc followed bambu, kiwi and dj phatrick (at the time they were still together as the legendary native guns) on their westcoast tour. that footage was used for bambu's first video off his new album exact change: Bambu "Like Us" from Xylophone Films on Vimeo. don't miss your chance to see bambu perform live at the premiere of a song for ourselves!

About The Film

A Blog For Ourselves

wadup urrrbody! welcome to the blog for A Song For Ourselves. here i'll be keeping you updated on my new film as well as info, photos, music and videos about the big premiere and concert on 2/28/08 at the japanese american cultural and community center. please mark your calenders!