Mele Murals in Colorlines Magazine

Mele Murals Kickstarter campaign got mentioned in Colorlines!

NBC News Article on Mele Murals

Read about Mele Murals in NBC News!

CAAM Interview about Gotham

Photo by Aaron Yoshinio

Momo Chang from CAAM recently interviewed me about the Gotham Awards.  You can read the interview HERE.

My path to becoming a filmmaker

October is American Archives Month (who knew) and Visual Communications is participating in a series of events in celebration of it. Each week this month they will feature "Asian Pacific Americans who have made their mark on their communities and history". I was honored that they asked me to participate in project. Here is my response to the prompt "How did you choose your path to becoming a filmmaker?"

Also, that's pops in the above photo!

Live Pledge on PBS SoCal

PBS SoCal chose to feature Life on Four Strings for their live pledge this month and invited me to be a part of it. It was my first time on a live TV set and it was fun to see how it all goes down.

Feature article in Hyphen Magazine

My friend Oliver Saria wrote a great feature on me in Hyphen Magazine. We met up and talked over burgers at Plan Check on Sawtelle. I feel he really understood my goals as a filmmaker and where I'm at in my career. Oliver is a super talented writer and is the drummer for one of my favorite bands The Skyflakes!

Interview on NPR affiliate KUSP

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Robert Pollie for his feature story on Life on Four Strings on NPR affiliate KUSP.  

Listen to the story HERE

Feature in Innov8 Magazine

The September/October issue of Innov8 Magazine features a great write-up on Life on Four Strings.  Article written by Sonny Ganaden and photo by Aaron Yoshino.

Read the article on page 29:

Write-up on Chris Iijima on apimovement.com

A good write-up about Chris Iijima and A Song For Ourselves on apimovement.com. Read article HERE.

Discover Nikkei Article

Here's an article (part 1 of 2) on Discover Nikkei about my film Pilgrimage and the connection I try to make with the JA community through my work. I got a chance to sit down and talk with writer Mia Nakaji Monnier at JANM last year and I thought she did an excellent job with article.







Read Part 2 HERE

Interview for Fancast.com

My blogging skills are the worst! I forgot to post this interview I did for Fancast.com in December. The article was written by Chi-hui Yang, the curator of Comcast's Cinema Asian America. I owe a lot to Chi-hui. As the director of the San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival, he picked my first film, Yellow Brotherhood, to screen at the festival and has been really supportive of my work ever since. It's also because of him that A Song For Ourselves was part of last month's Cinema Asian America line-up.

Read the interview here.

Review of A Song For Ourselves in Anthropology Review Database

Here's a recent review of A Song For Ourselves published on the Anthropology Review Database site. Click here to read.

Here's another review posted last year on Educational Media Reviews Online.

If you would like to get A Song For Ourselves into you school's library please contact Third World Majority or Center For Asian American Media.

Evil Monito feature by Terry Hwang

A couple months back my friend Terry Hwang was kind enough to write a feature on me for Evil Monito. It's one of the most insightful articles that have been written on me (like all three of them) and I know that Terry really spent a lot of time working on it. I went to school with her at UCLA and it's been inspiring to watch her chase her dreams as a writer. You can read the article here.

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.

Under The Influence

someone made the mistake of nominating me for angry asian man's 30 most influential asian americans under 30, and the angry guy picked me! it's a huge honor to make this list which includes karen o from yeah yeah yeahs and the co-founder of youtube. i really have to thank phil yu (aka. angry asian man) for always covering my back, his blog is phenomenal and continues to inform and unite asian americans across the country.

speaking of karen o, "zero" is one of my favorite songs this year:

Visual Communications Interview

during their film festival, visual communications (vc) posted an interview with me on their website. i literally grew up at vc as both my parents were working there when i was born and had to take me to the office with them.  

SONG Gets Mention in LA Weekly

song got at really dope write-up by ernest hardy in the la weekly this week!  peep game:

"Also recommended is Tadashi Nakamura’s hugely moving short A Song for Ourselves, which celebrates the life and legacy of the late Asian-American musician-activist Chris Iijima, an unsung hero of America’s progressive political movement. The film illuminates the roles Asians played in the 1960s civil rights movement, forging political alliances while asserting their own identities, while the portrait of Iijima himself — his oldest son’s anguish at not having his father around; his wife’s teary confession that the world makes no sense without him; his own words on how he came to create himself — will make your heart ache."

SONG Mixtape Mentioned in District

a song for ourselves and the mixtape got mentioned in this article about bambu in district. don't forget to come out to the a peaceful riot release party tomorrow at beatrock!

Channel APA Interview

this berry embarrassing interview was done during the sf international asian american film festival last month for channel apa. the interview was so weak i don't think they even posted it. oh well, at least the new era and my hundreds tee look clean!

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...