Yuri Kochiyama Tribute Video

I had the honor of creating the tribute video for the Yuri Kochiyama memorials held in Oakland, LA and NY. Family and friends provided the photos and Blue Scholars provided the track. Yuri was a hero of mine and a great family friend, as are all members of the Kochiyama family. Her passion and commitment to the liberation of all peoples continues to inspire my work. 

PBS National Re-Broadcast of Life on Four Strings in May

 

I'm happy to announce that PBS will re-broadcast Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings nationally starting on Friday, May 9th. 

Broadcast dates and times vary in each city so please check your local listings. The easiest way to find the film is to search "Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings" on your cable box or your local PBS station's website. You can find your local PBS station here:
http://www.pbs.org/about/faq/station-finder/

Los Angeles, KOCE - 5/9 @ 10P
Bay Area, KQED - 5/10 @ 6P
Boston, WENH & WGBH - 5/9 @ 10P
New York, WEDW - 5/12 @ 4A
Phoenix, KAET - 5/9 @ 9P
Houston, KUHT - 5/14 @ 8P
Dallas, KERA - 5/9 @ 9P
Minneapolis, KAWB - 5/9 @ 10P
Philadelphia, WHYY - 5/9 @ 10P

Great trip to the Bay

Just came back from a busy but inspiring trip to the Bay. Here are some of the highlights:

There are very few people in the world that I look up to more than Jeff Chang. I'm honored to call him a mentor and friend. Amongst many other titles, he's the director of Stanford's Institute for Diversity in the Arts where he invited me to screen Life on Four Strings. It was awesome to hang out with Jeff and meet his students.

Make sure to check out Jeff's new book Who We Be coming out in October.

Had the privilege to be on an excellent panel of friends and colleagues at this year's Association of Asian American Studies Conference in San Francisco. The title of the panel was Methods in Motion: Contemporary Practitioners on the Locus of Critical Storytelling featuring Anthony Kim, RJ Lozada, Theresa Navarro and Jason Magabo Perez.

The panel was described as "an amazing collective of producers, playwrights, directors, and documentarians whose work provides an engagement with old and new media formats to build alternative and community-based histories, narratives, and archives of and for Asian America. Each panelist will be invited to reflect on the critical and creative modes of storytelling they practice across multiple forms and genres, directions and disciplines, and present current works in progress".

Went to the opening of the kickass exhibit Super Awesome: Art and Giant Robot at the Oakland Museum curated by my buddy Eric Nakamura.  The show will be up until July so make sure check it out.

The homies Nomi and Pele from the group Power Struggle had a release party for their new album In Your Hands at the hood famous Bindlestiff Studio. The show and album is a perfect example of good, community-based art. Listen and cop the album!

Life on Four Strings at Stanford

I'll be screening Life on Four Strings at Stanford's Institute for Diversity in the Arts on April 22nd at 5p. The screening is free and will be held at the Roble Hall Theater

Day of Remembrance at Tufts

I have the honor of participating in this year's Day or Remembrance program at Tufts University on Monday 2/24 at 6p. I will be showing my film Pilgrimage. Please stop by if you're in the area!

Remembering the Atomic and Troy Cafe

Nancy Sekizawa holding up a photo of the Atomic Cafe, a restaurant run by her parents until she took it over.

I'm currently working with the Little Tokyo Service Center and filmmaker Akira Boch on a short documentary on two small cafes in Little Tokyo that had a legendary impact on LA's music scene, the Atomic Cafe and the Troy Cafe.  The famous brick building that housed both businesses will be demolished this year and a metro station will be built in it's place.

Both KPCC and LA Weekly have recently ran short pieces that layout the main elements of the Atomic and Troy Cafe story. 

The interviews for the project have been fun so far.  Listening to stories about LA's punk scene in the 80's and the Chicano arts scene of the 90's have expanded my appreciation for Little Tokyo as a cultural hub for the arts.

Nancy Sekizawa as Atomic Nancy back in the day.

Went all the way to NYC to interview Sean Carrillo, who ran the Troy Cafe with his wife Bibbe Hansen.

Musician Maceo Hernandez talking about growing up in Little Tokyo and his memories at the Atomic and Troy Cafe.  As a kid I always thought Maceo Hernandez was the coolest guy in the community. 

Musician Quetzal Flores talking about the Troy Cafe where his band Quetzal performed for the first time.

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.

Life on Four Strings wins the Gotham Audience Award!

As a result of all your votes, Life on Four Strings won the Gotham Film Audience Award! Cindy and I had a great time at the awards ceremony and the win was totally unexpected. Thank you for all your help mobilizing our community to vote and spread the word. Many of you have been backing me since day one and I really wouldn't be making films if it were not for all your love and support.

We got some ink in Variety but only as an example of how bad 12 Years of Slave did at the Gotham Awards, hilarious!

Geeked that I got to meet one of my favorite actors Mike B. Jordan. I’ve been a fan since he was Wallace in The Wire and Friday Night Lights just sealed the deal. He won the Breakthrough Actor Award that night for his lead role as Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station.

Talk about geeked, Cindy was screaming inside while meeting her idol Rashida Jones.

Got to meet Director Ryan Coogler who won Breakthrough Director Award for this film Fruitvale Station.

Jake was in NYC but couldn't make it to the awards ceremony because he was performing with Paul Simon at a fundraiser that night. I got to catch up with him and his manager Chris the next day.