Ishizue; fusion of the hearts
Directed by Linda Ohama
2010, 20 minutes
Ishizue features 13 young Vancouver Chibi Taiko players who traveled to Japan, most for the first time, and practised taiko with a traditional Japanese group in Onomichi, Hiroshima-ken—and experienced connecting with their cultural roots. $20
Directed by Brendan Uegama
2010, 20 minutes
In an internment camp in 1945, an eight-year-old boy has a mystical gift that makes the extraordinary happen. Even to the old and devastated Mr. Yamamoto, this gift may hold the power to make a skeptic believe. $15 (Sold out. New stock in September)
One Big Hapa Family
Directed by Jeff Chiba Stearns
Length: 85 minutes and 48 minutes
After a realization at a family reunion, half Japanese-Canadian filmmaker, Jeff Chiba Stearns, embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find out why everyone in his Japanese-Canadian family married interracially after his grandparents’ generation.
This feature live action and animated documentary explores why almost 100% of all Japanese-Canadians are marrying interracially, the highest out of any other ethnicity in Canada, and how their mixed children perceive their unique multiracial identities. $20
Tributaries: Reflections of AIKO SUZUKI
This DVD project pays tribute to the work and life of Aiko Suzuki—a remarkable, prolific visual artist who, from 1967 until her untimely death from cancer in 2005, worked in an astonishing variety of media, ranging from dramatic textile constructions, to abstract paintings in acrylics and oil, and from subtle monoprints to forthright video installations. $30
More info: http://www.midionodera.com/wordpress/?p=861
The First Battle
The Battle for Equality in War-Time Hawaii
A film by Tom Coffman, 1 hour
The First Battle is about a previously untold struggle for freedom, equality and full citizenship in America. This struggle was waged unconventionally behind the scenes in Hawaii during the two years leading up to World War II and the first several years of the war. It pitted fragile inter-ethnic relationships and untested nisei leadership against the full weight of the United States government. $20
Ohanashi – The Story of Our Elders
Interviewed by filmmaker Susanne Tabata, produced by Japanese Canadian National Museum
A 10 part series of Nikkei life stories featuring Midge Ayukawa, Alfie Kamitakahara,Tak Miyazaki, Marie Katsuno, May Komiyama, Tom Sando Kuwabara and Shig Kuwabara, Shirley Omatsu, Kazue Oye, Susumu Tabata and Irene Tsuyuki. On DVD 30 to 47 minutes each. $20 each, $150 for set of 10. See here for more info.
Sleeping Tigers – The Asahi Baseball Story
Jari Osborne,2003,50 min 47 s
This feature-length documentary tells the story of the Asahi baseball team. In pre-World War II Vancouver, the team was unbeatable, winning the Pacific Northwest Championship for five straight years. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, all persons of Japanese descent in Canada were sent to internment camps. The former Asahi members survived by playing ball. Their passion was contagious and soon other players joined in, among them RCMP officials and local townspeople. As a result, the games helped break down racial and cultural barriers. This remarkable story is told with a combination of archival footage, interviews and dramatic re-enactments. $19.95
The Spirit of Taiko
The magic beat of drums has captivated people in every culture throughout time. In Japan, they call it Taiko, or “big drum.” A new genre of taiko drumming took hold in the United States in the 1960s which is now evolving into a dynamic “new” performance art. The Spirit of Taiko traces this movement through the eyes of three generations of artists, bringing this bold and dramatic music alive. $30
Yellow Sticky Notes
Jeff Chiba Stearns, 2007, 6 min
After realizing that yellow sticky note “to do” lists were consuming his life, filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns decided to visually self-reflect on his filmmaking journey by animating on the same sticky notes that caused him to ignore major world events for the last nine years on over 2,300 yellow sticky notes. $12.80
What Are You Anyways?
Jeff Chiba Stearns, 2005, 10 min 40 sec
Follow the adventures of the Super Nip as filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns explores his cultural background growing up a mix of Japanese and Caucasian in a small white-bred Canadian city. The short classically animated film looks at particular periods in Jeff’s life where he battled with finding an identity being a half minority – from his childhood origins to the epic showdown against the monster truck drivin’ redneck crew. A humorous yet serious story of struggle and love and finding one’s identity through the trails and tribulations of growing up. $14
Showa Shinzan
Directed by Alison Reiko Loader
Produced by Michael Fukushima
2002, 12 min 56 s
This animated story, based on actual events, evokes the look and feel of the Japanese art of Bunraku puppetry.
During the Second World War, young Yasuko goes to live with her grandparents in Hokkaido, northern Japan. When nearby Mount Usu erupts, her grandfather, postmaster Masao Mimatsu, decides to record its activity. As the realities of war creep into their remote village, the volcano continues to spew rocks and smoke. As Yasuko looks at her grandfather’s drawings, she realizes that she is witnessing the birth of a new mountain, named Showa Shinzan.
Obachan’s Garden (Japanese version)
Directed by Linda Ohama
2001, $20
In 1923, Asayo Murakami left Hiroshima and settled in a fishing village in Steveston, BC. Her family remembers a happy woman who sang, danced and nurtured a colourful flower garden, but underneath, the memory of what she left in Japan haunted her deeply.
Delicately peeling back the layers of her grandmother Asayo’s life, filmmaker Linda Ohama discovers a painful, buried past. In poignant interviews, Obachan, now 103 years old, recalls life in Japan, her arrival in Canada as a picture bride, her determination to marry a man of her choice, the bombing of Hiroshima and the forced relocation of her family during World War II.
Shepherd’s Pie and Sushi
Craig Anderl & Mieko Ouchi
1998, 45 min
This short documentary presents Mieko Ouchi, half Celtic, half Japanese… and all Canadian. In 1993, Mieko, an actor, began researching a documentary about her grandfather, Edward Ouchi, a Japanese immigrant to Canada. Then she was cast to star in The War Between Us, a film on the WWII internment of 22,000 Japanese Canadians–re-enacting a key episode in her own community’s past. Part Canadian history, part autobiography and family chronicle, Shepherd’s Pie and Sushi looks at complex questions of personal and cultural identity with a light touch.
