Preparing to interview Nikiko Masumoto on the family farm. Del Ray, California (photo Alan Sanchez) — Preparing to interview Nikiko Masumoto on the family farm. Del Ray, California, *Changing Season* (photo Alan Sanchez)

Documentary Feature

RICOCHET

Director/Producer (with Jeff Adachi), Editor

Awards:

Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature (CAAMFest), Opening Night Film - Jason D. Mak Award for Social Justice (DisOrient Asian American Film Festival), Best Editing for Documentary Feature (Thin Line Fest), Best Director Documentary Feature (OK Cine Latino), Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature (Cine Las Americas), Opening Night Film (SF DocFest), Opening Night (SF Social & Economic Justice Film Festival), Honorable Mention for Best Documentary (Festival de Cine Latino), Best Documentary Feature (Footcandle Film Festival), Grand Jury Prize for Best Film & Best Documentary Feature (El Paso Film Festival), Best Documentary Feature (Bronx Social Justice Film Festival), Closing Night Film (Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival), Impact in Arts & Media Award (National Immigration Project), Best Documentary Feature Film (Cinesol Film Festival)

When a young woman is shot by an undocumented immigrant on Pier 14 in San Francisco, the incident ignites a political and media furor that culminates in Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. In the eye of this storm, two public defenders fight for justice for an innocent man.

Ricochet is my third and final collaboration on a series of films about the criminal (in)justice system with the legendary San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who tragically died during production. The film and the series gets the inside vantage point of public defenders fighting for the freedom and rights of the defenseless. It has played at over 40 festivals nationally and internationally and won more than a dozen awards so far.

EVERY STEP A PRAYER (work-in-progress)

Director/Producer (with Melinda Micco), Cinematographer, Editor

When the Chevron refinery in their community explodes, a group of Indigenous grandmother activists come together one last time to lead a movement: a series of Healing Walks to the five oil refineries poisoning the air, land and water around them. Part spiritual tradition to heal the Earth, part social/environmental justice action, the Walks not only unite the previously isolated “sacrifice zone” towns in their community, but connect to a greater global movement of land and indigenous rights and climate justice. Every Step A Prayer follows the Grandmothers as they take this final journey together, they pass the torch to the next generation of fierce young women: the leaders of the future movement for Mother Earth.

The Grandmothers and their allies at the global Climate Strike, September 2019 (photo: Andrew Chong)

DEFENDER

Editor, Music Supervisor

TRT: 80 mins

Awards: Best Documentary (Independent Television Festival)

Festivals: San Francisco International Film Festival, New York Asian American Film Festival, Independent Television Festival (Vermont)

Defender is the feature length version of the short documentary The Ride (see Documentary Shorts below). It expands and deepens the investigation into racial injustice in the justice system through the eyes of San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi and his client Michael Smith. The film explores the Public Defender's move to represent immigrants, newly detained in the Trump era, in their fight against deportation.

DEFENDER trailer (edited by co-director Jim Choi)

CHANGING SEASON: On The Masumoto Family Farm

Editor, Interviewer, Music Supervisor

TRT: 56 mins

Awards: Best Documentary Director (LA Asian Pacific Film Festival), Best Documentary Feature (Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival)

Festivals: Hawaii International Film Festival, Smithsonian Food History Festival (DC), CAAMFest (SF-Oakland), San Diego Asian American Film Fest, LA Asian Pacific Film Fest, Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Fest, Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival, SF Indiefest, Houston APFF, Chicago Asian American Film Festival, Colorado Dragon Film Festival

Broadcast: PBS, May 2016

Changing Season chronicles four seasons on the Masumoto family farm, home to among of the most sought after peaches in the world. The film follows patriarch Mas Masumoto, openly musing how many harvests he has left while training his recently returned daughter Nikiko in the family trade. Each of the family generations has had to overcome prejudice barriers: from immigrant to internment to mixed race marriage to sexuality. With the ongoing drought, how many harvests will they have left?

CHANGING SEASON Opening Scene

CHANGING SEASON Adopt-A-Tree Scene

CHANGING SEASON Trailer

Changing Season: On the Masumoto Family Farm chronicles a transitional year-in-the-life of famed farmer, slow food advocate, and sansei, David “Mas” Masumoto, and his compelling relationship with daughter Nikiko, who returns to the family farm with the intention of stepping into her father’s work boots.

DOGTOWN REDEMPTION

Director (with Amir Soltani), Cinematographer, Co-Producer, Additional Editing

TRT: 95 mins

Awards: Emmy Nominee 2017 for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary, Audience Award for Active Cinema (Mill Valley Film Festival)

Festival Screenings: Mill Valley Film Festival (CA), Salem International Film Festival (MA), Cinema At The Edge Festival (Santa Monica), Harlem International Film Festival (NY), Festival Internacional de Cine Ambiental (Argentina)

Broadcast: Independent Lens on PBS (May 2016)

Support: Sundance Documentary Fund, California Council of Humanities, SF Film Foundation, Berkeley Film Foundation, Pacific Pioneer Fund

Fellowships: Sundance Creative Producing Institute Summit, BAVC MediaMaker

Dogtown Redemption follows a group of homeless shopping cart recyclers in West Oakland, as forces of gentrification gather round them and threaten to shut down the neighborhood recycling center that is their lifeline.

I spent over 5 years with the subjects of the film: on street corners, in abandoned lots, behind and inside dumpsters, in hospitals, shelters, and on one particularly intense night, trapped in a shooting gallery full of dirty needles with a gang outside. It was a richly rewarding experience to bear witness to the lives of these hard working people in hard times who, no matter what the circumstances, found a way to get up every morning, or every evening, rain or shine, cold or heat, and go dig through society’s refuse for their sustenance.

The tale of Four West Oakland recyclers fighting the elements and the odds to survive and find a way off the street. Find Us: http://redemptiondoc.org/ Follow us at: http://www.facebook.com/redemptiondoc http://twitter.com/redemptiondoc