Nikkei Style (film)

Personal essay on being Japanese American by Sansei filmmaker Steven Okazaki , narrated in his first person voice. Beginning his journey at a family mochizuki event in Oxnard, California, he explores his family history, taking us to the house he grew up in in Venice, California, and telling us what he knows of his mother's and father's families, including their World War II incarceration (his mother went to Santa Anita , then Amache , his father to Heart Mountain ) and featuring a brief interview with his mother. In search of more information about his father's side, he goes to Japan to visit a distant cousin and to Hawai'i to visit one of his father's old army buddies, from whom he learns much. The film ends with footage from various bon dances in Hawai'i and the continental U.S, which Okazaki cites as a living symbol of being Japanese American. Along the way, Okazaki muses on aspects of Japanese American culture, the differences between Japanese Americans in the continental U.S. and Hawai'i, and the lingering impact of the World War II incarceration.

Funding for the film came from the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund , California Civil Liberties Public Education Program , and the National Asian American Telecommunications Association.

Might also like To Be Takei (2014); A Song for Ourselves (2009); Changing Season: On the Masumoto Family Farm (2015)