Yuki Shimoda: Asian American Actor (film)

Documentary film profiling pioneering Nisei actor Yuki Shimoda that takes us from his youth in Sacramento, wartime incarceration as a young man at Tule Lake , and the ups and downs of his acting career. The film includes interviews with many of Shimoda's friends and contemporaries including Mako , Nobu McCarthy , and Soon Teck Oh, along with clips from key roles in Auntie Mame , Farewell to Manzanar , and Hito Hata among others. The film places his career in the larger context of Asian American actors who struggle to find meaningful parts and often are forced to play stereotypical roles to make ends meet.

The Asian American media arts organization Visual Communications (VC) began the film project just prior to Shimoda's death in May 1981. Initially headed by John Esaki and Akemi Kikumura, the film includes excerpts from an interview with a weakened Shimoda conducted by Kikumura and Nobu McCarthy. The film premiered at VC's 15th anniversary event on August 24, 1985, at the Japan America Theater in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo.

Might also like You Don't Know Jack: The Jack Soo Story (2009); To Be Takei (2014); Farewell to Manzanar (1976)