video portfolio

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HASAMI (SCISSORS) (digital, 22:28 min, 2023)
short hybrid documentary
ROLE: director, editor, co-producer

Through a tapestry of dreamlike reenactments of memories interwoven with personal interviews, this experimental hybrid documentary film captures a daughter's attempt to understand their mother and to aid in her journey to heal from an abusive childhood.

THE VANISHING JAPANTOWN (digital, 6:27 min, 2021)
short documentary
ROLE: director, editor, producer

One of the last Japanese-owned businesses in the former historic Japantown of Watsonville, CA, Yamashita Market, shut their doors in April 2021. With the closure of this market, the greater Santa Cruz/Watsonville area lost a staple in the local Japanese-American community. This short documentary follows the ways in which other Asian communities in the area fill the void and, ultimately, how food is a monument to cultural diaspora.

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IKENOBO, IKEBANA (digital, 5:13 min, 2022)
short documentary
ROLE: director, editor, producer

In Watsonville, CA. Mitsuyo Tao teaches an Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) class at the local Buddhist temple. In this short documentary, she tells of her life immigrating to the US from Japan and keeping the tradition of Ikebana—within the specific style of Ikenobo— going strong.

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