ELFA Equality AAPI Heritage Month Event
Retelling History Through Filmmaking
May 31st, 1-2pm EST
Norman Mineta, the first Japanese American cabinet
member, recently passed away. He once received a gift of a bat that had belonged to Hall-of-Famer Hank Aaron. Since it was worth more than the amount a government official could accept, he had to
return it.
"The damn government’s taken my bat again.” His humorous remark originated from his experience as a child when his bat was confiscated in the incarceration camp during WWII. Why do
we care about those stories? Please join us for a presentation and discussion with a filmmaker and educator, Reina Higashitani as she introduces her work on retelling the experiences of Japanese
Americans through her “uplifting” filmmaking and podcast series.
The second half of the presentation will involve one-on-one conversations with audience members, so if you have a question for
Reina, be prepared for some screen time!
Born and raised in Japan and Spain, Reina Higashitani is a filmmaker with a passion for promoting diversity and inclusion in the arts and
entertainment. She is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University, the Sidney Poitier New American Film School. As a member of Television Academy, she has produced and associate produced a
number of independent films and TV documentaries including Francis Ford Coppola’s “Distant Vision,” Sundance Film Festival Official Selection “Kusama-Infinity” (2018), Academy Award-nominated
documentary “Redemption” (2013), “No Contract, No Cookies” (HBO, 2011), “Wartorn 1861-2010” (HBO, 2010), and a Tokyo Video Festival Excellence Award-winning documentary “Shall We Sing?” (PBS, 2006),
which she also directed. She is currently working on a film about Japanese American post WWII resettlement funded by National Parks. She holds an M.F.A. in Film and TV Directing from UCLA and an M.A
in Cinema Studies from NYU.