My dad is white, too.

This year I was asked by Raindance catalog editor Orestes Kouzof to write an article about being a "foreign filmmaker" in Japan.  The article was published under the title Japan's Foreign Filmmakers: 'Weastern Cinema', and here is an excerpt:

Even my Japanese distributor and I have disagreed about the way ‘A2-B-C’ is advertised. In the press materials it is described as being “A film about Fukushima through the eyes of an American director,” which I object to because I find this reductive. As a filmmaker I hope the focus will be on the children I have documented and not on the fact that I happen to be gaikokujin. Can you imagine if the press release had described the film Brokeback Mountain (2005), by director Ang Lee, as “gay white cowboys through the eyes of a straight Taiwanese-born naturalized-American director?”

It is a huge honour to be back at Raindance for a second year in a row, after screening here last year with 'A2-B-C' (STORY), and this year I am joined by my dad*.  Yes, filmmakers have parents.  Even Christopher Nolan, as told by Raindance founder Elliot Grove (HERE).

* NOTE:  My dad is white, too.

On our first day at the festival, we hit the ground running, watching the documentary film "Songs for Alexis" (INFO), attending a conversation with world-renowned casting director Ros Hubbard (INFO) and I also sat for an interview.

'-1287' screens Wednesday and Friday of this week (INFO)!