filmography timeline

2020.png

Series Producer, Asian Americans, the ground-breaking 5-hour docuseries and multi-media initiative tells the story of the nation’s fastest-growing racial group. A production of WETA, the Center for Asian American Media, Independent Television Service, Tajima-Peña Productions, and Flash Cuts. Broadcast on PBS primetime, The WORLD Channel, and Korean Broadcasting Service.

2017-2019.png

Nikkei Democracy Project videos 

Pilgrimage Remix

Immigration Ban LAX Protest

Happy Birthday Yuri Kochiyama

Leah’s Story

What is CVE? 

The First People Arrested After the Pearl Harbor Attack Were…

2015.png

Director/Co-Producer, No Más Bebés feature documentary about the coercive sterilization of immigrant women at Los Angeles County-USC hospital that sparked a campaign for reproductive justice and the landmark lawsuit, Madrigal v. Quilligan. Co-produced by Virginia Espino. Premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and broadcast on PBS Independent Lens.

2008.png

Director/Producer, Calavera Highway feature documentary about Armando and Carlos Peña, two brothers carry their mother’s ashes back to the Texas borderlands and uncover their family secrets. Co-produced by Evangeline Griego. Premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and broadcast on PBS POV.

2004.png

Producer/Episode Director, My Journey Home 2-hour PBS special features essays by Faith Adiele, Andrew Lam and Armando Peña on identity from Asian American, African American and Mexican American diasporic perspectives. A production of WETA-TV, and co-episode director Lourdes Portillo.

PBS primetime broadcast

Cine Golden Eagle Award

2004.png

Director, Mexico Story follows the migration of a meat-packing family from Guanajuato Mexico to Kansas for the seven-hour The New Americans series, produced by Steve James and Gordon Quinn, Kartemquin Films, and co-produced by Evangeline Griego. 

PBS Independent Lens broadcast 

BBC4 Storyville, SBS Australia, VPRO Netherlands, DR Denmark, NOGA Israel, and CBC Canada

40th Chicago International Television Competition / Gold Hugo Awards for Best Television   

Production and Chicago Award

International Documentary Association / Best Limited Series Award

IDFA International Documentary Festival Amsterdam

It’s All True Documentary Film Festival, Brazil

Santa Barbara International Film Festival

South by Southwest Film Festival

Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival, Ireland

2002.png

Producer/Director/Co-Videographer, Labor Women documentary short on a new generation of Asian American women labor union activists. Produced by Asian Women United. Premiered at OutFest and broadcast on PBS.

2001.png

Director/Videographer, Skate Manzanar documentary short collaboration with Martin Wong and Michael Louie of Giant Robot on a skateboarding journey through the site of the Manzanar, California World War II incarceration camp. Premiered at the Bellevue Art Museum.

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Producer/Director/Writer, The Last Beat Movie hour-long road documentary search for the last Beat poets. 

Los Angeles County Museum of Art premiere 

Sundance Channel broadcast


1997.png

Producer/Director/Writer, My America ...or Honk if You Love Buddha feature documentary follows the filmmaker’s cross-country search for Asian American identity. Premiered at Sundance Film Festival, broadcast on PBS and cablecast in Europe.

1993.png

Senior Producer, Declarations: All Men Are Created Equal? video essays on democracy in the U.S. Segment director of The Ballad of Demetrio Rodriguez, an essay about the Texas steelworker and WWII veteran who became a champion for educational equity.


PBS Independent Lens broadcast

CineFestival

1992.png

Director/Writer, Jennifer's in Jail documentary profile of teenage girls in trouble with the law.

Lifetime Television broadcast


1990.png

Producer/Director/Writer, The Best Hotel on Skid Row documentary profile narrated by writer Charles Bukowski about the denizens of a transient hotel. 


Home Box Office broadcast

Cannes Film Festival "Un Certain Regard" premiere

Mannheim Film Festival, Germany / Ducat Award

Hawaii International Film Festival

London International Film Festival

Producer/Director/Writer, What the Americans Really Think of the Japanese (Americajin no Tainichikanjo no Tatamae to Honne) documentary exam Japan-US relations

Fujisankei Japan broadcast

Director/Executive Producer, Yellow Tale Blues biography of the two filmmakers, produced with Chris Choy

USA Film Festival Finalist

1988.png

Producer/Director, Who Killed Vincent Chin feature length-documentary and Academy Award-nominee about the murder of a Chinese American in Detroit and the civil rights trial that resulted. Produced with Chris Choy. Premiered at New Directors/New Films opening night and broadcast on PBS POV.

1987.png

Co-producer, Haitian Corner” dramatic feature about a Haitian immigrant poet in self-exile in Brooklyn, New York. Directed by Raul Peck and produced by Journey Films.


ZDF Television Germany broadcast

Berlin International Film Festival premiere

Festival du Cinema “Images Caribes” / Grand Prize