SUNDAY, October 22

Part 2: 10:45 am - 1:00 pm
Featuring “Hito Hata: Raise the Banner,” “1970s: The Fight for Little Tokyo,” and Q&A with filmmaker Duane Kubo

Hito Hata: Raise the Banner

FILM FEATURE:

HITO HATA: Raise The Banner

A landmark project directed by Robert A. Nakamura and Duane Kubo, HITO HATA: RAISE THE BANNER (1980) is the first feature-length film made by and about Asian Pacific Americans. Following a feisty first-generation Japanese American elderly’s life laboring on the transcontinental railroad and struggles in preserving the Little Tokyo community, the film captures the contributions and hardships of Japanese Americans from the turn-of-the-20th century.

This 4K Restoration is funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation, with additional support from funders of the VC Archives (Aratani Foundation, California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, California Humanities, Haynes Foundation, and Mellon Foundation).


FILM SHORT:

1970s: The Fight for Little Tokyo

Compilation of activist video shot by Duane Kubo and Visual Communications covering the redevelopment conflict and union organizing in Little Tokyo during the 1970s

Q&A GUESTS

  • DUANE KUBO - DIRECTOR, Hito Hata: Raise the Banner and 1970s: The Fight For Little Tokyo

    One of the founders of Visual Communications, the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, Duane Kubo later went on to co-direct (with Robert Nakamura) and produce the VC production HITO HATA: RAISE THE BANNER (1980), the first feature length narrative film created exclusively by Asian Americans. Kubo moved back to his native San Jose, CA in 1982 and started teaching at De Anza College in Cupertino, CA. He later became dean of the Intercultural/International Studies Division, teaching Asian American Studies and overseeing the Ethnic Studies and International Studies programs. Kubo is now retired from De Anza College and volunteers in San Jose Japantown by running J-Town Community TV and the J-Town FilmFest.

  • Susan Hayase

    Susan Hayase - Moderator

    Susan Hayase is a long-time activist in the San Jose area Japanese American community, and was a part of the grassroots movement for Japanese American redress, working in the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee (NOC) and the National Coalition for Redress/Reparations (NCRR.)

    She was a performing member of San Jose Taiko from 1980 through 1990, and she was appointed in 1995 to the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund Board by President Clinton and served as its vice-chair.

    Susan has worked on projects for the Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj), including the #DontExcludeUs series exploring parallels between Japanese American incarceration and other historic oppression including the Mexican Repatriation, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Muslim Ban.

    She is one of the founders of San Jose Nikkei Resisters, a grassroots multi-generational community organization whose mission is to unite and mobilize the Japanese American community to oppose Trump's attacks on immigrants and asylum seekers.

    Hayase is also a volunteer board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California -- Santa Clara Valley chapter, and is a retired software engineer. She's married and the mother of two adult sons.