[After the screening, there will be a live in-person Q&A with the filmmakers. This screening is part of the series, “Retrospectives in Dialogue“.]
A Visual Communications (VC) 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. Capturing the contributions and hardships of Japanese Americans from the turn of the 20th century, the film centers on Oda, a feisty issei (first generation Japanese American) and elderly single laborer living in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. Through a series of flashbacks, the story traces Oda’s life as a laborer on the transcontinental railroad and his struggle to save the home of Little Tokyo’s residents when the community is threatened with redevelopment.
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).