Hito Hata: Raise the Banner

Robert A. Nakamura, Duane Kubo
United States, 1980

Digital Restoration

featuring

Mako, Hiroshi Kashiwagi, Pat Morita, Tad Horino,

A landmark project directed by Robert A. Nakamura and Duane Kubo, Hito Hata: Raise the Banner 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 twentieth century, the film centers on Oda (the late veteran actor/director Mako), a feisty issei (first-generation Japanese American) and elderly single laborer living in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo. Through a series of flashbacks, the story traces Oda’s life, from his time as a laborer on the transcontinental railroad to his struggle to save the home of Little Tokyo’s residents when the community is threatened with redevelopment.

FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Robert A. Nakamura
  • John Esaki
Cinematographer
  • Dale Iwamasa
Language
  • English
  • Japanese
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • DCP
  • 93 mins
Source
  • Visual Communications Media
Additional Info
  • The 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).

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