February 1, 2010 Breaking from ultra-serious social issue docs, Farallon Films is in production on a film on the music of Nels Cline, best known as the lead guitarist of Wilco and one of the most brilliant and adventurous musicians on earth. Produced in collaboration with Fantasy Studios, the untitled project features Nels Cline Singers’ Scott Amendola and Devin Hoff, with special guests Carla Kihlstedt, Ron Miles, Yuka Honda, Ben Goldberg and Matthias Bossi.
“It’s not your typical music documentary,” says director Steven Okazaki. “It’s about musicianship and the collaborative hard work of playing great music.” More info and some video clips to come!
Thank you to producers Jeffrey Wood and Jason Cohen; shooters Dan Krauss, Mark Kohr, Aaron Kohr, and Bart Nagel; engineer Jesse Nichols; sound recordists Adriano Bravo and Jim Choi; production assistants Steve Yamane and Brandy McNeal; assistant editor Greg Knowles; Fantasy Studios’ Kim Weisberg, James Gangwer and Alberto Hernandez; Steve Condiotti and DTC; and the Saul Zaentz Media Center.
The Conscience of Nhem En Premieres on HBO
July 8, 2009 The Academy Award® nominated The Conscience of Nhem En had its U.S. television premiere on HBO on July 8 at 8pm (check your television listings and hbo.com for repeat showings and on-demand availability). The Academy Award® nominated short film looks at silence and complicity through the haunting story of a young soldier who took ID photos of thousands of innocent people before they were killed.
During Pol Pot’s reign of terror from 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians, about 25% of the population. One of their slogans was, “To kill you is no loss, to save you is no gain.” Thirty years later, the nightmare continues to haunt the country.
17,000 men, women and children were sent to the Tuol Sleng Prison, also known as S-21. They were registered, photographed and often tortured before they were killed. The photographs are a powerful document of a genocide that the world ignored. Three survivors and Nhem En, a soldier/photographer for the Khmer Rouge, tell their remarkable stories.
Filmmaker Steven Okazaki says, "I was unprepared for the experience of seeing the photos, meeting the people, hearing their stories, and making the film. In many ways, it's the most challenging thing I've done." (Read Steven’s Cambodia Diary on the International Documentary Association’s website.)
The Conscience of Nhem En was filmed in Phnom Penh with Associate Producer/Sound Recordist Singeli Agnew, Production Coordinator Han Ong and Interpreter Sok Chamrouen. It was produced for HBO Documentary Films with Consulting Editor Geof Bartz, Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein and Executive Producer Sheila Nevins.
Conscience of Nhem En and
Troubled Paradise on DVD!
The Academy Award® nominated The Conscience of Nhem En is now available on DVD for just $19.95 for home use. Click on the Order tab to place your order.
Included on the same DVD as an extra is Troubled Paradise, Steven Okazaki's acclaimed 1992 PBS documentary on indigenous culture and politics in Hawai'i. The film features some of the Big Island's best hula halaus and musicians, as well as stunning lava flow footage filmed by Okazaki and the late, great volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft.
Thank you to Teresa Tauchi for her terrific design work and Doug Niven for the use of the S-21 photographs.
The Academy Award-nominated Unfinished Business, which tells the inspiring story of three men who resisted the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, is available at a special low price from Docurama, on-line or by calling 1-800-314-8822.
Lisa News:
Devon Morf, lead singer of All You Can Eat and inspirational star of The Lisa Theory (see Mark Gorney, Avel Sosa and Bucky Sinister in our web clip) has turned forty! This landmark moment reminds us that if you stay positive and keep your integrity, adults are still allowed to have fun. Check out Devon’s new band Conquest for Death here.
Okazaki's Fourth
Oscar Nomination!
Steven Okazaki arrives at the 81st
annual Academy Award ceremony.
January 22, 2009
The Academy Award® nomination for "Best Short Documentary" for the The Conscience of Nhem En makes Steven Okazaki a four-time nominee.
In 1986, he received his first nomination for his groundbreaking feature documentary Unfinished Business. In 1991, he won the Oscar® for his short documentary Days of Waiting, the story of Estelle Ishigo, one of the few Caucasians to be interned with the Japanese Americans during World War II. In 2006, he received his third nomination for The Mushroom Club, which looks at the city and people of Hiroshima sixty years after the atomic bombing.
White Light/Black Rain
Wins Primetime Emmy
Steven Okazaki accepts the Emmy statue along with Executive Producer Robert Richter and Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein.
September 13, 2008 White Light/Black Rain won a Primetime Emmy, television's most coveted prize, for "Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking."
Accepting the award, filmmaker Steven Okazaki stated that the film "honors fourteen Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors who remind us of the irreversible horror of nuclear weapons." He thanked HBO Documentary Films, Executive Producers Sheila Nevins and Robert Richter, and Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein, who also received Emmy statues.
In 2007, the critically acclaimed production premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was broadcast on HBO on August 6.
In 2008, it won three prizes at the Banff World Television Festival — the Jury Grand Prize, "Best History and Biography Program" and the "NHK Best Asian Program."
It also had a successful theatrical and DVD release in Japan, distributed by Zazie Films and Siglo, followed by a national broadcast on NHK in Japan in August 2008.
