BEFORE ANYONE ELSE (2022)
Japan | USA
Short, 20 min.
Director: MARIKO Tetsuya
Producer
Two young people living at the bottom of society discover a child left in a car. The man longs for a warm family and follows his paternal instinct, taking the child out of the car and bringing him to their hideout. What kind of dramatic ending will they face?
KIKU’S LEGACY（キクの伝説）
in development
Japan | USA
Documentary Feature, 90 min., 2026
Director: Deborah DeSnoo
Starring: Emiko Takahashi, George Okunoyama
Producer
Experiences of the actors who portrayed the "hafu" children in the Japanese film "Kiku and Isamu." shed light on the challenges of mixed-race individuals in a society that promotes ethnic homogeneity.
LIGHTNING OVER THE BEYOND (2022)
Japan | USA
Feature, 169 min.
Director: HANNO Yoshihiro
Producer
Progressing from sound to color, Lighting Over the Beyond is a road movie that traces the roots of cinema and the history of war while asking "What is war?" and "What is an enemy?”
COYOTE (2021)
Japan
20 min.
Director: MARIKO Tetsuya
Producer
Coyote is an intercultural love story between a Korean American woman and a Japanese immigrant in present-day Chicago. This film explores model minorities and Asian discrimination in the U.S. and exposes communication conflicts between native and second-language speakers in intimate relationships.
MAYDAY (2020)
Japan
63 min.
Director: MARIKO Tetsuya
Co-producer
MAYDAY is an international collaboration that explores the May 2020 quarantine experience through the lens of what all people have in common: food. From the United States to Brazil, from Ghana to Malawi, and from multiple cities in Europe to still others in Asia, Mayday is a global snapshot of a world in crisis as well as a world united in its fundamental humanity. Anchored by Japanese auteur Tetsuya Mariko, Mayday intimately captures the momentous month of April 2020 by taking viewers into the daily lives of residents of Chicago and Soweto, Bucharest, and Tokyo, and finally culminates in the climactic eruption of the Black Lives Matter movement.
RESISTANCE & RESETTLEMENT
USA
Short, 15 min., 2022
Director: Reina Higashitani
Producer
In post-production
CHICAGO INFINITY WOMEN (3 Episodes)
USA
6 min/episode
Director and Producer
Esther: A Cookbook Store Owner
Esther: “What we wanna do here is to create community through foods because through cookbooks you can learn about different cultures and you learn about foods of your culture.”
(*Unfortunately, the store is closed.)
Raych: Poet (in post-production, 2021)
Raych is a poet, mentor, and community connecter for young POC writers and poets.
Molly Z: Mural Artist (in production, 2021)
Molly connects Chicago communities through her mural arts.