Two documentaries being shown together at the 27th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival have something in common — they’re both about Nikkei leaders who died before their time but left a lasting impression on both Hawaii and the mainland.

Kimberlee Bassford’s “Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority” (2008, 56 minutes) and Tadashi Nakamura’s “A Song for Ourselves” (2009, 33 minutes) will be shown on the following dates:

Sunday, March 15, at 12 p.m. and Wednesday, March 18, at 6:45 p.m. at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, Post and Fillmore in San Francisco Japantown.

Saturday, March 21, at 12:45 p.m. at the Camera 12 Cinemas, 201 S. 2nd St. at San Carlos in San Jose.

For ticket information, call (415) 865-1588, e-mail boxoffice@asianamericanmedia.org, or visit www.asianamericanmedia.org.

Presented by the Center for Asian American Media, SFIAAFF will run from March 12 to 22 in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose.

A Firecracker and a Fighter

Bassford’s film explores the remarkable story of Patsy Takemoto Mink (1927-2002), who redefined American politics while battling racism and sexism. Small in stature but a giant in vision, she began her life on a Maui sugar plantation, earned her law degree at University of Chicago, and was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives, the Hawaii Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives (1964-76 and 1990-2002), where she was the first woman of color to serve.

A firecracker and a fighter, she pushed the limits of what was acceptable, speaking out against the Vietnam War and entering the 1972 presidential primary, making her one of the first women to seek the nation’s highest office. She transformed America’s schools as the co-author of Title IX, which outlawed sex discrimination in education. The law was later renamed in her honor.

The film goes beyond Mink’s accomplishments to reveal a woman whose political journey was lonely and tumultuous. Dispelling stereotypes of the compliant Japanese female, she fought her own party, whose leaders disliked her independent style and openly maneuvered against her. Her liberal politics, particularly her vocal opposition to the war, engendered intense criticism.

Franklin Odo, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, states: “Patsy Mink offers a phenomenal political story, because she was so outside what you would expect of a woman, of a Japanese American and of a member of Congress.”

Bassford is an award-winning independent filmmaker from Hawaii who has a passion for social issue and cultural stories. She produced, directed, wrote and co-edited “Patsy Mink” for national public television.

Prior to that, Bassford was a producer on “Unnatural Causes” (2008), a four-hour PBS documentary series and public engagement campaign that investigates disturbing socioeconomic and racial disparities in health. She was also a producer on the three-hour PBS documentary series “The Meaning of Food” (2005), which explores the social significance of food in the U.S.

Bassford had her directorial debut with “Cheerleader” (2003), a short documentary that follows a squad of young, bright-eyed California cheerleaders on its quest for the national cheerleading championships. The film aired on HBO Family and screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

A graduate of Punahou School, she holds a BA in psychology from Harvard University and a master’s in journalism from UC Berkeley. She owns Making Waves Films LLC, a documentary production company in Honolulu.

Music and Passion for Justice

“A Song for Ourselves” is an intimate journey into the life and music of Asian American movement troubadour Chris Iijima (1948-2005), who formed the singing group Yellow Pearl with Nobuko Miyamoto and Charlie Chin in the 1970s and released an album, “A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America.” The film’s title comes from one of their songs, “We Are the Children.”

A law professor at University of Hawaii-Manoa at the time of his death, Iijima was honored at memorial services in Honolulu, Los Angeles and New York, reflecting different phases of his life.

Struggling to make sense of their father’s early death, his teenage sons learn that during the 1970s, when Asians in America were still considered “Orientals,” Iijima’s music and passion for social justice helped provide the voice and identity an entire generation had been in search of.

Through their father’s songs, animated photos, home movies, and archival footage of Yellow Pearl’s introduction to nationwide television by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, their father’s life takes on bigger meaning than they had ever dreamed of.

“The Asian American movement not only worked for social justice, it created the community into which I was born and raised,” said filmmaker Nakamura. “When I asked what the early movement was like, my mom simply played an old record for me. This was my first introduction to Chris Iijima.

“When I got to know Chris myself, rather than seeing him as an OG from the past, I looked up to him as a role model for the present. When Chris got sick, the community that was created over 30 years ago came together from all parts of the country to care for him and his family in a way that made me realize the lasting power of the movement.

“ ‘A Song for Ourselves’ is my attempt to capture the essence of this community I am grateful and proud to be a part of.”

Nakamura, 28, is a fourth-generation Japanese American and second-generation filmmaker. At the age of nine days, he made his first and last on-screen appearance in “Hito Hata: Raise the Banner” (1980), the first feature-length narrative film produced by Asian Americans, directed by his father, Robert Nakamura. His mother is writer/producer Karen Ishizuka.

Tadashi Nakamura seeks to tell his community’s history to a new generation. “A Song for Ourselves” is the third installment of his trilogy on the early Asian American movement.
The first film was “Yellow Brotherhood” (2003), a personal documentary about the meaning of friendship and community through an organization that was formed in the 1960s to help youth get off drugs.

The second was “Pilgrimage” (2007), which tells the story of how an abandoned World War II concentration camp for Japanese Americans was transformed into a symbol of retrospection and solidarity for people of all nationalities in the post-9/11 world.

Both films have garnered awards for best documentary at various film festivals.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nakamura has a master’s degree in social documentation from UC Santa Cruz and a bachelor’s in Asian American studies from UCLA.