Homegrown

Interview by Shirley Hsu

Hank Kateyama and mother, en route to internment. Courtesy of theniseifarmer.com

After roaming for several years on a journey that took him through the mountainous countryside of Japan, to the remote grasslands of Mongolia, and through Russia and Europe, Dean Yamada has returned to his roots-in Davis, California.

After graduating from USC with a bachelors degree in Humanities Theater with a minor in film, Yamada decided to satisfy his wanderlust, teaching English for a year in Sakuma, Japan on the JET Programme, and then taking the long way home, trekking through Mongolia and then traveling by Trans-Siberian railway to get to Russia and then Europe. He describes this journey as "a metaphorical wilderness for me because [I] was being stripped of a lot of external things. So I was left with my true desires and passions, and realized that film was what I really wanted to do and was really what I wanted to focus the rest of my life on."

Dean Yamada, director of "The Nisei Farmer." Courtesy of caucus.org

That's precisely what Yamada has done. The young Japanese-American, who graduated from USC's graduate film program last December, recently won the Rhode Island International Film Festival's Best Short Grand Prize for his short film and graduate thesis project, "The Nisei Farmer," which tells the story of Hank Kateyama, a second generation Japanese American farmer in Northern California who is forced to confront haunting memories of childhood years spent in an internment camp during World War II.

"The Nisei Farmer" is an intensely personal piece for Yamada, inspired by his father, who was a farmer in Northern California and was interned at Tui Lake during the war. Although "a lot of the story was fictionalized and dramatized to create a good story," much of the story was inspired by Yamada's background in farming and his upbringing in the Northern California countryside. The film was shot on location in Davis, and certain scenes are truly based on his father's life; a few scenes were even filmed at "Cindy's Restaurant," the actual restaurant where Yamada's dad ate breakfast every morning. Yamada recalls, "My dad actually sat in the same seat for thirty years before the crack of dawn. His fellow farmers and truck drivers would come in and have breakfast and he'd go off and tend the fields. So we actually shot it in my hometown and the seat that the actor comes and sits down in is the same seat that my dad actually sat in for thirty years of his life as well."

The film is set in the 80s, when reparations were being paid to Japanese Americans who were interned during the war. When Hank Kateyama receives news that he will be paid twenty thousand dollars from the U.S. government as compensation for the years lost during internment, Hank is forced to confront bitter memories, which he has buried for years. Hank's wife, Aki, wants to use the money to restore their ranch house or take time off, but Hank is unable to let go of the injustices of the past, endangering his relationship with his wife.

"It is an important story for me to tell because it is close to my heart," Yamada explains. Yamada's father, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer a year prior to shooting and was completing chemotherapy at the time of the shoot, often enjoyed visiting the set to watch the filming at Davis. Sadly, during the post-production of the film, Yamada's father passed away. Although he never saw the final film, he saw the rough cuts that Yamada would bring home when he visited, and Yamada believes he would be honored by the finished product; Yamada says, "While I was making the film I also wanted it to be a tribute to his life. I really think that the Nisei generation is a dying breed of people and they really have an extraordinary story to tell."

While at USC, Yamada also produced a documentary entitled "Not Black or White," about Asian American women and their influence on Western media. In the film, Yamada and co-producer Lelani T. Abad hoped to subvert stereotypes of Asian American women: "It just gets sickening to watch like the 'Lotus Blossom,' and the exoticized Asian women, and we really wanted to show Asian American women as just what they are-as Americans." The film featured actress Ming Na (ER, Mulan), comedian Amy Hill (All American Girl), and cartoonist Lela Lee (Angry Little Asian Girl). Dean also produced the short film "Tough Girl."

Yamada's win at the Rhode Island International Film Festival now qualifies "The Nisei Farmer" for consideration for an Academy Award. Furthermore, Jude Narita, who played the farmer's long-suffering wife, took home Best Actress in a Short Film at the Method Fest awards for her evocative performance. However, Yamada responds all this acclaim with characteristic humility, saying that "the awards and honors are just icing on the cake. I think that the real award to me is just being able to create something meaningful and to be able to do what I want to do at this point in my life."

"The Nisei Farmer" played at the 4th annual San Diego Asian Film Festival the first week of October, and will be next shown at the USC's "First Luck" Film Festival in April.

October 10, 2001