We recently connected with Reina Higashitani and have shared our conversation below.

Reina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I’m one of the filmmakers who wanted to become a filmmaker since a young age, but I didn’t start pursuing it until well after college. Part of the reason is that I didn’t have much confidence in my ability to succeed. Students often say they are not talented in such and such, but in art, you shouldn’t question if you’re talented or not. What matters is if you have a story to tell or not. If you do, just do it. Sooner you start, you can reach further. Also, know that we have control over how to measure our success. We tend to focus on the result such as box office or winning awards and we tend to get discouraged by them but they are not reasons for us to keep doing what we do.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a filmmaker and educator, teaching as an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University’s the Sidney Poitier New American Film School. I have two decades of experience working in the film and television industry, directing and/or producing over fifty independent films, TV documentaries, and media projects.

My work explores authentic storytelling and media representation. My short narrative film, “Frog Catcher,” is set in 1870s San Francisco when the law prohibited women from wearing trousers. It is inspired by the true story of Jeanne Bonnet who was arrested more than twenty times for wearing trousers and murdered at the age of 27. It is a period film that involved an extensive pre-production process from casting a non-gender conforming actor, to filming over water, and working closely with an art department that restored a 19th-century ranch house. My latest project is a narrative short film “Resettlement-Chicago Story” about a Japanese American family who run a struggling dry cleaning business and try to rebuild their lives after their incarceration during WWII.

In the process of refining my voice, I became more aware of my responsibility as a woman of color working in the industry. I have pursued inclusive representation on screen as well as behind the camera. When I assemble teams, I make a conscious decision to work with diverse cast and crews including people of color, immigrants, women, and/or LGBTQ+-identified people. My belief in authentic storytelling is also greatly informed by my background in documentary, as I originally started my filmmaking career in the field of non-fiction storytelling.

Over the years, my creative work began to overlap with nurturing new generations of talents. As a response to resurfaced hostility toward Asian Americans during the pandemic, I started an educational podcast in which I train students from immigrant communities to tell stories from their perspectives. Stories have been long told through the Euro-centric perspective of certain privileged groups of people. As our nation grapples with increasing divides and tensions around the world, I consider my task to tell stories from traditionally underrepresented communities and bind us together with universal human experiences.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

For a long time, I thought my experience as a minority was irrelevant to mainstream media and I tried to erase any traces of being foreign. However, when you create art, you cannot get away from who you are and where you are in your life. They are crucial to cultivating your unique artistic voice. I wish I knew that sooner. It’s important to know that your experience and what you have to say are valuable and that is what makes you unique as an artist.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I needed to pivot twice in my career. The first time was when I decided to leave a stable job in Japan to pursue filmmaking in the U.S. The second time was when I decided to relocate from the East Coast to the West Coast to shift my focus to writing and directing by leaving a full-time job in producing. One of my teachers told us if we don’t think the job is giving us any growth for more than three years, we should reassess our path. Changes make us cringe and anxious but also exciting. We need to keep challenging ourselves to stay motivated and keep moving forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.un-nun.com
• Instagram: @reina.unnun
• Facebook: @reina.unnun
• Other: podcast: Chasing Cherry Blossoms