"We had to live the American Dream twice."
This short documentary integrates the history of Japanese American incarceration into an intimate portrait of a mochigashi store in downtown LA and the resilient Kito family, who have kept it running for 120 years.
The Fugetsu-Do sweet shop's story of survival runs through the heart of the Japanese American experience. The ingredients of the brightly-colored pieces of mochi-gashi that line the shop’s wood-paneled cases include so much more than rice flour and sweet bean paste. Mixed inside are stories of joy and pain, tradition and racism, legacy and loss. Survival is never easy; it’s complicated and messy, full of contradictions and surprises. In the three generations that the Kito Family has been running Fugetsu-Do, the store has become a memory bank for the community and the stories that line its walls could not be more relevant in today's America.
Directed & Produced by: Kaia Rose
Featuring: Brian Kito
Editor: Kaia Rose
Cinematographer: Eric Mann
Colorist: Michele Zarbafian
Sound Designer / Mixer: Jasmin Klinger
Compositor: Dominic Pitt
With thanks to: the Kito family, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, Japanese American National Museum, Densho Digital Repository, Unreel Films, & Craft Film Society
#mochi #manju #japaneseamerican #shortdocumentary
27 мар 2023
