Steven Toll Okazaki (born March 12, 1952) is an American documentary filmmaker known for his raw, cinéma vérité-style documentaries that frequently show ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances. He has received a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

, a Primetime Emmy and has been nominated for four Academy Awards, winning an Oscar for the documentary

short subject A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

, '' Days of Waiting: The Life & Art of Estelle Ishigo''.

Career

Steven Okazaki started his career at Churchill Films in 1976, making narrative and documentary shorts. In 1982, he produced
Survivors
' for WGBH Boston, a documentary short about

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors. In 1985, he received his first Academy Award nomination for '' Unfinished Business'', about three '' Nisei'' Japanese Americans who challenged the Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II in court. In 1987, he wrote and directed the

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

, ''

Living on Tokyo Time ''Living on Tokyo Time'' is a 1987 film written and directed by Steven Okazaki and starring Minako Ohashi and Ken Nakagawa. It is a romantic comedy revolving around Japanese American rock musician Ken and his marriage of convenience to Kyoko, a ...

'', which premiered in competition at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

and was theatrically released by Skouras Pictures. In 1991, he won the

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...

for '' Days of Waiting: The Life & Art of Estelle Ishigo'', about

Estelle Peck Ishigo Estelle Ishigo (July 15, 1899 – February 25, 1990), née Peck, was an American artist known for her watercolors, pencil and charcoal drawings, and sketches. During World War II she and her husband were incarcerated at the Heart Mountain Relocat ...

, a Caucasian artist who accompanied her Japanese American husband to a Japanese internment camp. Okazaki continued to make documentary films for PBS and later with

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

. In 2006, he received his third Academy Award nomination for '' The Mushroom Club'', a personal documentary about his journey to Japan to interview atomic bomb survivors on the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. He co-received the 2008 "Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking" Primetime Emmy Award for '' White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki'', and his fourth Oscar nomination in 2009, for the documentary short '' The Conscience of Nhem En''. His production company, Farallon Films, is based in Berkeley, California. Okazaki was also involved as a multi-instrumentalist in a San Francisco punk rock music group calle
The Maids
(1977–79), whose sole record, a single called
Back to Bataan
' gained some notoriety by way of later punk music compilations.

Filmography

Personal life

Okazaki has been married since 1991 to writer Peggy Orenstein. They have a daughter, Daisy Tomoko, born in 2003.

References

External links

*
Farallon Films Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okazaki, Steven 1952 births Living people People from Venice, Los Angeles Venice High School (Los Angeles) alumni American documentary filmmakers American film directors of Japanese descent San Francisco State University alumni Directors of Best Documentary Short Subject Academy Award winners