Encore Screening of ‘The Ito Sisters’

The Ito family, living in Courtland along the Sacramento River, posed for this family photo in 1933. In back row, from left, are Nancy Ito Takahashi; Harry Takahashi (Nancy’s husband); and Lillian Ito. In the front row, from left, are: father Yetsusaburo Ito; Hedy Ito, 11; and wife Toku Ito.

BERKELEY — Back by popular demand, “The Ito Sisters: An American Story” will have an encore screening on Sunday, Dec. 3, at 2 p.m. at East Bay Media Center, 1939 Addison St. in Berkeley.

Tickets are $10. To purchase tickets, go to www.eastbaymediacenter.com or call (510) 843-3699.

This documentary, which had a sold-out screening as part of the 2017 Berkeley Video & Film Festival (BVFF), where it won a Grand Festival Award, captures the rarely told stories of the earliest Japanese immigrants to the United States and their American-born children. In particular, it focuses on the experiences of Issei and Nisei women, whose voices have largely been excluded from American history.

The three sisters at the heart of the film – Nancy, Lillian and Hedy – are memorable and engaging characters who in their 80s and 90s share stories of humor, hardship and heartbreak, dating back to their father’s immigration from Japan to the U.S. in 1897. They offer a rare first-hand account of their family’s struggle to become American, in the face of a series of natural and man-made disasters.

The family’s chronicle is set against the backdrop of the Anti-Japanese Movement, a 60-year campaign by politicians, journalists, landowners, labor leaders and others that culminated in the evacuation and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II.

Written, directed and produced by Antonia Grace Glenn and edited and produced by Gregory Pacificar, with original music by Dave Iwataki, the film features scholar commentary from Evelyn Nakano Glenn (UC Berkeley), Dorinne Kondo (USC), Michael Omi (UC Berkeley) and Jere Takahashi (UC Berkeley).

For more information, visit www.itosisters.com.