Let’s Go to the Movies with Filmmaker Cellin Gluck
J-Sei At the Movies: Meet Filmmaker Cellin Gluck
Friday, October 15, 2021 – 6:30 pm on Zoom
J-Sei’s filmmaker series continues online with a special guest appearance by writer-producer-director Cellin Gluck, who will discuss his decades-long career in film production. Growing up in Japan and currently based in Los Angeles, Cellin has worked as assistant director on several blockbuster films and as director of such feature-length films as Saidoweizu/Sideways (2009), the Japanese adaptation of the American original set in California wine country, and Persona Non Grata (2015), the real-life story of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who at the start of World War II defied his government and issued transit visas to save 6,000 Jewish refugees in Lithuania. Please join us for what will surely be a fascinating conversation and evening.
RSVP with “Oct Movie Night” in the subject line. You’ll receive Zoom information prior to the event.
About the Filmmaker
CELLIN GLUCK was born in Wakayama prefecture to American parents Jay and Sumi Gluck. He spent his “formative years” in Japan, except for three years in Iran, where his archaeologist father and textile historian mother’s work took the family.
After graduating high school from the Canadian Academy in Kobe, Cellin moved to the US and attended the Claremont Colleges, graduating from Pitzer College with honors from the Pomona College Theatre Department.
Growing up in Japan with a Jewish New Yorker father and a Japanese American mother from California (via wartime “relocation” in Rohwer, AR), Cellin has used his bicultural heritage to its fullest, spending the majority of his career to date in film production with a particular emphasis on Japan.
While he has specialized in producing/directing U.S.–Japan co-productions for most of his career, Cellin has also worked as an assistant director on Hollywood productions, such as Transformers (2007), Remember the Titans (2000), and Contact (1997), and as production manager on films like Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and Godzilla (2014). He also directed the U.S. portion for Lorelei (2005) and the non-Japanese segments for the 20th Century Boys trilogy (2008-2009). In 2009, he made his debut as a film director with Saidoweizu/Sideways (2009), then co-wrote and co-directed Oba: The Last Samurai (2011). Persona Non Grata (2015) is his most recent feature film.
Recently Cellin has turned his eye toward directing for television. In 2018 he was selected as a director fellow for the CBS Directing Initiative, completing the program the following year; and again in 2019 as a director finalist in the NBC Emerging Director Program. He served as a co-chair of the Asian American Committee at the Directors Guild of America through 2020, of which he has been a member since 1992.
J-Sei Movie Night Bento
October 15 Bento
For movie night, you can order specially made obento from My Friend Yuji. Here are this month’s special movie night offerings:
- Chūkadon (stir-fried rice bowl with mushrooms, bamboo, cabbage, carrots, onions, jidori egg, pork, shrimp and sauce over rice) $18;
- Tenshinhan (imitation and real crab omelette with sauce over rice) $18
Click on the button below to place your order.
You can pick up your meal at the selected pick-up time at J-Sei on Friday, October 15th. Please remember to wear a mask and observe social distance protocol. Thank you!
To order: When you click on the button above, it will take you directly to a pop-up order form on the My Friend Yuji webpage, where you first select a pickup time. In the next window, click anywhere inside the box frame to open another pop-up and select the number of bento you want to order, then click on “Add item” to close the pop-up. Click the “View order” bar at the bottom to confirm your order and click “Continue to payment” to sign in and pay for your order.
Support J-Sei At the Movies
Thanks to you, J-Sei At the Movies recently celebrated its third anniversary! We look forward to more creative programming with educational and inspiring Japanese and Japanese American films. We are especially grateful for the up close and personal chats with filmmakers as we learn so much from the exchange.
We love having a growing and enthusiastic audience. You are the best! We welcome any donations to help us offset costs for Movie Night. Thanks for considering this.
Matthew Hashiguchi is a documentary filmmaker whose work investigates the diverse experiences, identities, and cultures of American society. His first feature-length documentary GOOD LUCK SOUP was broadcast nationally on PBS World’s America ReFramed, won the Best Local Documentary Award at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, and received a 2016 Documentary Fund Award from the Center for Asian American Media and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His other documentary work, which has addressed topics such as undocumented immigration, preserving community in post-Katrina New Orleans, and unexpected experiences in the Japanese American Internment Camps, has screened at many other festivals. His current project, AMERICAN DREAMING, is about undocumented immigrants trying to get college degrees in the state of Georgia. He is also associate professor of multimedia film and production at Georgia Southern University.
Naomi Hirahara is the Edgar Award–winning author of the Mas Arai mystery series, including Summer of the Big Bachi, which was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and one of Chicago Tribune’s Ten Best Mysteries and Thrillers; Gasa Gasa Girl; Snakeskin Shamisen; and Hiroshima Boy. She is also the author of the LA-based Ellie Rush mysteries. A former editor of The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, she has co-written non-fiction books like Life after Manzanar and the award-winning Terminal Island: Lost Communities of Los Angeles Harbor.
Kerwin will also join us to remember Hiroshi Kashiwagi, the celebrated and beloved Nisei poet, playwright, writer, and actor who sadly left us in 2019, just shy of his 97th birthday. Hiroshi is the star/featured performer of Kerwin’s “Japantown Trilogy,” and we’ll watch a trailer and shorts, including a moving video tribute to Hiroshi, A Meeting at Tule Lake, by cinematographer Ben Arikawa, who will also be our special guest this evening.
KERWIN BERK is a Sansei filmmaker who was born and raised in San Francisco’s Japantown. He is an award-winning journalist who worked at newspapers and wire services in Asia and the United States for more than 20 years. His last stop was at his hometown newspaper – The Chronicle. Today, he is a freelance writer and independent filmmaker who still calls The City his home. He has written, produced, and directed award-winning films and web series, including The Virtues of Corned Beef Hash, Infinity & Chashu Ramen, and Gold Mountain.
BEN ARIKAWA is a Northern California Sansei. He lives not far from where his paternal grandparents settled to work on a fruit orchard about a hundred years ago. Late in life, he realized that he has a need to tell stories and has been exploring his literary side. Ben has contributed an article to Pacific Citizen and several articles to Discover Nikkei. His stories reflect his experiences as a Japanese American, son, husband, and father. He is also exploring his artistic side as a director of photography for Ikeibi Films on Kikan: The Homecoming (2019), the web series Gold Mountain (2016), and as an actor in Infinity and Chashu Ramen (2013).