Linda Mabalot

MANONG (1978) was one of the first VC productions produced using industrial video technology, and signalled a transition away from celluloid-based film production for the organization. Director Linda Mabalot's narration, combined with archival images, stop-motion animation, water-color paintings, and poignant interviews with Filipino American older immigrants distinguishes MANONG as a pioneering introduction to an Asian Pacific American community whose narrative mirrors other immigrant groups who arrived to fill a void in America's labor and service sectors.

Produced to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the statewide Asian Pacific Student Union (APSU), this collaboration between activists/filmmakers Linda Mabalot and Stann Nakazono observes the rise of a new generation of Asian Pacific American student activists in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1978 Bakke Decision. Interviews with founders and activists involved with APSU members, former student activists, educators, and local and national politicians paint the portrait of the next generation of Asian Pacific American activists and how grassroots activists began the long process towards empowerment and full participation in America’s social, cultural, and political processes.

Produced in collaboration with The International Channel, HIROSHIMA...TWENTY YEARS LATER brings audiences up to date with the three principal members of the jazz fusion band Hiroshima in the years since they were profiled in Duane Kubo's classic 1975 documentary CRUISIN' J-TOWN. Saxophonist Dan Kuramoto, koto player June Okida Kuramoto, and percussionist Johnny Mori recount their individual and group careers during the previous two decades and also discuss their impact on newer generations of musical artists and community activists.