J.T. Takagi
JT Takagi is the Executive Director of Third World Newsreel, an alternative non-profit media center which works in educational distribution, production, exhibition, preservation and training, emphasizing media by and about people of color, other marginalized communities and social justice issues. An award-winning filmmaker, Ms.Takagi’s directorial credits include North Korea: Beyond the DMZ; She Rhymes Like A Girl, The #7 Train: An Immigrant Journey, Echando Raices; The Women Outside; Homes Apart: Korea and Bittersweet Survival, the latter two made with Christine Choy. Also a sound recordist, her credits include the 2018 Oscar nominated Strong Island, Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart and Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution and many PBS films. In addition to this, Takagi teaches at the City College of New York and the School of Visual Arts and works with several Asian American community groups.
AVAILABLE FROM TWN
The # 7 Train: An Immigrant JourneyHye Jung Park & JT Takagi
Producer: Third World Newsreel
1999, 29 min., Color, US
Every day 500,000 people from 117 different countries ride a subway that runs from Flushing to Times Square, going through Queens, the most culturally diverse region in the United States. This documentary follows four immigrant passengers: a Korean who works in Harlem, two Otavalen street vendors wh...
Bittersweet Survival : Southeast Asian Refugees in AmericaJ.T. Takagi & Christine Choy
Producer: Third World Newsreel
1982, 30 min., Color, US
This documentary examines the re-settlement of South-East Asian refugees in the United States in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. The film begins with a montage of riveting footage depicting the devastating effects of the war. It then unveils the mixed reception given Vietnamese refugees in the Uni...
Community PlotJ.T. Takagi
Producer: Takagi Productions
1984, 20 min., Color, US
This satiric comedy takes place in a building on New York's multi-ethnic Lower East Side. Four neighbors form an uneasy alliance after a case worker from family court is accidentally killed in their building. The film captures the noisy chaos and cultural diversity of this poor community with a gut...
Echando RaicesJ.T. Takagi
Producer: The American Friends Service Committee/Rachel Kamel/Third World Newsreel
2002, 60 min., Color, US
Made in collaboration with local community groups, this three part documentary looks at the lives and struggles of a range of immigrant and refugee communities. In the Central Valley of California, most of the agricultural work is now done by indigenous people who have fled poverty and discriminati...
Homes Apart: KoreaJ.T. Takagi & Christine Choy
Producer: Third World Newsreel
1991, 56 min., Color, US/Korea
They speak the same language, share a similar culture and once belonged to a single nation. When the Korean War ended in 1953, ten million families were torn apart. By the early 90's, as the rest of the world celebrated the end of the Cold War, Koreans remain separated between North and South, feari...
North Korea: Beyond the DMZJ.T. Takagi & Hye Jung Park
Edited by Dena Mermelstein
2003, 60 min., Color, North Korea/US
While this tiny state on the divided Korean peninsula is continually demonized in the U.S., few have any first hand knowledge of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. What is it like on the other side of the 38th parallel? How do Koreans in the North view this past decade with the fall of Sovie...
She Rhymes Like a GirlJ.T. Takagi
Producer: Third World Newsreel
2005, 7 min., Color, US
Toni Blackman and the FreeStyle Union are challenging the male dominated world of hip hop and empowering women to speak their minds in freestyle workshops. This music video/documentary hopes to promote a movement of female MCs. Part of the Call for Change Series....
Voices in the StreetJ.T. Takagi & Herman Lew
Producer: Third World Newsreel
2005, 13 min., Color, US
When the Republicans had their 2004 convention at Madison Square Garden, workers in the area from hotdog vendors to day laborers were directly affected. A short on the lives and thoughts of people working on the street and their relation to the political process....
The Women Outside: Korean Women and the U.S. MilitaryJ.T. Takagi & Hye Jung Park
Producer: Third World Newsreel
1995, 60 min., Color, US/South Korea
Documenting the lives of women who work in the South Korean military brothels and clubs where over 27,000 women "service" the 37,000 American soldiers stationed in the most militarized region of the world, The Women Outside follows their provocative journey from the outskirts of Seoul to the inner c...
