
Give as a gift
This short documentary integrates the history of Japanese American incarceration into an intimate portrait of a 120-year-old mochigashi store in downtown LA, whose story of survival runs through the heart of the Japanese American experience. In the three generations that the Kito Family has been running Fugetsu-Do, the store has been an anchor for the Little Tokyo neighborhood in LA. The ingredients of the brightly-colored pieces of mochi-gashi that line the shop's wood-paneled cases include so much more than rice flour and sweet bean paste. Mixed inside are stories of joy and pain, tradition and racism, legacy and loss.
- Year2020
- Runtime13 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryUnited States
- GenreDocumentary Short
- AwardsFirst Prize – Best Film, Ceres Food Film Festival Season 5 (2021); World Premiere, Boston Asian American Film Festival (2020); Screened at 80+ festivals globally; 20+ awards
- DirectorKaia Rose
- ScreenwriterKaia Rose
- ProducerKaia Rose
- FilmmakerKaia Rose
- CastBrian Kito
- CinematographerEric Mann
- EditorKaia Rose
- Sound DesignJasmin Klinger
This short documentary integrates the history of Japanese American incarceration into an intimate portrait of a 120-year-old mochigashi store in downtown LA, whose story of survival runs through the heart of the Japanese American experience. In the three generations that the Kito Family has been running Fugetsu-Do, the store has been an anchor for the Little Tokyo neighborhood in LA. The ingredients of the brightly-colored pieces of mochi-gashi that line the shop's wood-paneled cases include so much more than rice flour and sweet bean paste. Mixed inside are stories of joy and pain, tradition and racism, legacy and loss.
- Year2020
- Runtime13 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryUnited States
- GenreDocumentary Short
- AwardsFirst Prize – Best Film, Ceres Food Film Festival Season 5 (2021); World Premiere, Boston Asian American Film Festival (2020); Screened at 80+ festivals globally; 20+ awards
- DirectorKaia Rose
- ScreenwriterKaia Rose
- ProducerKaia Rose
- FilmmakerKaia Rose
- CastBrian Kito
- CinematographerEric Mann
- EditorKaia Rose
- Sound DesignJasmin Klinger
