Documentary

Good Luck Soup

My American Grandma is a documentary project about one grandmother’s role in shaping the cultural and racial identities of her multiracial family. Revolving around the life of Eva Hashiguchi, an 87-year-old Japanese American grandmother, the film will reveal her impact in shaping the identities of her Japanese American children and multiracial grandchildren. Featuring various family members in addition to Eva, Good Luck Soup will reveal how the Hashiguchi family strives to preserve Grandmother Eva’s Japanese heritage amongst the family’s diverse ethnicities and cultures.

Currently in Post-Production
Directed by: Matthew Hashiguchi
Produced by: Matthew Hashiguchi
Intended Run Time: 74-minute documentary
www.goodlucksoup.com

Invited to be part of the 2012 American Documentary Film Festival Pitch Fund Competition

The Lower 9: A Story of Home

The Lower 9: A Story of Home is a feature length documentary showcasing four determined Lower-Ninth-Ward residents who share their most intimate stories of home, as they resume their lives nearly seven years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged their neighborhood. The individual’s stories find voice in a narrative that intersperses contemporary interviews, abstract cinematography of destruction, and powerful scenes of present-day lives.

Directed by: Matthew Hashiguchi
Produced by: Matthew Hashiguchi, Elaine McMillion
Run Time: 21-minute documentary
www.thelower9.com
Premiered at The Big Muddy Film Festival in 2011
Best Short Documentary Asians on Film Festival Spring 2012
Honorable Mention Best Ohio Documentary 2012 Chagrin Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection 2012 Louisville International Festival of Film
Official Selection 2012 Heartland Film Festival
Official Selection 2013 Cleveland International Film Festival
Official Selection 2013 Thin Line Film Festival
Received a post-production grant from The Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors Foundation
Received 2nd Place Gold Circle Award from The Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors Foundation
Slated for distribution through Third World Newsreel

People Aren’t All Bad

In this short documentary, 88-year-old Yutaka Kobayashi shares his struggles as a Japanese American before and leading up to the World War II Japanese American Internment Camps. Surprisingly, it was during this dark period that he experienced compassion and kindness from where he least expected it, a gun tower guard from within the Topaz Internment Camp.

Browns Bus: Cleveland Heights Chapter

Cleveland native Bucky Spoth expressed his passion for the Cleveland Browns by purchasing a mini-school bus, which was transformed into a Cleveland Browns Bus. Every Cleveland Browns home game, Spoth and his Cleveland Heights based crew drive to the Municipal Parking Lot next to Cleveland Browns Stadium, where they tail gate with to tail gate with thousands of other dedicated Cleveland Browns fans.
Programmed into the Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Shorts Program in Boston, MA.

Learning To Lead

In order to become United States Marine Corps Officers, men and women spend a minimum of ten weeks at Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia, where they are trained, evaluated and screened to ensure they possess the qualities needed to lead in the United States Armed Forces. With the United States fighting wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, enrollment at OCS during the summer of 2009 was the second largest class size since the Vietnam War.
-Produced for The Washington Post. Also included on Hulu.com’s Military Network.

The Greatest Bar

In an environment that sometimes controls you, Joshua Carl Hall reveals it is he who is in control as a Boston night club DJ. Hall reveals his inner thoughts and role as he manages the mood, atmosphere and music of Boston night life.

Participatory Chinatown

Participatory Chinatown is a 3-D immersive game designed to be part of the master planning process for Boston’s Chinatown. Players assume the role of one of 15 virtual residents and work to complete their assigned quest - finding a job, housing, or place to socialize.
Nathaniel Hansen and I were asked to create this short doc for a presentation to Boston’s City Council and for The White House.
The development was funded by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

Row 6 World Storytelling Shoot

Lanes

A short documentary on bicycle lanes in Boston, Massachusetts, that compares two main avenues; Commonwealth Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue. Commonwealth Avenue was remodeled in 2008 to include bicycle lanes. Massachusetts Avenue is set to be remodeled without the inclusion of bicycle lanes.
-Screened at the Boston Bike Film Festival