Renee Tajima-Peña
Renee Tajima-Peña (* 1958 in Chicago , Illinois , United States ) is an American documentary filmmaker (director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer) and educator with Asian roots.
Live and act
Renee Tajima-Peña attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, and graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College at Harvard University in 1980 , where she studied East Asian studies and sociology. During her time at Harvard, she also served as chair of the United Front Against Apartheid . A dedicated activist, writer and filmmaker, Renee Tajima-Peña never lost sight of the Southeast Asian roots of her ancestors and was involved in independent Asian-American film. She was the director of Asian Cine-Vision in New York and a founding member of the Center for Asian American Media. Renee Tajima-Peña also founded the Asian American International Video Festival, worked as a film critic for The Village Voice, commented on cultural events for National Public Radio, and edited the periodical Bridge: Asian American Perspectives.
Her political and social commitment, which has manifested itself in the struggle for more civil rights since the late 1970s, has also found expression in her film work since the following decade. In Christine Choy she found a sister in spirit, like Renee Tajima-Peña of Asian descent. After their first cooperation in 1986, the two women made the full-length documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin? here, who retold and shed some light on a crime that was born out of envy of competition and racism to the detriment of an employee of Asian descent in the US auto industry. For this work Renee Tajima-Peña and Christine Choy received an Oscar nomination in 1989 in the category Best Documentary . Numerous prizes and nominations from all over the world and film festivals followed.
Similar to Chow, Tajima-Peña also received a number of offers for teaching activities. In 2013 she was appointed Professor of Asian-American Studies and UCLA's Alumni and Friends Japanese American Ancestry Endowed Chair . She also directs the Center for EthnoCommunications at UCLA, which is housed in the Asian American Studies Center with a teaching component in the Asian-American Studies Department. Tajima-Peña was previously a professor of film and digital media at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In spite of her extensive activities and teaching assignments, the university lecturer is still active as a documentary filmmaker, albeit in a reduced form since the beginning of the 1920s.
Filmography (selection)
Direction or production or script or camera
- 1986: Permanent Wave
- 1987: Who Killed Vincent Chin?
- 1989: The Best Hotel on Skid Row
- 1990: What American Really Thinks of the Japanese
- 1997: The Last Beat Movie
- 1997: My America ... or Honk if You Love Buddha
- 2001: Skate Manzanar
- 2002: Labor Women
- 2003: The New Americans: Mexico Story
- 2004: My Journey Home
- 2009: Whatever It Takes
- 2010: God Willing
- 2010: Calavera Highway
- 2015: No Más Bebés
Web links
- Biography in Amy Ling: Yellow Light. The Flowering of Asian American Art. Pp. 287 f. Philadelphia 1999
- Portrait in UCLA Asian American Studies Center
- Portrait in United States Artists
- Renee Tajima-Peña in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tajima-Peña, Renee |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American documentary director and producer, screenwriter and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1958 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chicago , Illinois , United States |