Filming MIFUNE: THE LAST SAMURAI in September 2014. We had a terrific crew from DEEP CO., LTD., based in Tokyo, including two skilled DPs, Tohru Hina (sitting) and Yasuyuki Ishikawa. Amazing how smoothly a shoot can go with a great crew.

The musicians and crew for APPROXIMATELY NELS CLINE, filmed at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley in December 2009. L to R: Steve Yamane (production assistant), Jason Cohen (producer), Mark Kohr (camera), Jeffrey Wood (producer), Nels Cline (guitar), Yuka Honda (keyboards & electronica), Jesse Nichols (sound engineer), Devin Hoff (bass), Carla Kihlstedt (voice & violin), Dan Krauss (director of photography), Matthias Bossi (percussion), Ron Miles (trumpet), me and Brandy McNeal (production assistant). Seated: Jim Choi (sound recordist). Not in photo: Scott Amendola (drummer), Bart Nagel (camera), and Adriano Bravo (sound recordist). Thank you Steve Condiotti at DCP for providing the lighting equipment!

At some point during the making of WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN, we realized we ought to take some production stills, so we staged this one with Sakue Shimomura, a hibakusha in Nagasaki. Probably my favorite crew experiences, because we were small, mobile, had fun, ate well, and everyone did exceptional work. Co-Producers Taro Goto and Atsuko Oikawa were on top of everything. And i had so much confidence in the crew -- Masafumi Kawasaki (director of photography), Yuki Fukuda (sound) and Ryoichi Ishibashi (production manager and camera assistant, not in photo) -- i rarely looked at the camera monitor and had them shoot a lot of stuff on their own.

Me and Associate Producer ZAND GEE in front of a lava bed during the filming of TROUBLED PARADISE on The Big Island of Hawai’i. I’ve worked with Zand on and off for nearly forty years. She shot LIVING ON TOKYO TIME in 1986 and designed the poster for the MIFUNE documentary in 2016. She has an "up for anything" collaborative spirit that makes my kind of “let’s see what happens” projects possible. She gives everything she has, never asks what the job pays, only if it'll be interesting.

(Note: the protective lens of the Aaton 16mm camera cracked and popped off when i leaned in and got hit by a heat blast from a lava flow near Kilauea.)

Cast and crew for the Curly's Coffee Shop scenes in LIVING ON TOKYO TIME shot in North Beach in 1986. FRONT ROW; KEN NAKAGAWA (the star), THERESA McCORMICK (actor), CHERYL YOSHIOKA (gaffer), AIKO MURASE (production secretary), ZAND GEE (director of photography). STANDING: NELLY NARVAEZ (extra), LANE NISHIKAWA (actor), DIANE YEN-MEI WONG (actor), AMY HILL (actor), FAY KAWABATA (actor), RAND PALLOCK, (extra), CURLY (owned and ran a wonderful Hawai'i-style coffee shop), DENNIS HAYASHI (producer), GIOVANNI DI SIMONE (sound recordist), me and producer LYNN O'DONNELL.

TOKYO TIME was almost forty years ago! Making a low-budget independent movie was actually fun. People joined in, brought their skills, let us use locations, donated stuff, just to be a part of something creative and local. Great memories of working with everyone. Easy-going, humble KEN NAKAGAWA was the most unlikely person to build a film around, I had so much fun hanging out with him in Hawai'i and Tokyo when the film was done. GIOVANNI DI SIMONE, always thinking about the perfect place to hide a second microphone, is the most conscientious crew person I've ever worked with.

I’m flanked by DENNIS HAYASHI and LYNN O'DONNELL, the producers of LIVING ON TOKYO TIME. Dennis is as steady and supportive as a producer and friend can be. Brilliant, fearless and funny, Lynn was my dearest friend and colleague in the early days of my career. She died in 1996. I miss her and continue to be inspired by her.

San Francisco’s Japantown in 1984, during the filming of UNFINISHED BUSINESS. What a terrific crew. I knew KIM COSTALUPES (camera assistant) from film school. ROGER DANIELS (advisor, interviewee), from the University of Cincinnati, is an academic with soul. JANE KAIHATSU (associate producer), who came west from Chicago to work on the film, was sharp and thorough. I couldn't have made the film without her. JOE KWONG, who did everything -- camera, lights, sound recording, restaurant selection - was the kind of “This is how you do it” multi-skilled filmmaker you don’t see anymore.