My Past Is My Own

We started to make an extra to be included in our first DVD "Democratic Optimism", a collection of short films in black and white we shot between 1990 and 1999.

During the Second World War, Japanese film editor Chounosuke Ise made numerous propaganda films in Japanese-occupied Indonesia. Their purpose was to justify Japan’s hegemony in Asia, claiming liberation of these countries from colonialism. Chounosuke Ise’s son, filmmaker Shin-ichi Ise, traces the path taken by his father, who barely spoke about the war or Indonesia, and was seemingly reluctant to discuss what he had done there.

Justin Cook (Phill Lewis) and his sister Kerry (Allison Dean) are two African American teenagers living in a middle-class New Jersey household in the late 1980s. The Cook family is visited by their distant cousin, psychologist Mariah Johnston (Whoopi Goldberg). A contemporary of Justin and Kerry's parents, Mariah is about to receive an award for her years of community work, particularly in the area of civil rights. Having been born after the Civil Rights Movement, Justin and Kerry never experienced Jim Crow segregation, and the two fail to appreciate the stories about the era that Mariah and their parents recount at dinner.

Kako (Fumi Nikaido) is a female high school student. She lives at a restaurant run by her family in Kitashinagawa, Tokyo. Unexpectedly, Kako's aunt, Mikiko (Kyoko Koizumi), suddenly appears. Kako thought her aunt died 18 years ago. Her whole family is embarrassed by Mikiko's appearance due to a past incident caused by Mikiko. Kako is also irritated when Mikiko lives in her room. They spend the summer together.

Sunset Shimmer reflects on how friendship helped her become the person she is today.

Yu wanted a pair of skate shoes, but he was embarrassed to ask his parents for it

A personal film about my past 22 years, pieced together using all kinds of SD, HD, 4K, film materials.

Dr. Tawfiq remains captive to the traditions of honor and innocence, despite his liberation and printing some of the traditions of European civilization when he was studying there. And is incapable of reconciling his liberal mind with the environment in which he is raised and which makes him lagging behind the twentieth century.