The USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions & Culture
invites you and a guest to attend a special screening of
 

THE ITO SISTERS: AN AMERICAN STORY

Written, Directed and Produced by Antonia Grace Glenn

Followed by a Q&A with Antonia Grace Glenn
and Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Lead Scholar on the film,
Moderated by Prof. Velina Hasu Houston

3:00 - 5:00 P.M. on Friday, April 5th, 2024

Taper Hall of Humanities (THH), Room 201
3501 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089
 

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A RESERVATION
 

About The Ito Sisters: An American Story

The Ito Sisters is a feature-length documentary film that captures the stories of three Japanese American sisters, interviewed in their eighties and nineties, as they recount how their immigrant parents struggled to make a life in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. The family’s chronicle is set against the backdrop of the anti-Japanese movement in California, a 60-year campaign by politicians, journalists, landowners, labor leaders and others that culminated in the evacuation and incarceration of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II. The Ito Sisters is written, directed and produced by Antonia Grace Glenn, the granddaughter of the middle of the three sisters.

The Ito Sisters captures the rarely told stories of the earliest Japanese immigrants to the United States and their American-born children. In particular, the film focuses on the experiences of Issei (or immigrant) and Nisei (or first generation born in the US) women, whose voices have largely been excluded from American history. At the center of the film are three Nisei sisters: Natsuye (Nancy), Haruye (Lillian) and Hideko (Hedy), who were born on a farm in the Sacramento River Delta and whose lives were directly impacted by some of the most significant events of 20th-century America, from the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 to the Great Depression to World War II. The film also explores the lives of the women's parents, Yetsusaburo and Toku Ito, who came to the United States to earn money so they could return to Japan, but whose plans were repeatedly thwarted.

To view a trailer of the film, go to: https://www.itosisters.com/

Contact Information

Name: Velina Hasu Houston, MFA, PhD, USC Distinguished Professor of Theatre in Dramatic Writing
Email: greentea@usc.edu