Lisa Onodera
Encyclopedia
Lisa Onodera is an American independent film producer, of such noted films as Picture Bride
, The Debut
and Americanese
. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and attended UCLA
where she received a degree from the School of Motion Picture and Television
.
Early film credits include serving as Associate Producer on Arthur Dong
's documentary, Forbidden City, USA and the Frontline documentary, The Monster That Ate Hollywood.
Onodera produced the 1995 Sundance Film Festival
Audience Award winner, Picture Bride
, directed by Kayo Hatta
, starring Youki Kudoh
, Akira Takayama, Tamlyn Tomita
, and Toshirō Mifune
. The film, considered a landmark Asian American
work, also received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature, and was released by Miramax Films
.
From 1997 to 2002, Onodera ran the production company, Celestial Pictures, with producer Peter Shiao. The company developed a number of Asian American
projects, and co-financed and co-produced Jule Gilfillan's Restless, a romantic drama set and shot in Beijing, China.
In 2000, she produced Gene Cajayon's Filipino American
feature, The Debut
, starring Dante Basco
, which won the Audience Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival
and Best Feature at the San Diego Asian Film Festival
. The film also received an AMMY Award for Best Independent Feature, and a MANAA Media Achievement Award, while breaking indie
distribution records with a $2 million box office return during its theatrical release in 2003.
In 2003, Onodera produced the Emmy nominated half-hour PBS television special
, Day of Independence
for Cedar Grove Productions
, which told the story of a young Nisei
(second-generation Japanese American
) baseball player facing the Japanese American internment
during World War II
.
In 2006, she produced Eric Byler
's TRE and Emily Skopov's Novel Romance.
In 2009, IFC Films
will release Americanese
, an adaptation of Shawn Wong
's seminal Asian American novel, "American Knees
," which Onodera optioned in 1995, the year the book was first published. Written for the screen and directed by Eric Byler
, and produced by Onodera, the film made its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), winning the SXSW Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast. The film stars Chris Tashima
, Allison Sie, Joan Chen
, Kelly Hu
, Ben Shenkman
and Sab Shimono
.
Picture Bride (film)
Picture Bride is a 1995 feature-length independent film directed by Kayo Hatta from a screenplay she co-wrote with Mari Hatta, and co-produced by Diane Mei Lin Mark and Lisa Onodera. It follows Riyo, who arrives in Hawaii as a "picture bride" for a man she has never met before. The story is based...
, The Debut
The Debut
The Debut is an independent feature-length film directed and co-written by first-time Filipino American filmmaker Gene Cajayon. It is the first Filipino American film to be released theatrically nationwide, although regionally and every few months starting in March 2001 in the San Francisco Bay...
and Americanese
Americanese
Americanese is a 2006 American independent film acquired by IFC Films but not yet released. It is a romantic drama about the break-up of a couple, about love and memory, and how race plays into the lives of contemporary Asian Americans and Hapa/mixed-race Americans.- Background :The film was...
. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and attended UCLA
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
where she received a degree from the School of Motion Picture and Television
UCLA School of Theater Film and Television
The UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television , is one of the twelve schools within UCLA. It is located in Los Angeles, California, USA, and is unique in that it combines all three of these aspects into a single school. The graduate programs are usually ranking within the top 3 nationally,...
.
Early film credits include serving as Associate Producer on Arthur Dong
Arthur Dong
Arthur Dong is an Academy Award-nominated American documentary filmmaker. His work combines the art of the visual medium with an investigation of social issues, examining topics such as Asian American history and identity, and gay oppression...
's documentary, Forbidden City, USA and the Frontline documentary, The Monster That Ate Hollywood.
Onodera produced the 1995 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
Audience Award winner, Picture Bride
Picture Bride (film)
Picture Bride is a 1995 feature-length independent film directed by Kayo Hatta from a screenplay she co-wrote with Mari Hatta, and co-produced by Diane Mei Lin Mark and Lisa Onodera. It follows Riyo, who arrives in Hawaii as a "picture bride" for a man she has never met before. The story is based...
, directed by Kayo Hatta
Kayo Hatta
Kayo Hatta was an Asian American filmmaker, writer, and community activist. She directed and co-wrote the independent dramatic feature-length film Picture Bride, which won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award in 1995 for Best Dramatic Film.-Early Life:Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hatta grew up...
, starring Youki Kudoh
Youki Kudoh
is a Japanese actress and singer. She won the award for best newcomer at the 6th Yokohama Film Festival for The Crazy Family. She also won the award for best actress at the 16th Hochi Film Award for War and Youth.-Filmography:-External links:* *...
, Akira Takayama, Tamlyn Tomita
Tamlyn Tomita
Tamlyn Naomi Tomita is an actress, who has appeared in many Hollywood films and television series.-Early life:Tomita was born in Okinawa, the daughter of Shiro and Asako Tomita. Her father then later became a Los Angeles Police Officer, rising to the rank of sergeant. He succumbed to cancer in...
, and Toshirō Mifune
Toshiro Mifune
Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...
. The film, considered a landmark Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
work, also received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature, and was released by Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
.
From 1997 to 2002, Onodera ran the production company, Celestial Pictures, with producer Peter Shiao. The company developed a number of Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
projects, and co-financed and co-produced Jule Gilfillan's Restless, a romantic drama set and shot in Beijing, China.
In 2000, she produced Gene Cajayon's Filipino American
Filipino American
Filipino Americans are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipino Americans, often shortened to "Fil-Ams", or "Pinoy",Filipinos in what is now the United States were first documented in the 16th century, with small settlements beginning in the 18th century...
feature, The Debut
The Debut
The Debut is an independent feature-length film directed and co-written by first-time Filipino American filmmaker Gene Cajayon. It is the first Filipino American film to be released theatrically nationwide, although regionally and every few months starting in March 2001 in the San Francisco Bay...
, starring Dante Basco
Dante Basco
Danté Basco is an American actor, voice actor, poet, and dancer. He is best known for playing Rufio in the 1991 live-action Peter Pan film Hook...
, which won the Audience Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival
Hawaii International Film Festival
The Hawaii International Film Festival is a film festival held in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It was started in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko and has been held annually in the fall for two weeks...
and Best Feature at the San Diego Asian Film Festival
San Diego Asian Film Festival
The San Diego Asian Film Festival is an annual event organized by the San Diego Asian Film Foundation. The festival was first held in 2000 at the University of San Diego by the Asian American Journalists Association of San Diego.-Organization Overview:...
. The film also received an AMMY Award for Best Independent Feature, and a MANAA Media Achievement Award, while breaking indie
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
distribution records with a $2 million box office return during its theatrical release in 2003.
In 2003, Onodera produced the Emmy nominated half-hour PBS television special
Television special
A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...
, Day of Independence
Day of Independence
Day of Independence is a short film, broadcast as a half-hour PBS television special. It is a drama, set during the Japanese American internment of World War II, produced by Cedar Grove Productions with Visual Communications as fiscal sponsor....
for Cedar Grove Productions
Cedar Grove Productions
Cedar Grove Productions is an independent production company based in Los Angeles, CA., specializing in media and theatre arts representing the Asian Pacific American community...
, which told the story of a young Nisei
Nisei
During the early years of World War II, Japanese Americans were forcibly relocated from their homes in the Pacific coast states because military leaders and public opinion combined to fan unproven fears of sabotage...
(second-generation Japanese American
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
) baseball player facing the Japanese American internment
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In 2006, she produced Eric Byler
Eric Byler
Eric Byler is an American film director, screenwriter and political activist. He identifies as hapa biracial, born to a Chinese American mother and a white American father. He grew up in Virginia, Hawaii , and California. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1994, majoring in film...
's TRE and Emily Skopov's Novel Romance.
In 2009, IFC Films
IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....
will release Americanese
Americanese
Americanese is a 2006 American independent film acquired by IFC Films but not yet released. It is a romantic drama about the break-up of a couple, about love and memory, and how race plays into the lives of contemporary Asian Americans and Hapa/mixed-race Americans.- Background :The film was...
, an adaptation of Shawn Wong
Shawn Wong
Shawn Hsu Wong is an author and Professor of English and former Director of the University Honors Program , Chair of the Department of English , and Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Washington where he has been on the faculty since 1984...
's seminal Asian American novel, "American Knees
American Knees
American Knees is a novel written by Shawn Wong, first published in 1995 by Simon & Schuster. It is currently published by the University of Washington Press...
," which Onodera optioned in 1995, the year the book was first published. Written for the screen and directed by Eric Byler
Eric Byler
Eric Byler is an American film director, screenwriter and political activist. He identifies as hapa biracial, born to a Chinese American mother and a white American father. He grew up in Virginia, Hawaii , and California. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1994, majoring in film...
, and produced by Onodera, the film made its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), winning the SXSW Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast. The film stars Chris Tashima
Chris Tashima
Chris Tashima is a Japanese American actor and director. He is co-founder of the entertainment company Cedar Grove Productions and Artistic Director of its Asian American theatre company, Cedar Grove OnStage. He is the son of U.S. Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima...
, Allison Sie, Joan Chen
Joan Chen
Joan Chong Chen is a Chinese American actress, film director, screenwriter and film producer. She became famous in China for her performance in the 1979 film Little Flower and came to international attention for her performance in the 1987 Academy Award-winning film The Last Emperor...
, Kelly Hu
Kelly Hu
Kelly Ann Hu is an American actress and former fashion model. She was Miss Teen USA 1985 and Miss Hawaii USA 1993.-Early life:Hu was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the daughter of Juanita, an engineering drafter for Honolulu, and Herbert Hu, a salesman and exotic bird breeder; the two divorced during...
, Ben Shenkman
Ben Shenkman
Benjamin Shenkman is an American television, film and stage actor.-Life and career:Shenkman was born in New York City and raised in what he described as "the secular Eastern European Jewish tradition". He graduated from Brown University, and obtained a Masters of Fine Arts in 1993 from New York...
and Sab Shimono
Sab Shimono
Sab Shimono is an American actor who has appeared in dozens of movies and television shows in character roles.-Career:An accomplished stage actor, he has appeared on Broadway and in regional theaters including San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre...
.