Ann Kaneko is known for her personal films that weave her intimate aesthetic with the complex intricacies of political reality. An Emmy winner, she is the director/producer of MANZANAR, DIVERTED: WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST, broadcast on POV. Her other credits include A FLICKER IN ETERNITY; AGAINST THE GRAIN: AN ARTIST’S SURVIVAL GUIDE TO PERÚ; OVERSTAY, and 100% HUMAN HAIR. She was a Fulbright, Japan Foundation Artist, Film Independent Doc Lab and Jackson Wild Multicultural Alliance fellow. Her work has been funded by JustFilms/Ford, Doc Society, the Redford Center, CAAM, Vision Maker Media, Firelight Media, Chicken and Egg and Hoso Bunka Foundation. She has been commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Endowment and the Skirball Cultural Center. She is a member of BGDM, A-Doc and New Day Films, a distribution coop. She has an MFA from UCLA, currently teaches Media Studies at Pitzer College and was the artist mentor for Visual Communication’s Armed with a Camera Fellowship.
Spanning three generations of a Japanese American family, 45 years separates filmmaker Ann Kaneko from her mother and from her daughter and 90 years distance grandparents and grandchild. 45/45 weaves together a tapestry of images and observations, chronicling and celebrating growing up and growing old. Parents and children reverse roles as the “sandwiched” daughter, who doubles as filmmaker and caregiver, shares insights about the uncanny resemblance of life’s beginning and end. Everyday moments filled with the exuberance of youth contrast with accidents of a failing body, showing the preciousness of intergenerational relations and caregiving that supports these life cycles.