Kayo Hatta
About
Biography
Biography
A rising young filmmaker and one of the few Asian-American women currently working as a director, Kayo Hatta won the 1995 Sundance Film Festival Award for her independent production, "Picture Bride." The film, reportedly the first commercial drama written (by Hatta's sister Mari), produced and directed by Asian-American women, told the turn-of-the-century story of a Japanese woman who travels to Hawaii to meet the man who is to be her husband, only to discover he is 25 years older than she and that life in Hawaii includes the hardships of the sugar cane fields.
A Hawaiian native, Hatta studied at Stanford and UCLA before forming Thousand Cranes Filmworks in 1989 and then producing the short "Otemba," which was broadcast internationally. Previously, she worked with Felicia Lowe on "Carved in Silence" (1988), about Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, and with Pat Ferraro on "Hearts and Hands" (also 1988), about quilting in America.
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Life Events
1989
Founded Thousand Cranes Filmworks in Hawaii
1994
Co-wrote and directed acclaimed film "Picture Bride"
1997
Signed to direct second feature, "Shadow Puppets"
Family
