Cleveland Resident Matthew Hashiguchi Awarded $20,000 Grant for Post-Katrina New Orleans Documentary, The Lower 9

2011 Dec 13

Cleveland's Matthew Hashiguchi was awarded a $20,000 Gold Circle Award by the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors Foundation for his thesis film, The Lower 9: A Story of Home. Set to release in early 2012, the documentary captures the area of New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina that has still not recovered six years later. Hashiguchi, a 2007 graduate of Ohio State University in photojournalism and 2011 graduate of Emerson College's Master of Fine Arts program in visual and media arts, said the award will help cover post-production costs for his next project on multiethnic identity. The 29th Annual Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors Awards took place in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday, December 4.

Shot on location in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, The Lower 9 is a feature-length documentary showcasing six determined Lower-Ninth-Ward residents who share their most intimate stories of home as they resume their lives years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged their neighborhood. The individuals' stories find voice in a narrative that intersperses contemporary interviews, abstract cinematography of destruction, and powerful scenes of present-day lives. The film looks at (I think you're missing some words here) but also beneath the disaster to reveal the community, personal stories, and importance of the tightly knit community.

"I personally don't know what it feels like to lose my home, possessions, or way of life. I've never experienced that," Hashiguchi wrote in his treatment for the film. "But I am able to understand what that experience can do to a person."

In his director's statement, he compared the losses from Katrina to his own family's story. In 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which sentenced Japanese Americans to prison and internment camps. His grandmother, then a teenager, and her parents and six other siblings were taken from their farm in California and placed in an Arizona internment camp.

"The citizens of New Orleans and the Lower Ninth Ward are experiencing a similar situation," he explained. "For many of them, Hurricane Katrina took away everything. They were forced from their homes and swept away from their friends and families. It was their Executive Order 9066."

The Lower 9 is told primarily through long, meditative tripod shots and audio. "You're seeing the destruction that is still present six years after Hurricane Katrina," Hashiguchi said. "Over this imagery, you are hearing the stories of the Lower Ninth Ward. I think the environment and the imagery told a story on their own, and looking at all of the devastation and all the items that were left over and the possessions that are still there, told a story of the life that was there before."

When asked what he wanted viewers to learn from the film, Hashiguchi said that during the editing process he created a lot of space between the visuals and interviews so that when something like a garden was being discussed, the image seen is completely different. This type of abstract cinematography, he said, creates room for each viewer to interpret the film as he or she wishes. Co-producer and fellow VMA graduate student Elaine McMillion elaborated, "You can't passively sit and watch The Lower 9; you have to constantly be thinking. A lot of filmmakers do not use this technique anymore. It forces the viewer to interpret and to think."

About Matthew Hashiguchi:

Hashiguchi is a Boston-based filmmaker and photographer whose visual stories have been exhibited in The White House, Time.com, WashingtonPost.com, NYTimes.com, Hulu.com, Philips de Pury & Company NYC, and in various other outlets that span the globe. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he graduated with a BA in photojournalism from The Ohio State University in 2007 and worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers in Ohio and Washington, D.C including the documentary video internship at The Washington Post. He graduated from Emerson College with an MFA in visual media arts in 2011. For more information or to contact Hashiguchi, visit www.matthewhashiguchi.com.

About Emerson College Located in Boston, Massachusetts, opposite historic Boston Common and in the heart of the city's Theatre District, Emerson College is the only four-year private college in the United States devoted to teaching communication and the arts in a liberal arts context. The College has 3,453 undergraduates and 837 graduate students from across the United States and 50 countries. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a renowned faculty, students participate in more than 60 student organizations and performance groups, 14 NCAA teams, student publications, honor societies, television stations including the Emerson Channel, and WERS-FM, the nation's highest rated student-run radio station. Emerson is internationally known for its study and internship programs in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., the Netherlands, China, and the Czech Republic. For more information, visit www.emerson.edu.

About The Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors Foundation:

The Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors Foundation is a nonprofit founded in 2000 to promote diversity in the entertainment industry through content and the personnel behind the camera. Its primary goal is to help launch the professional careers of student filmmakers from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the film, video, and television industry. It achieves its goal through its grants and mentoring programs. Through its grants program, student filmmakers from diverse backgrounds receive financial assistance to complete their thesis projects. For more information, visit www.caucusfoundation.org.

About the Gold Circle Awards:

The Gold Circle Awards aim to assist worthy students in completing their student thesis film, TV program, video, or interactive projects. The award will provide completion money after other means of fundraising have been exhausted. This program is intended to combat the lack of diversity in content and creative people in our industry. The Caucus recognizes its responsibility to take action to promote diversity behind the camera in our industry. It looks to the accredited film, television, media programs at universities and colleges as the source of the talented writers, directors, and producers of the future. While scholarships are becoming more and more plentiful, support for students in completing their portfolio project is scarce. These projects serve as a calling card for entry in the industry. Further, the selection and identification process will, of itself, validate and recognize young talent and provide a source of mentors as they make the transition from student to industry professional. Applicants must be registered in an accredited undergraduate or graduate degree program that requires the student to complete a thesis film, television program, video, or interactive project for their degree and must be either the producer or director of the film. Submissions may be a structured film as currently understood, or TV program of any genre including game show, reality program, situation comedy, variety program, documentary, webisode, or any commonly produced form in contemporary broadcasting.