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Documentary, Short
07:54
Nisei Barber Shop is the last remaining business in what was once a thriving section of Sacramento called Japantown. Documentary filmmaker Louis Easton introduces us to the current shop owner, Cory Umezu, the grandson of the original owner, before relating the story of how Japantown (mostly) ceased to be.
Easton deftly switches between present and past, punctuating Umezu’s narration about the town’s history, the Japanese internment camps in the 1940s and the demolition of Japantown in the 1950s. Through historical images and new footage of what remains of one of the camps, he shows us in words and images how the present and past are linked.
“Lost Neighborhoods: Japantown” conveys a lot of information in about 7 minutes. Easton keeps the story moving briskly and it is always interesting. He says that one of his goals as a filmmaker is to help bridge cultures through storytelling, and he definitely succeeds here. He relates how his own experience as a Black man is mirrored in what Japanese Americans went through, adding weight to the storytelling and personalizing the purpose of the film.
I do wish that Easton had demonstrated a little more confidence in his abilities. There are a few places where he announces what is about to happen, and then it happens. In a film this short, that extra handholding isn’t necessary to keep the audience’s attention.
But the documentary had a pretty significant effect on me: at the end, I wanted to know more. Easton made me care enough about what had happened in Sacramento that I actually spent some time looking up additional details. The fact that he accomplished this in less time than it would have taken to get my beard trimmed in Umezu’s shop is pretty amazing.
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