photo by elenie chung
Reina is a Japanese filmmaker and educator based in Arizona and New York. She has produced and associate produced over fifty independent films, media projects, and TV documentaries including Francis Ford Coppola’s live cinema “Distant Vision,” Sundance Film Festival official selection “Kusama-Infinity,” the Academy Award-nominated documentary short “Redemption,” “No Contract, No Cookies”(HBO), “Wartorn 1861-2010”(HBO), and a Tokyo Video Festival Excellence Award-winning documentary “Shall We Sing?”(PBS and KTV), which she also directed.
Her latest narrative short “Resettlement - Chicago Story” was selected for Nichi Bei Foundation’s 2023 Films of Remembrance. Her previous narrative short “Frog Catcher” was broadcast on KCET/PBS SoCal and screened at film festivals worldwide winning multiple awards including the Audience Award at the Amsterdam LGBTQ Film Festival and the Creative Excellence Award from the Japan Association of Audiovisual Producers (JAAP). Reina is a recipient of the National Association of Theatre Owners of California/Nevada Fellowship in Film, Hollywood Foreign Press Association Directing Fellowship, Caucus Foundation grant, Panavision New Filmmaker grant, and Jack Nicholson Distinguished Student Director Award among others.
Reina is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University Sidney Poitier New American Film School. She also led various media workshops and mentorship programs for underrepresented youth and people with disabilities in local communities.
Reina holds an M.A. in Cinema Studies from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and an M.F.A. in Film and TV Directing from the University of California, Los Angeles.
UN-NUN is an independent production company first organized by three Japanese artists Rie, Atsuko, and Reina in 2003 in NY to create an outlet for emerging Japanese artists. The closest translation of Un-Nun is “etc.” and it also means making “such and such” arguments about something. We continue to create media that empower diverse storytelling.