Chihiro Wimbush

Documentary Editor and Filmmaker

Movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us.”

- Roger Ebert

 

Cinematography

Filming on board the Grace Quan, a replica of a Chinese shrimping boat, for the installation BAY CHRONICLES (photo Jeff Kan Lee)

My film school was several years spent in the streets of West Oakland following homeless shopping cart recyclers for the documentary "Dogtown Redemption."  I'd go out with the camera all day and all night alone with each recycler and learned to shoot on the fly as a one-man-band: no crew, no lights, just me and the subject.  I learned to go deep with this verite style of filmmaking and it's what I love to do.

Since then I've shot in a wide variety of places for a range of projects: from Cambodian baseball to students with disabilities in China, from a South African AIDS orphanage to Untouchable caste colonies in Southern India, from concert halls to dumpsters, from Alaskan recovery programs to the streets of Oakland, from a cross-country journey with a conspiracy theorist to a a sail around the San Francisco Bay on a replica of a Chinese fishing boat.  I love immersing myself in a world and telling stories through the camera lens with a compassionate eye on the human experience.

To see samples of my work listed below, please check out my Portfolio section.

Filming Miss Kay, a recycler, for DOGTOWN REDEMPTION (photo Zachary Stickney)

Documentary Feature

Every Step A Prayer: Cinematographer

Dogtown Redemption: Cinematographer

Eat Bitter, Taste Sweet (work-in-progress): Additional Camera

Moving Truth (working title - work-in-progress): Cinematographer (with Jim Choi)

Untitled Cambodian Baseball film (work-in-progress): Additional Camera

Documentary Short

Insight Garden Project: Camera

Touching the Untouchable: Camera

Don’t Lose Your Soul: Additional Camera

The Time That Land Forgot: Additional Camera

0-Viewpoint:  Camera (with Jim Choi)

Red Thread: Camera (with Jim Choi)

Narrative Short

Cross Fader

ShadowBoxing (with Andie Webb)

Nonprofit

My Place

Kulungile

Asian Chefs at Glide Memorial Church: Additional Camera

Community Education Services: Camera (with Jim Choi)

Author

Teach Breathe Learn (trailer)

Music Video

Truth Is I'm A Liar (Roger Perry music video)

Farmer’s Market (A-Natural music video)

Art Installation

The Making of 0-Viewpoint: (with Jim Choi)

The Making of Lure (with Jim Choi)

Museum Installation

Bay Chronicles

Event

East Bay Meditation Center presents Angela Davis & Jon Kabat Zinn in Conversation

Teach Breathe Learn Book Launch

WWII 442nd Congressional Awards for Japanese American Veterans at the Capitol

With Roslin Sanders on a break from filming Dogtown Redemption

With Roslin Sanders on a break from filming Dogtown Redemption

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