February 2009
 Born in Kakogawa, Japan in 1950, Toshifumi
Matsushita studied law at Doshisha University and worked
as assistant producer at the Shochiku Film Studio in Kyoto. In
1979 he came to the United States to study filmmaking at New York
University, and worked as a producer at Entel Communications,
a New York-based Japanese television company. In 1987 he founded
Dolphin Productions to produce independent documentaries and TV
programs. His short film Big Chief (1992) won a special
award at the Tokyo Video Festival. He has produced two documentaries
about musical traditions, Cuba Amor (1995) and Voodoo
Kingdom (1998), winner of the Best Documentary Production
Award at Black International Cinema Berlin. Pachamama,
his first feature film, was shot in the Bolivian highlands with
indigenous non-professional actors, and has screened widely in
international and indigenous film festivals in Bolivia, Brazil,
Canada and Norway, including the 2009 Weeneebeg Film Festival
in Moose Factory, Canada, and the 9th CLACPI festival in La Paz,
Bolivia. Its U.S. premiere will be at the 2009 Native American
Film + Video Festival. Matsushita lives and works in New York
City.
Screened by NMAI
Image credit: Toshifumi
Matsushita - courtesy of the filmmaker
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