KURIHARA, Nanako

Nanako Kurihara has worked as a journalist for eleven years. She earned a degree in Political Science from Waseda University in Tokyo, and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Nanako Kurihara began her career as an editor and staff writer on social and cultural issues for the women's magazine, Soen. In December of 1984, Kurihara moved to New York and started work as a freelance journalist. Three years later, she began work as a researcher, coordinator, interpreter, production assistant, and interviewer for Japanese television news network NHK and Tokyo Broadcasting System, Japan's largest commercial broadcaster. Kurihara eventually studied documentary video production at Global Village in New York and co-produced a documentary short about the city’s squatters. Some of her other work in film includes assisting on several independent documentaries and recently co-founding Onna no Media Nettowaaku (Women's Media Network), the first organization of Japanese women to promote women's independent filmmaking.

Kurihara writes regularly for OCS News, a Japanese-language newspaper in the United States; Japan National Women's Journal and Dance Magazine. Her articles have also appeared in such publications as Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper comparable to The New York Times; Journalism Review, Brutus, and High Fashion. In her writing, Kurihara covers numerous topics, from social issues such as abortion and AIDS, to the arts, such as Butoh dance and gay theater in America. She has appeared on Japanese television as an authority on the contemporary arts, and her filmmaking activities have been written about in various Japanese publications. Most recently, Kurihara has written a series of articles about women's media in the U.S. for Japan National Women's Journal.

Nanako Kurihara has received grants from the Tokyo Women's Fund, the Japan Foundation, the Hoso Bunka Fund, the Astraea Foundation, and Women Make Movies to aid in her production of the film Ripples of Change. Kurihara is also the recipient of an Artist's Residency at Downtown Community Television Center and a research grant from The Toyota Foundation for her writing on contemporary Japanese dance. (Source: Women Make Movies, August 2009)

• Ripples of Change, review
• The Grandpa from Brazil, film synopsis.
• The Grandpa from Brazil (Official Website, JP)