Steven Okazaki

What draws me to Steven Okazaki is patience. Anyone can point a camera at suffering, but his cinéma vérité work earns its power by staying still and letting ordinary people reveal extraordinary lives. His Oscar-winning short on a Japanese American internment artist tells me he cares about the corners of history most filmmakers walk past. I respect documentarians who chase truth instead of spectacle, and his Peabody, Emmy and multiple Academy nominations suggest the industry eventually noticed. He is the kind of quiet craftsman whose work outlasts louder careers, and I'd trust his lens over almost anyone's.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Steven Okazaki

Name (Japanese)

スティーヴン・オカザキ

Reading

すてぃーゔん・おかざき

Born

March 12, 1952 (age 74)

Origin

Venice, California, United States

Occupation

film director / documentary filmmaker / film editor / screenwriter / film producer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Dragon

High school

Venice High School

University

San Francisco State University

Awards & achievements

• 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject)

• Official sitehttps://www.farallonfilms.com/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven%20Okazaki
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B4%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AA%E3%82%AB%E3%82%B6%E3%82%AD
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5256332

Tags

• California
• film director
• documentary filmmaker
• film editor

Last updated

September 18, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.