<Begin Segment 24>

SY: So this work was time consuming, and...

RN: Yeah, we all kind of...

SY: It was a full-time profession for all of you.

RN: Yeah. Well, I don't know about profession, I mean, we all had other jobs. I was still living off of my money from selling my studio.

SY: And you opened up an office?

RN: Yeah, and that was, that was on Jefferson Boulevard near Crenshaw, it's in Crenshaw area. Everything was happening, a lot of things were happening in that area.

SY: So what kind of financial, initial financial investment was it?

RN: Not a whole lot, 'cause we used... I had all the darkroom equipment myself, and so we had built a darkroom, so we did a lot of photography. And all the film was bootlegged, all the filmmaking equipment was bootlegged through UCLA film school. We made sure someone was always going to school there, so a lot of the equipment in the early days, a lot of the equipment was UCLA's.

SY: And everybody pretty much gave their time, then?

RN: Yeah, we all did.

SY: It was all donation.

RN: I think everyone was a student. Yeah, I don't know how some of the people survived, I just know I was living off of my, sale of my part of the business. And then when I was going to school, I had the GI Bill, and I taught part-time.

SY: So you eventually incorporated, or was that...

RN: Well, there another organization -- not an organization, but there was a... yeah, organization called Asian American Studies Central, and that was incorporated, and that was an umbrella corporation started by Alan Nishio and... and then I missed the staffperson, Ron Hirano. That was the big staffperson that I should mention at VC. That's our...

SY: One of the core, huh?

RN: Yeah, he was one of our core, and that was Irene's ex-husband. So Ron Hirano was one of the core people. I should have not forgotten... see, I know I'm going to forget...

SY: Don't worry. We won't hold you to the list.

RN: But anyway, Asian American Studies Central was started by Ron Hirano and Kenyon Chan, who is now the president of... there's a second campus at University of Washington. Anyway... and so later we merged and became Visual Communications under the name Asian American Studies Central, Incorporated. So we became incorporated as a nonprofit later.

SY: Years later?

RN: Yeah, a couple years later.

SY: So you started in the early '70s?

RN: See, you have to picture, this is all experimental. It's not that organized. Everything was organic, Gidra was, people would come in and they'd write in the different styles, or, "Let's put this in this time," or someone said, "Oh, someone wants to write this article." That's what makes it so interesting when you go through all the issues. It's not like the staff were the set policies... NVC was very similar. Depending on who came in at the time and changing idea, and wherever the money came from, then we would change, have to change directions a little bit.

SY: There's nothing today that you can compare it to.

RN: No, I don't think so. I can't... the closest one would be, of the early days, would be like LTSC still has that flavor.

SY: Little Tokyo Service Center?

RN: Yeah, Little Tokyo Service Center has that kind of feel.

SY: But there's always someone who's sort of in charge, and would that person have been you?

RN: Yeah, mainly 'cause I was the oldest.

SY: Someone had to take...

RN: That's unfortunate that I had to administer things and develop proposals and meet with Office of Education people and everything. I think I've said it on other interviews, so I'll say it on this, sometimes I felt bad because everyone else was out making films and I was stuck with a desk job. So felt like I didn't get my share of filmmaking. [Laughs]

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.