John Nakashima

John Nakashima, Senior Producer/Director, West Virginia Public Broadcasting

John Nakashima has produced, directed, shot, written, edited documentaries and music programs for West Virginia Public Television since 1977. His work explores West Virginia culture in the widest sense – including visual & performing arts, traditional & modern culture, historical documentaries, and contemporary issues. Mountaineer is his 1995 Emmy award-winning lyrical look at the hillbilly stereotype and what it means to be West Virginian. The Clifftop Experience (2008), a half-hour documentary, has had 89,000 views on Youtube. The First 1,000 Days: Investing in WV Children When It Counts (2015) received a regional Emmy and he was awarded Public Citizen of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers/WV. He was the 2013 West Virginia Filmmaker of the Year.

Nakashima has edited and had a key role in programs that have won five documentaries that have won regional Emmys documentary categories, including Frank Kearns: American Correspondent, the story of a CBS foreign correspondent. He collaborated extensively with the late Irene McKinney, poet laureate of West Virginia, producing an extended series of radio essays with her and other video projects. His documentaries for the series Different Drummer aired nationally and in the UK. He was instrumental in the Morgantown PBS station's early conversion from local news and public affairs, to a focus on the development of local documentaries. His first Independent documentary about his uncle, "George Nakashima, Woodworker" virtual premiere (during the pandemic) by Design Miami/Basel, Switzerland, where 4,000 households viewed it internationally. It was a 2020 selection by the virtual Architecture and Design Film Festival - usually held in NYC, LA, Chicago. jnak