A Song for Ourselves is a short (33 min) documentary about the Asian-American folksinger, Chris Iijima. Filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura presents an endearing portrait of Iijima but could have provided more context.  The short length works against Nakamura’s intentions making Iijima’s contributions seem slighter than they probably were.  Nakamura interviews close friends and immediate family thereby creating an intimite portrait, but one too brief to feel engaging.

The first part of the film focuses on Iijima’s folksinger years, the second on his work as a teacher and on his family life. His time as a folksinger was brief before he turned to teaching and later the law.  His sons seem uncertain about the musical part of their father’s life, raising questions about the true impact of his folksinging years and left me wishing for more background on the Asian-American Movement and for interviews with people not so close to Iijima to provide some context.

Overall, the film is very well-made and pleasant to watch. The preview copy I screened had problems with inconsistent volume levels, but I’m inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the filmmaker and blame that inconsistency on the fact that it was a preview copy.