A new indie flick about a Latina single mother who goes to work in an Oakland sushi restaurant is finishing shooting today in Oakland. It’s called East Side Sushi, and as Jesse Hirsch reports in the East Bay Express, “It’s a timeworn tale of overcoming adversity, an exploration of prejudice in professional kitchens, and a buoyant celebration of sushi.” First-time filmmaker Anthony Lucero, an East Bay native, has cut his teeth as a visual effects editor in L.A., and returned to Oakland to find there were “so many cinematic locations” in the city that have never gotten any screen time. He shot the restaurant scenes at Coach Sushi, B-Dama, and Mijori in Oakland, and his two lead actors, Diana Elizabeth Torres and Yutaka Takeuchi, both received sushi training down in SoCal before filming. As for whether the movie will be seen as riding the coattails of this year’s mini-hit Jiro Dreams of Sushi, that remains to be seen. [EBX]
