"My calling is to tell stories through filmmaking," says documentarian Iris Ichishita. "Filmmaking is such a powerful medium. It’s what I knew
I wanted to do."

A Master of Fine Arts candidate at USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program, Ichishita has seen her career advance far beyond that of a typical film student. She has already made her mark producing music videos, commercials, documentaries, and feature films. Her eight-minute short film, "Homeless Karaoke," won the Juror’s Choice prize in PBS’s 2006 Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival and screened at festivals all over the world.

"Homeless Karaoke" tells the story of the Karaoke Coffee Club, a venue on L.A.’s infamous Skid Row that offers refuge for homeless people. Each week, the club gives individuals a respite from the streets and a place where many are able to sing, laugh, receive applause, and remember what it’s like to feel human. "I was convinced that this [was] something people needed to know about," Ichishita says of the club, a ministry of a Nazarene organization called Central City Community Outreach. "I wanted people to be aware of how they can serve others in their own backyards. People can serve where they are, and they don’t have to go to faraway places to do it."

A native Angeleno, Ichishita sees the film and entertainment industry of Los Angeles as her "backyard." After graduating in 2002 from Westmont College in Santa Barbara with a degree in English, writing, and literature, she did all she could, she says, to get into the film industry. She began at the lowest rung on the ladder: production assistant. "I did anything I could do just to get on the set and learn." she says. Eventually she worked her way up to production coordinating, production managing, and finally, producing.

The role of producing — the task of bringing all aspects of a film project together, from its finances and administration to its creative vision — came quite naturally to Ichishita, who has always had a knack for leadership.