Professor JT Takagi will be feted by DOC NYC with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Visionaries Tribute at Gotham Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 11.
JT Takagi, The City College of New York adjunct professor, filmmaker and sound recordist, will be awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by DOC NYC. The award will be given at DOC NYC’s annual Visionaries Tribute on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026 at Gotham Hall. Takagi will receive the award along with filmmaker Alex Gibney.
Takagi teaches in The Division of Humanities and the Arts’ Media and Communications Arts, Film and Video Production and MFA Film Production departments. She is an award-winning independent filmmaker, sound recordist, and the executive director of Third World Newsreel, a progressive alternative media center.
Surprised by the honor, Takagi said: “Anything I've been able to do–and that Third World Newsreel has been able to do–is thanks to the many great doc filmmakers with whom we've worked alongside. I see the award as a testament to all of our work in progressive film and its potential to inspire and instigate social change. City College and the Documentary Forum at CCNY have helped a great deal to collaborate in this work, so we are very grateful for that.”
Her own films are primarily on Asian/Asian American and immigrant issues, including Bittersweet Survival; Homes Apart: Korea; The Women Outside; and North Korea: Beyond the DMZ, which aired nationally on PBS. As a sound engineer, she has recorded numerous public television and theatrical documentaries that have earned Emmy and Cinema Audio Society awards, including Yance Ford’s Strong Island and Stanley Nelson’s Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
DOC NYC celebrates documentary filmmaking by connecting artists and audiences through powerful stories and diverse voices. Other filmmakers to be recognized at the tribute include Stephen Maing and Raney Aronson-Rath. Support for the Visionaries Tribute comes from Netflix and National Geographic Documentary Films.
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Thea Klapwald
e:
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