During her childhood in Japan, this award-winning producer/director was inspired by the iconic book Jonathan Livingston Seagull, an international best-seller published in 1970, written by Richard Bach. Decades later, her feature film, WIND RIDERS, begins with a hot-air balloon pilot who was so inspired by the same book that he adorned his balloon with the image of seagulls in a blue sky. In 2019, the City of Albuquerque and Balloon Fiesta, the world’s largest ballooning event, sponsored a three-day screening of Wind Riders at the historic KiMo Theatre and the Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After graduating college in the U.S., Emi Katayama worked in New York on hundreds of news shows and television programs produced by major Japanese broadcasters. She’s also served as a part of jury members of the Harlem International Film Festival.