Please note: space is limited.
This screening includes a pre-recorded conversation with filmmakers Harry Chuck and Josh Chuck. Moderated by Karen Umemoto, UCLA professor in Urban Planning and Asian American Studies and director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.
About the program:
The Price of Cheap Rent (2020)
An upwardly mobile, highly educated young Black female artist moves into the culturally rich and trendy neighborhood of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, but soon questions her decision when ancestors of the land invade her personal space in this satirical comedy.
Color, 7 min. Director: Amina Sutton, Maya Tanaka. Screenwriter: Amina Sutton.
Gone (2019)
A meditative and trenchant experimental video essay on L.A.’s Little Tokyo, its rich histories, and the constant threat of gentrification and redevelopment it faces. The peril of ethnic erasure looms large in this prime location adjacent to DTLA and its hub of transit networks. Part of Visual Communications’ Digital Histories program.
Color, 5 min. Director: Robert Shoji.
Reopening (2020)
As they reopen their restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown, two undocumented immigrants reflect on the anti-Asian, racist sentiment being perpetuated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of Asian American Documentary Network’s #AsianAmCovidStories micro doc series.
Color, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 2 min. Director: David Huang.
Cambodia Town: Not for Sale (2019)
UCLA EthnoCommunications alumni Brandon Soun and Lan Nguyen chronicle the community building and organizing efforts of Cambodia Town in Long Beach, California, when small, ethnic-owned businesses in East Anaheim Plaza are threatened by plans of gentrification and redevelopment.
Color, 7 min. Director: Brandon Soun, Lan Nguyen.
Kamaʻāina (Child of the Land) (2019)
As of 2016, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders make up 42% of Hawaii’s homeless population. In director Kimi Howl Lee’s evocative and compassionate portrait, queer 16-year-old Mahina must navigate life on the streets until she eventually finds refuge at the Pu’uhonua o Wai’anae—Hawaiʻi’s largest organized homeless encampment.
Color, 17 min. Director: Kimi Howl Lee.
Chinatown Rising (2021) - Special sneak preview screening
Harry Chuck’s nearly half-century odyssey to finish his San Francisco State University master's thesis film culminates in this rich, interwoven tapestry of home movie footage, family photos, newspaper and media reportage, oral histories and, most importantly, all the documentary footage he shot in and around his neighborhood throughout the intervening years. Produced in collaboration with his son Josh, this treasure trove of images and sounds captured in their historical contexts offers an intimate and authentic perspective of San Francisco’s Chinese diaspora and their daily lives negotiating for self-determination as the changing tide of immigration, racism and U.S. politics, both local and national, pushed and pulled them into uncertain circumstances.
Chuck and his peers, who grew up as children of the immigrant generation in the 1960s and 1970s, reflect on their youth as community leaders and activists discussing their participation in community power-building collectives. Acknowledging the influence of the Black Power movement, they forged ahead in the fight for an ethnic studies curriculum during the 1968-1969 student demonstrations at San Francisco State University. This political awakening ignited their subsequent advocacy for bilingual education in the public education system and fight for affordable housing in the Mei Lun Yeun Redevelopment Project, an apartment complex dedicated to seniors and low-income residents during the 1970s.
Color, in Cantonese, Mandarin and English with English subtitles, 84 min. Director: Harry Chuck, Josh Chuck.
_______________________
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center Film Festival screens virtually February 19–28 on Eventive and Vimeo. See the complete schedule at cinema.ucla.edu.
Please note: space is limited.
This screening includes a pre-recorded conversation with filmmakers Harry Chuck and Josh Chuck. Moderated by Karen Umemoto, UCLA professor in Urban Planning and Asian American Studies and director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.
About the program:
The Price of Cheap Rent (2020)
An upwardly mobile, highly educated young Black female artist moves into the culturally rich and trendy neighborhood of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, but soon questions her decision when ancestors of the land invade her personal space in this satirical comedy.
Color, 7 min. Director: Amina Sutton, Maya Tanaka. Screenwriter: Amina Sutton.
Gone (2019)
A meditative and trenchant experimental video essay on L.A.’s Little Tokyo, its rich histories, and the constant threat of gentrification and redevelopment it faces. The peril of ethnic erasure looms large in this prime location adjacent to DTLA and its hub of transit networks. Part of Visual Communications’ Digital Histories program.
Color, 5 min. Director: Robert Shoji.
Reopening (2020)
As they reopen their restaurant in Manhattan’s Chinatown, two undocumented immigrants reflect on the anti-Asian, racist sentiment being perpetuated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of Asian American Documentary Network’s #AsianAmCovidStories micro doc series.
Color, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 2 min. Director: David Huang.
Cambodia Town: Not for Sale (2019)
UCLA EthnoCommunications alumni Brandon Soun and Lan Nguyen chronicle the community building and organizing efforts of Cambodia Town in Long Beach, California, when small, ethnic-owned businesses in East Anaheim Plaza are threatened by plans of gentrification and redevelopment.
Color, 7 min. Director: Brandon Soun, Lan Nguyen.
Kamaʻāina (Child of the Land) (2019)
As of 2016, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders make up 42% of Hawaii’s homeless population. In director Kimi Howl Lee’s evocative and compassionate portrait, queer 16-year-old Mahina must navigate life on the streets until she eventually finds refuge at the Pu’uhonua o Wai’anae—Hawaiʻi’s largest organized homeless encampment.
Color, 17 min. Director: Kimi Howl Lee.
Chinatown Rising (2021) - Special sneak preview screening
Harry Chuck’s nearly half-century odyssey to finish his San Francisco State University master's thesis film culminates in this rich, interwoven tapestry of home movie footage, family photos, newspaper and media reportage, oral histories and, most importantly, all the documentary footage he shot in and around his neighborhood throughout the intervening years. Produced in collaboration with his son Josh, this treasure trove of images and sounds captured in their historical contexts offers an intimate and authentic perspective of San Francisco’s Chinese diaspora and their daily lives negotiating for self-determination as the changing tide of immigration, racism and U.S. politics, both local and national, pushed and pulled them into uncertain circumstances.
Chuck and his peers, who grew up as children of the immigrant generation in the 1960s and 1970s, reflect on their youth as community leaders and activists discussing their participation in community power-building collectives. Acknowledging the influence of the Black Power movement, they forged ahead in the fight for an ethnic studies curriculum during the 1968-1969 student demonstrations at San Francisco State University. This political awakening ignited their subsequent advocacy for bilingual education in the public education system and fight for affordable housing in the Mei Lun Yeun Redevelopment Project, an apartment complex dedicated to seniors and low-income residents during the 1970s.
Color, in Cantonese, Mandarin and English with English subtitles, 84 min. Director: Harry Chuck, Josh Chuck.
_______________________
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center Film Festival screens virtually February 19–28 on Eventive and Vimeo. See the complete schedule at cinema.ucla.edu.