Stories in Action

A film to watch for in the coming months is “Hollywood Chinese,” a new documentary by triple Sundance award-winning filmmaker Arthur Dong about a little-known chapter in American film history: Chinese Americans in Hollywood feature films. The documentary, supported by the Council under the California Documentary Project, was a hit at San Francisco’s Asian American Film Festival this past spring and is currently on the film festival circuit, with screenings taking place this fall in Vancouver, Toronto and Göteborg, Sweden.

Talking about the film recently, Dong said, “It is my journey into the world of Hollywood moviemaking, to discover how stories and images of the Chinese fit within an entertainment industry the mixes art with commerce, a universal art form that affects the way we see ourselves and each other.”

Dong’s other films include the Academy Award- nominated “Sewing Woman” based on the story of the filmmaker’s mother, about one woman’s journey from an arranged marriage in China to working class comforts in America, and “Stories From the War on Homosexuality,” a trilogy of films about gay issues that includes “Family Fundamentals,” about America’s culture wars over homosexuality as experienced by three conservative Christian families with gay children.