America ReFramed

Chinatown Rising

By Harry Chuck and Josh Chuck

Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, a young San Francisco film student and Chinatown resident turned his lens onto his community. Fast forward 50 years, Harry Chuck's now archival material portrays a divided community's struggles for self-determination. Weaving together never-before-seen footage and photographs, CHINATOWN RISING spans three generations in its portrait of the historic neighborhood in transition.

From the 1960s-1980s, the once quiet streets of Chinatown were rattled by the fight for bilingual education, tenants’ rights, affordable housing, and an ethnic studies curriculum. These struggles are chronicled through current-day interviews as Chinatown’s organizers and leaders of the '60s return to the battles for social justice and equality of their youth that would shape their community and nation.

MEET THE MAKERS: CHINATOWN RISING

'Chinatown Rising' filmmakers Harry Chuck, Josh Chuck and James Q. Chan joined a panel of thought leaders, including Former Executive Director of the Chinatown Community Development Center Gordon Chin and Chair of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines - US Pamela Tau Lee, for a conversation about the film and how a generation united to expose the disparities in their community. Moderated by Executive Director of The Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community Grace Chan McKibben. Watch the recording!