Film Catalog
Stories from Chinese America
The Arthur Dong Collection, Vol. 2
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This consummate anthology of films spanning over 25 years showcases Arthur Dong’s historically acute focus on Chinese Americans at crossroads with Hollywood, pop culture, tradition, and immigration. The 4-disc collection includes Hollywood Chinese, Forbidden City, U.S.A., Sewing Woman, Lotus, and Living Music for Golden Mountains. Packaged in a specially designed Collector’s Edition box.
Hollywood Chinese
NEW: 2-DISC COLLECTOR’S EDITION DVD
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Hollywood Chinese brings together a captivating portrait of filmmakers and iconic images for a high-spirited look at the ways the Chinese have been imagined in the movies, from silent classics to contemporary blockbusters. All star cast includes Ang Lee, Nancy, Kwan, Wayne Wang, Joan Chen, Amy Tan, and others. Winner, Taipei Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary.
Forbidden City, USA
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It was the swinging 30s. The big bands of the 40s. It was San Francisco night life – Baghdad by the Bay. And the crowds were packing the nation's premiere all-Chinese nightclub, Forbidden City. FORBIDDEN CITY, U.S.A. captures this little-known chapter of entertainment history and brings it alive, featuring a cast of original nightclub performers. "The Chinese Sinatra", "the Chinese Sophie Tucker", and the "Chinese Sally Rand" are just some of the spirited personalities that strut their stuff and share triumphant and humorous tales of adventures in the cabarets of yesteryear.
A Toisan Trilogy
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The first major wave of Chinese came to America primarily from southern China, with a heavy concentration from the Toisan (Taishan) region of Guangdong Province. For the first time together, A Toisan Trilogy presents three award-winning short films directed by Arthur Dong that draw upon this early period of Chinese migration to America: Sewing Woman, Lotus, and Living Music for Golden Mountains.
Sewing Woman
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This beloved classic reveals one woman’s determination to survive: from an arranged marriage in China to working class comforts in modern America. Winner of over 20 international film awards, including an Oscar® nomination for Best Short Documentary.
SEWING WOMAN is also available in the DVD anthology, A TOISAN TRILOGY.
Lotus
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Shot on location in remote villages of Hong Kong, this fictionalized story follows Lotus, a woman with bound feet in 1914 China who must decide whether to bind her daughter’s feet. For more than thirty centuries, China celebrated a practice known as footbinding and the fight against it triggered one of the biggest, most overlooked women’s struggle in world history.
LOTUS is also available in the DVD anthology, A TOISAN TRILOGY.
Living Music for Golden Mountains
Living Music for Golden Mountains is a touching portrait of Leo Lew, an immigrant who toiled as a laundry worker but kept spiritually alive through his love of music. Produced with Elizabeth Meyer, Living Music for Golden Mountains marks Arthur Dong’s documentary directorial debut and won a Regional Academy Student Film Award for Best Documentary. DVD includes a newly edited director’s cut.
LIVING MUSIC FOR GOLDEN MOUNTAINS is available in the DVD anthology, A TOISAN TRILOGY.
Stories from the War on Homosexuality
The Arthur Dong Collection, Vol. 1
DVD
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Digitally re-mastered DVDs of Coming Out Under Fire, Family Fundamentals, and Licensed to Kill, with over 4 hours of additional material and bonus features, including more than 2 hours of previously unreleased footage, viewer guides for each title, and much more. Packaged in a specially designed Collector’s Edition box with a discounted price (compared to buying each DVD separately).
Coming Out Under Fire
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COMING OUT UNDER FIRE shoots to the heart of an issue that continues to be the focus of heated debates today: the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays and lesbians in the military. Recipient of a George Foster Peabody Award and a Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award, this internationally acclaimed film uncovers the World War II origins of a military policy which labeled homosexuals as mentally ill and sought their discharge as "undesirables."
Licensed to Kill
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Winner of both the Directors and Filmmakers Trophy awards at the Sundance Film Festival, LICENSED TO KILL goes behind the media headlines of recent high-profile anti-gay murders to investigate their causes. Attacked by gay bashers in 1977, filmmaker Arthur Dong probes the hearts and minds of murderers convicted of killing gay men – he faces them in one-on-one cell block interviews and asks them directly: "Why did you do it?"
Family Fundamentals DVD
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What happens when three conservative Christian families have children who "become homosexual?" Armed with a digital camera, filmmaker Arthur Dong takes viewers into the private -- and sometimes very public lives -- of families where parents actively oppose homosexuality, despite having gay kids themselves. Family Fundamentals is a deeply personal look at the "cultural wars" that are being fought in families, communities, and the social/political public spheres of our nation. An official selection of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
The Questions of Equality:
Out Rage '69
OUT RAGE '69 is the premiere episode of the four-part PBS program, The Question of Equality, the first-ever television series to explore the rich history of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement. OUT RAGE '69 delves into the complex circumstances that sparked the formation of the modern gay movement, beginning with the pivotal 1969 riots at Stonewall, New York City, and leading up to Anita Bryant's campaign to turn back the clock at Dade County, Florida.
Photo ©Donna Binder/Impact Visuals, courtesy ITVS
Public
PUBLIC explores a child's reactions to social mores and violence to skewer the hypocrisy of oppressive norms. This raw, animated film was based on a poem written in 1969 by filmmaker Arthur Dong and signals a trend that has lead to films that probe the politics and human tragedy of social injustice.
Claiming a Voice: The Visual Communications Story
CLAIMING A VOICE: THE VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS STORY chronicles the heady twenty-year history of Visual Communications, the first media arts group dedicated to productions by and about Asian Pacific Americans. Featuring clips from over twenty VC films, this one-hour documentary shows how the Los Angeles-based grassroots organization survived Reagan-era budget cuts, Hollywood temptations, and the tumultuous collective processes of the sixties to control their community's own images on screen and in the media.
Tap! The Tempo of America
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TAP! THE TEMPO OF AMERICA brings together the high-spirited personalities and spectacular performances that transformed tap, a onetime "novelty" dance craze, into one of America's most cherished national traditions. Based on producer/writer Rusty E. Frank's groundbreaking book, TAP! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories, this exciting new documentary is currently in its final stages of fund-raising for post-production support.