Hollywood Chinese

NEW!

Hollywood Chinese will be a multi-faceted look at American cinema through the lens of the Chinese American experience, and through films from an industry that was often uninformed about issues regarding race, but at times surprisingly sensitive. Helmed by Oscar®-nominated and three-time Sundance award-winning filmmaker, Arthur Dong, this new feature length documentary will be a comprehensive visual and social history of the Chinese in Hollywood feature films, from the early 1900s up to present day.

Stories from the War on Homosexuality
The Arthur Dong Collection, Vol. 1:

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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).

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.

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?"

Forbidden City, USA

Collector's Edition DVD (more info...)

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.

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."

Sewing Woman

SEWING WOMAN chronicles the bittersweet journey of one woman's determination to survive: from an arranged marriage in old China to working class comforts in modern America. Based on the story of the filmmaker's mother, SEWING WOMAN is now considered a classic and was an early prototype for the personal-diary genre made popular today by the handi-cam explosion. Winner of over 20 film awards including an Academy Award® nomination for best short documentary.

Lotus

The place is rural 1914 China and LOTUS tells the heart-wrenching story of a mother with bound feet who must decide whether to subject her own daughter to this crippling tradition. For over thirty centuries, Chinese women's feet were maimed in the name of beauty and obedience. The custom was called "footbinding," and the fight against it triggered one of the most overlooked struggles for human rights in history. Filmed on location in the remote village of Luk Keng, a mile under the China border in Hong Kong, LOTUS is a lavishly produced half-hour featurette set in this turmoil.

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

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.

Living Music for Golden Mountains

LIVING MUSIC FOR GOLDEN MOUNTAINS tells the poignant story of filmmaker Arthur Dong's Chinese music teacher, Leo Lew. A folk musician by training, Lew emigrated from China to America in the 1930s and found work as a laborer but never gave up his love for music. LIVING MUSIC FOR GOLDEN MOUNTAINS was produced with Elizabeth Meyer and marks Dong's documentary directorial debut, earning the early filmmakers a 1981 Student Academy Award® nomination for best documentary.

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.

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.