News

We’re delighted to announce that Sewing Woman is now available to stream free on Kanopy! This is a newly restored version by UCLA Film & TV Archive, produced from original negatives. Academy Award® nomination for best short documentary, and narrated by veteran actress Lisa Lu, Watch it free in the North American region with an approved public library card or university log-in at Kanopy.com

With the addition of Family Fundamentals streaming on Kanopy, Arthur Dong’s trilogy of films that explore the “war on homosexuality” is now complete. In Family Fundamentals, the filmmaker is armed with a digital camera and takes viewers into the private and public lives of three families who have responded to gay offspring by actively opposing homosexuality. Watch it free in the North American region with an approved public library card or university log-in at Kanopy.com

Now available to stream free on Kanopy: Licensed to Kill, the double Sundance award-winning documentary exploring the roots of anti-gay violence as seen through the eyes of murderers who killed gay men. Watch it free in the North American region with an approved public library card or university log-in at Kanopy.com

Kanopy’s roll-out continues with COMING OUT UNDER FIRE, a Peabody Award-winning documentary uncovering the World War II origins of the US military’s anti-gay policies. Stream it FREE in the North American region with an approved public library card or university log-in at Kanopy.com

Our films are starting to stream FREE in North America on Kanopy! Apropos to Oscar week, the first up is The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor, which profiles the first Asian male actor to win an Academy Award. Simply start watching with an approved public library card or university log-in at Kanopy.com and search for the title.

The Oakland Heritage Alliance bestowed their Partners in Preservation Stewardship Award in recognition of the restoration of The Curse of Quon Gwon. Recipients included family members of Marion Wong, the film’s director, and filmmaker Arthur Dong. For more information, visit https://www.oaklandheritage.org/partners-in-preservation

Classical Voice reports on Boston Lyric Opera’s re-imagined production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, inspired by stories from the golden era of San Francisco Chinatown nightclubs as documented in Arthur Dong’s book and film. Read the article here.

September, Boston: World premiere of a radical re-imagining of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, which sets the story in a 1940s San Francisco Chinatown nightclub on the eve of Pearl Harbor. ForbiddenCityBook.com author Arthur Dong serves as historical dramaturge for this new production from Boston Lyric Opera. Read the article here.

An acquisitions deal for DeepFocus Productions films will be announced shortly. To implement our new marketing plans, the films will be temporarily out of circulation in North America.

For now, a limited number of existing DVDs for personal and home use are available until sold out. Educational DVDs will be available only until June 26, 2023. VOD is also available until June 26, 2023.

See below for links to purchase or stream the affected titles. FYI, these deadlines only apply to North American markets, and the films will be in circulation again when our new distribution strategies are in place.

We’ll send out a formal announcement with full details — it’s very exciting — we’ll be working with the leading distributor of independent films to make sure my films will be available in the future on the newest platforms and formats!

Drawing upon his expertise on Chinatown nightclubs, Arthur Dong has been appointed Historical Dramaturge for the Boston Lyric Opera’s re-imagined production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Phil Chan, co-founder of the advocacy group Final Bow for Yellowface, directs this brand-new production that takes place in 1940s America under the shadow of World War II in San Francisco. Amid Puccini’s lush and sweeping score, Chan’s radical re-envisioning unfolds through the story of Butterfly, a Chinatown nightclub performer, and Pinkerton, a young soldier on the eve of his deployment. Performances are slated for September 14-24, 2023 at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston. More info here. Download the Boston Globe feature story here.