Description

Filmmaker Robin Lung takes us on a meandering journey to rediscover KUKAN, a long-lost color documentary that gave American audiences a soberingly realistic view of China before and during the life-altering events of World War II. An unlikely partnership between playwright Li Ling-Ai and journalist Rey Scott produced KUKAN. Their film afforded an isolationist America a rare glimpse of the people of China, finishing off with footage of the devastating August 1940 bombardment of Chongqing.

FINDING KUKAN explores questions of racial and gender prejudice in a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act was in full effect. How did a Chinese American woman help produce a documentary to nationwide acclaim and an honorary Academy Award when open racism toward Asian Americans was the norm?

In the seven decades since it was produced, the story of KUKAN has almost been completely lost. Lung’s FINDING KUKAN ultimately leaves us with much food for thought and a hankering to see the original KUKAN.

— Tracy Wu

Expected Guests in Attendance: Robin Lung (Director/Writer/Producer), Shirley Thompson (Producer), Paul Levitt (Crew), Stanford Chang (Crew)

Co-presented by: Bay Area Women in Film & Media, The 1990 Institute

Credits

Producer/Writer: Robin Lung
Producer/Editor: Shirley Thompson
Executive Producers: Douglas K.T. Ho, Kimberlee Bassford
Directors of Photography: Frank Ayala, Stanford Chang, Ron Darby, Ann Kaneko, Andrew Truong
Additional Camera : Ron Darby, Frank Ayala
Shadow Theater Designer: Larry Reed
Effects Director/Animator: Chris Do
Choreographer: Wan-Chao Chang
Composer: Miriam Cutler
Humanities Advisor: Mary Lui , Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Shana Brown
Film History Advisors: Betsy McLane, Ed Carter
Cast: Kelly Hu, Daniel Dae Kim

Website Copyright © CAAMFest2017 & Gala Festival Engine