My Chinatown, With Aloha

Fourth-generation Chinese American Kimberlee Bassford explores her family’s relationship to Honolulu Chinatown and the parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 1899-1900 bubonic plague that hit Hawai‘i, highlighting the ways the two public health crises transformed the iconic neighborhood then and now.

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This short documentary is part of the "Asian American Stories of Resilience and Beyond" series by Asian American Documentary Network and The WORLD Channel.   

Produced with the support of the Asian American Documentary Network and The WORLD Channel. 

Events and press coverage

Conversation about Chinatown with GlobeDocs

Director/producer Kimberlee Bassford is participating in a conversation on Monday, May 23, 2022, hosted by the Boston Globe celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month and highlighting three films about Chinatowns. Along with Kimberlee, the conversation features Lisa Mao, director of A Tale of Three Chinatowns about the Chinatowns in Washington, D.C. , Chicago and Boston, and James Q. Chan, producer of Chinatown Rising about the activism in 1960s San Francisco Chinatown.

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The WORLD Channel has a page with information on all three films here. 

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Talk Story event with CPB Foundation

Kimberlee  was the featured speaker at a virtual "talk story" event hosted by CPB Foundation, L&L Hawaiian Barbecue and A Better Chinatown Association and taking place in-person in Honolulu and online on Wednesday, February 23, 2022.

Kimberlee shared clips from the documentary and stories about her great grandfather C. Q. Yee Hop, who is one of 14 honorees being profiled in a special exhibit on display at Central Pacific Bank's downtown Honolulu location in late February.

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Hawai‘i News Now and "Muthaship"

Kimberlee was the featured guest in February 2022 in an episode of the popular podcast "Muthaship with Stephanie Lum," in which Stephanie and Kimberlee rang in the Year of the Tiger together and discussed the film and more.
 

The interview was also featured in a news story that aired on Hawai‘i News Now.

For more information about this production, contact us at:

makingwavesfilms@gmail.com

The film drops on the PBS website and The WORLD Channel's YouTube page on May 24, 2022.

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Read more about the full "Asian American Stories of Resilience and Beyond" series here and watch a trailer. 

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Below is a list of known screenings of the film. 

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The WORLD Channel, U.S. public television broadcast slated for 2022

Hawai‘i International Film Festival, November 12, 2022 and online November 14-27, 2022

Silicon Valley Asian Pacific FilmFest, Online, October 28-November 6, 2022

Guam International Film Festival, October 9, 2022 and online Spring 2023

PBS Short Film Festival, Online, July 11-22, 2022

CAAMFest, Online, May 12-22, 2022 

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, World premiere, May 8, 2022