My Chinatown, With Aloha
2022 | 10 mins | English
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 WORLD Channel.
Produced with the support of the Asian American Documentary Network and WORLD Channel.
Events and press coverage
Daytime Emmy nomination
The series "Asian American Stories of Resilience and Beyond," which the short documentary is part of, was nominated for a 2023 Daytime Emmy in the Short Form Program category.
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GBH Explore
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Director/producer Kimberlee Bassford was interviewed about the film in an article for GBH Explore, the magazine of PBS station WGBH Boston.
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Conversation about Chinatown with GlobeDocs
Director/producer Kimberlee Bassford participated 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 featured 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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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:
The film premiered on the PBS website and The WORLD Channel's YouTube page in May 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 other known screenings of the film.
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Hawaiian Airlines in-flight programming, December 2023-March 2024
Shanghai American Center, Online, May 27, 2023
PBS Guam, part of GIFF 2023 Select Showcase, every Tuesday at 8pm (CHST) from April 4-May 23, 2023
Chinese American Museum of DC, Online, January 12, 2023
Hawai‘i International Film Festival, In person November 12, 2022 and online November 14-27, 2022
Silicon Valley Asian Pacific FilmFest, Online, October 28-November 6, 2022
Guam International Film Festival, In person 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
Director/Producer/Writer/Editor
Kimberlee Bassford
Director of Photography
Valerie Narte
Animator
Mahima Tuladhar
Additional Camera
Kimberlee Bassford
Henry Mochida
Michael Bassford
Voice of C. Q. Yee Hop
Nicholas Chun
Motion Graphics
Manjula Varghese
Production Assistant
Kathleen Zane
Featuring
Steve S. Alm
Eddie Flores
Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock
Karen Lau
Cindy Lee
Nicholas Lee
Wing Tek Lum
Mei Mei Say
Featuring the poem “Before The Fire”
Written and read by Wing Tek Lum
Archival
andrewtang.design
C. Q. Yee Hop Companies
Hawai‘i State Archives
Jeremy Huang on Unsplash
Meredith Nierman / GBH News
Pond5
Richard Tao on Unsplash
Sound Effects
Zapsplat.com
Thanks
Celia Baker
Jonathan Bassford
Michael Bassford
Naleea Bassford
Evelyn Chun
Mikey Chun
Randall Chun
Jay Hubert
Tami Lee Keolanui
Chad Koyanagi
Stephanie Lum
Barinna Poon
David Warman
Christina Whinnery
Eric Wong
ASIAN AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY NETWORK (A-DOC)
Lead Series Producer
Pallavi Somusetty
Series Producers
Victoria Chalk
S. Leo Chiang
Lailanie Gadia
Grace Lee
Robert Winn
Advisor
Freida Lee Mock
Series Production and Post Assistant
Lily Qi
Post-Production Services
Flash Cuts
Sound Mixer
Mia Stewart
WORLD CHANNEL
Producer Editor
Hannah Paul
Digital Producer
Sharon Wong
Assistant Editor
Jill Poisson
Post Production Assistant
Jenny Tan
Digital Associate Producer
Brigitte Carreiro
Digital Production and Editorial Assistant
Ravjot Singh
Project Manager
Elmira Zenger
Outreach Manager
Victoria Marsh
Director of Audience Development and Engagement
Eleanor Hong
Executive Producer, WORLD Channel & GBH Boston
Christopher Hastings
General Manager, WORLD Channel & GBH Boston
Liz Cheng
My Chinatown, With Aloha is a Co-Production of Making Waves Films LLC, Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc), GBH WORLD Channel and Center for Asian American Media. Making Waves Films LLC is solely responsible for its content.
©2022 Making Waves Films LLC. All Rights Reserved.