All Things Food

Chinatown in the Archives

Sunday, May 11 w/ Q&A at 5PM - Buy tickets!
Wednesday, May 14 at 5PM - Buy tickets!

Curated by Think!Chinatown, the All Things Food program puts Chinatown’s stories on the big screen through the lens of food. Think!Chinatown’s newest mini-doc, Artisanal Chinatown: Tofu 舖, will premiere with this program, alongside Think!Chinatown’s other food-related short films and treasures pulled from our community’s archives.

• Artisanal Chinatown: Tofu 舖 dives into the details of making tofu and the family legacies behind Chinatown’s artisanal tofu shops.

• Chinatown Food Co-op 1971 follows a typical day providing affordable and healthy groceries to the Chinatown community through DCTV’s archival footage.

• The Trained Chinese Tongue, directed by Laurie Wen, examines how Chinese immigrants live at the complex crossroads of food, language, colonization, and immigration.

• Everyday Chinatown: Wok Ring & Steamer Claw highlights common cooking tools of the Asian American kitchen through Lilly Lam’s playful artwork and oral history recordings from community members.

• Shopping in Chinatown, features Chinatown aunties and uncles from Cantonese, Teochew, and Fuzhounese cultural backgrounds who take us on their typical grocery shopping experience.

• Women in Markets, directed by Chyan Lo, explores cooking as a persistent, gendered division of labor in East Asian culture.

• Shop Your City: Grand Street highlights all the best spots to buy sweet treats, fresh seafood, Chinese cultural goods, and more on Grand Street.

Tuesday, May 13 w/ Q&A at 7PM - SOLD OUT!

Curated by Think!Chinatown’s partner and neighbor Jon Alpert of Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film, the Chinatown in the Archives program explores the DCTV archives from the early 1970’s. During that time, NYC’s Chinatown fought for better public services, greater opportunities, and cultural respect, simultaneously coinciding with the birth of community media. DCTV was honored to have played an important role in the community’s victories during this time. Some of these films documenting this moment survived, and will be presented in snippets for the first time in half a century.

• Chinatown Health Fair (1972), the second DCTV community video, is part organizing, part public service, part educational, and part of the campaign to build Gouverneur, NYC’s first community hospital.

• School Board (1972) follows the Chinatown community successfully fighting back against a corrupt local school board.

• Chinatown Immigrants in America (1976), DCTV’s second PBS documentary exploring the challenges and promises of life from hidden sweatshops to steamy kitchens.

• The Story of Vinh (1991), directed by Keiko Tsuno, follows Vinh as he spirals down from the streets of Saigon to life with the Born to Kill gang in Chinatown.

• Canal Street (1998), directed by Keiko Tsuno, captures life on New York’s helter skelter, cacophonous, toughest thoroughfare, and first stop for many immigrants.

• Snakeheads (1994), directed by Ying Chan, Peter Kwong, and Jon Alpert, provides a rare view inside the illegal Chinese immigration trade.

• The Great Blackout (1978), DCTV’s first youth video, is an endearing and naive treasure of time in a bottle.

• Wing Lam (2015), a comprehensive portrait of one of Chinatown’s eminent community organizers and why he keeps fighting.

• My Normal Family Life (2011), directed by Jonathan Chang, accounts the high school filmmaker’s experience with his mother’s early onset dementia.

• A Lost Voice (2018), directed by high school filmmaker Jacob Lam, is an animated classic about a young immigrant’s struggle with prejudice, pride, and identity.

• Redemption (2012), directed by Matt O’Neill and Jon Alpert, an Oscar-nominated portrait of Lilly and the canners of Chinatown, who try to survive on what others throw away.