Museum Of Chinese In America Presents MOCA Cinema: Spotlight On Women Filmmakers

The Museum of Chinese in America today announced the first annual MOCA Cinema: Spotlight on Women Filmmakers. The festival will highlight a number of established and emerging Asian American filmmakers like Christine Choy, Violet Du Feng, Lulu Wang, Kit Zauhar, Shu-Ying Chung, and Reena Dutt. There will be a panel discussion among the filmmakers on the subject of independent filmmaking for Asian American women. The festival will run from Wednesday, March 1st through Friday, March 10th, 2023.

"For decades, Asian American filmmakers have presented a diversity of artistic approaches to filmmaking. If you look closer, you recognize that Asian American women filmmakers in particular often offer an empathetic and critical look to the subjects of their works, which encourages us to further reflect upon today's society," said Dennis Yeuh-Yeh Li, Director of Performance, Storytelling & Community at the Museum of Chinese in America. "As we are seeing more Asian American filmmakers continue to thrive in the era of online streaming, MOCA Cinema: Spotlight on Women Filmmakers spotlights and celebrates the artistic and sociopolitical trajectories of Asian American filmmaking, while creating a platform for dialogues and collaborations across generations to continue our legacies."

The festival will highlight a number of established and emerging Asian American filmmakers, and provide a community space for their works to be shown. Some of the filmmakers include Christine Choy, the director of the famous documentary, Who Killed Vincent Chin, which was nominated for Best Documentary Feature by the Academy Awards in 1989 and is the upcoming recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award by Hotdocs, and Violet Du Feng for her Hidden Letters, which was shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature by the Academy Awards in 2023. The feature-length film, Actual People, by Kit Zauhar, will also be shown. Kit's debut has gained an incredible amount of attention, most recently being picked up by Amazon and Mubi, a prestigious streaming platform for international films. In addition, Shuying Chung's short film, Removable, which is inspired by the true story of a deported Korean adoptee Adam Crasper, will be shown. The short film has won 13 awards at different film festivals across the world. In addition to these films, Lulu Wang's short film, Touch, will be shown.

Festival Schedule:

• Wednesday, March 1st:

Who Killed Vincent Chin from 6pm - 7:30pm

• Thursday, March 2nd:

Actual People 6pm - 7:30pm

Q & A with Kit Zauhar 7:30pm - 8pm

• Friday, March 3rd:

The Architects of Camellia 4pm - 4:45pm

Hidden Letters 5pm - 6:30pm

Special Event: Dialogue on Filmmaking 7pm - 8pm

• Saturday, March 4th:

Actual People 4pm - 5:30pm

Shorts Collections: 5:45pm - 6:30pm

Touch, Great Listener, Found, Removable

Q & A with shorts directors 6:30pm - 7:00pm

• Wednesday, March 8th:

The Architects of Camellia 6pm - 6:45pm

• Thursday, March 9th:

Shorts Collections: 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Touch, Great Listener, Found, Removable

• Friday, March 10th:

Who Killed Vincent Chin - 6:30pm - 8pm

To learn more about the upcoming festival, and to access the full calendar, please visit: https://www.mocanyc.org/calendar/.