Hi. Thank you for reading the first entry (and my first blog entry ever) of the Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA) Chinatown Film Project blog! (Wow, a mouthful - hopefully I won’t have to say that out loud).
I’m Karin Chien, the curator and producer of the Project, and I’ll be posting behind-the-scenes insights about the Project. Complete with pics, mixed with tidbits about life in NYC Chinatown, and peppered with surprise guest entries.
So what exactly is this blog and Project about?
The Chinatown Film Project is a 3-part, 2-year program premiering next Spring at MoCA’s sparkling new space that the fabulous Maya Lin is designing. We are commissioning 10 NYC directors to make original short films about Chinatown. Then, we’re going to commission 10 filmmakers from around the world, think Paris or Havana, to make films about Chinatowns in their cities. But we’re also opening the pot to everyone else – MoCA’s YouTube-hosted channel will allow anyone to upload films they’ve made about Chinatown.
I’ll be posting more about our 10 select filmmakers, but I’d first like to shout-out a film on our YouTube site, www.youtube.com/mocanyc. We posted a reference video called “Take A Look” by Kevin Lee. It’s a short doc about the impact of 9/11 on NYC Chinatown, made right after 9/11 when mainstream media was busy ignoring this community. Kevin’s “Take A Look” embodies the DIY spirit of the Project – grab a camera, shoot something, and show the rest of us what Chinatown looks like to you. What are you waiting for?
P.S. And props to the Chinese World Journal for having the incredible foresight to sponsor this Project!
