Asian Pacific Heritage Month - May

This series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, and cultural innovation. It is a timely look at the role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. (2020, WETA and Center for Asian American Media)

This is the fascinating story of Larry and Trudie Long, a popular husband-and-wife nightclub act of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Narrated by their daughter, actress Jodi Long, the film traces the couple’s rise from the Chinatown nightclub circuit to a coveted appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. (Directed by Christine Choy, 2009)

In 1947, Japanese American basketball player Wat Misaka was the first person of color to be drafted into the NBA. Overcoming the discrimination towards Nisei during World War II, he became a star player at the University of Utah in the mid ‘40s, before taking two years off to serve in the US Army.During this same period, Wat’s fellow Nisei were uprooted from their homes and moved to internment camps. Wat became a personal hero to his fellow Japanese Americans, and to sports enthusiasts everywhere. (directed by Bruce Alan Johnson, 2010)

In this funny and sometimes irreverent journey through San Francisco's Chinatown, Suzanne comes to terms with her own ethnic identity. This film is a personal statement about growing up Asian-American in a white society. (Produced by Sharon Jue, 1992)

This inspiring film chronicles Capt. Bruce Yamashita's fight against racial discrimination in the Marine Corps. (Produced by Steve Okino, 2006)

This colorful production contrasts the rich heritage of Chinese opera with the day-to-day realities of its emigré performers in New York's Chinatown. (Directed by Christine Choy, 1992)

This multi-festival film is a portrayal of the fortitude of an immigrant 'war bride' in America. Seventy-six-year-old Young-Ja Wike is one of the 10,000 Korean women who married American G.I.s. after the war. (Directed by Hosup Lee, 2003)