Chinatown Film Project
Chinatown is both a vibrant 20-block immigrant community and a forgotten strip of buffet restaurants; it’s the exploited Hollywood metaphor but also a rich signifier of urban noir. The Chinatown Film Project aims to create new images of Chinatown for the world, concurrently giving established filmmakers the opportunity to experience Chinatown in most cases in an unprecedented way: from the inside.
The project, which will develop in three parts, starts locally in New York, engaging one of the largest Chinatowns in the world then expands to an international scale with filmmakers from all over the world exploring their own Chinatowns as urban space and allegory. Part three breaks the scope of the project wide open with an online site which anyone in the world can access and upload their own personal films about Chinatown regardless of age, experience or geography.
The twenty filmmakers, first in New York City and then around the world, will be asked to present their unique perspective of this global icon through narrative, documentary and experimental media forms.
Featured award-winning filmmakers include:
- Wayne Wang (Joy Luck Club)
- Jonas Mekas (Reminiscences of a Voyage to Lithuania)
- Sam Pollard (4 Little Girls)
- Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl)
- Ryan Fleck (Half-Nelson)
This project will be showcased as one of the inaugural exhibitions in MOCA's expansive new space, before traveling as a special collection to film festivals, universities and museums around the world.
Chinatown Film Project Launches on YouTube
MOCA’s Chinatown Film Project has launched its YouTube Channel! Now you can upload your Chinatown stories online. To learn more about the project and our YouTube Channel, please visit:
Or you may email us at moca.nyc@gmail.com for more information.
Check out our CFP Blog on World Journal Talk at: www.wjtalk/moca/
The Chinatown Film Project is made possible with support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts (Special Arts Services and Electronic Media and Film), United Commercial Bank, and World Journal.
