FINDING KUKAN

Directed by Robin Lung

Asian American Panorama / USA / 2016 / Documentary, Historical / 75 mins / English, Mandarin with English subtitles / DCP

‹ ›

Watch Trailer

FINDING KUKAN

UltraStar Mission Valley
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2017 4:00PM Buy Tickets

Description

Audience Award, Documentary Feature, 2017 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
Honorable Mention, Documentary Award, 2017 CAAMFest

Director Robin Lung searches for the long-lost Academy Award-winning documentary Kukan, while searching for the story behind its co-creator: Hawaii-born Chinese American Li Ling-Ai, who never got the due credit her white male collaborator Rey Scott received. In the early 1940s, Li convinced Scott to make this documentary about the massive bombing of Chongqing during the Pacific War, but the credits of the film never reflected her role as producer. Through exhaustive interviews with Li’s surviving relatives and acquaintances, Lung uncovers Li Ling-Ai’s tenacious filmmaking spirit, as well as her desire to show Americans what they weren’t seeing about China in the mainstream.

In turn, Lung shows contemporary America what a Chinese American woman in the 1940s could be. Historically astute but also lovingly personal, FINDING KUKAN rediscovers a pioneer of Asian American cinema and proves that “a little woman can be a big hero.” –Aleya Zenieris