Hollywood Chinese is a captivating revelation on a little-known chapter of cinema: the Chinese in American feature films. From the first Chinese American film produced in 1916 (Oakland filmmaker Marion Wong’s THE CURSE OF QUON GWON) to Ang Lee’s BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN nine decades later, HOLLYWOOD CHINESE brings together a fascinating portrait of actors, directors, writers, and iconic images (including Ang Lee, Wayne Wang, Joan Chen, David Henry Hwang, Justin Lin, B.D. Wong, Nancy Kwan, Tsai Chin, Lisa Lu, James Hong, and Amy Tan) to show how the Chinese have been imagined in movies, and how filmmakers have and continue to navigate an industry that was often ignorant about race, but at times paradoxically receptive.

Watch the trailer for Hollywood Chinese:

Watch a clip of Joan Chen from Hollywood Chinese:

Hollywood Chinese is ending it’s run in San Francisco today at the 4 Star Theatre. Catch this while you can. Next up for the film is New York. You can see the film at the Quad Cinema in NYC and at the Rochester/High Falls International Film Festival. Then off to Southern California May 30-June 5, 2008 at the Laemmle’s Music Hall in Los Angeles/Beverly Hills and Laemmle One Colorado in Pasadena.

If you like this film also, check out Slanted Screen.