FINDING KUKAN is a documentary film in progress about filmmaker Robin Lung’s discovery of a lost 1941 Oscar-winning film on China and the ensuing search for information about the film’s creators — a fascinating author from Hawaii named Li Ling-Ai and an adventurous photojournalist from the Midwest named Rey Scott. The documentary is in its first phase of production and we are looking for underwriters to complete filming. Here’s more on the film:

When Hawaii-based film­maker Robin Lung starts search­ing for the real life equiv­a­lent of a fic­tional Chi­nese Amer­i­can female detec­tive, she runs across a fas­ci­nat­ing mem­oir writ­ten by a Chi­nese woman from Hawaii named Li Ling-Ai and unearths a 1941 Oscar-winning doc­u­men­tary that Li worked on called KUKAN – an epic color film about war-torn China that has been “lost” for decades. Lung’s hunt for a hero­ine takes on a new dimen­sion as she tries to track down the story behind KUKAN. She quickly dis­cov­ers two other peo­ple who have their own rea­sons for dig­ging into KUKAN’s amaz­ing past: Ed Carter, the doc­u­men­tary cura­tor at the Acad­emy Archives who’s seek­ing the miss­ing cor­ner­stone of his col­lec­tion; and Michelle Scott, the grand­daugh­ter of KUKAN cam­era­man Rey Scott, a young artist who longs to know more about her dead grand­fa­ther and the mys­te­ri­ous pho­tographs he left behind.

Find­ing KUKAN is a doc­u­men­tary film-in-progress that tracks Lung and her fel­low KUKAN inves­ti­ga­tors as they probe into the many mys­ter­ies that sur­round the movie: How did two inex­pe­ri­enced film­mak­ers suc­ceed in get­ting the atten­tion of the Pres­i­dent of the United States and the Hol­ly­wood power Elite? How did Rey Scott get access to Chi­ang Kai-Shek and man­age a trek across China that even by today’s stan­dards is jaw-dropping? Was Li Ling-Ai just an inspi­ra­tional muse or did she take an active part in the actual pro­duc­tion and pro­mo­tion of the movie? As the inves­ti­ga­tion unfolds, we uncover an inspir­ing story of two fiercely inde­pen­dent spir­its and open doors to for­got­ten chap­ters in history. You can learn more about the film and donate here.

Find­ing Kukan trailer