As 2022 draws near an end, we here at CAAM are reflecting on the many milestones we’ve accomplished this year. In many ways, the past months have signaled a return to normal life: in May, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of CAAMFest, our first under the helm of Festival and Exhibitions Director Thúy Trần. For the first time in three years, our community filled the Castro Theatre for opening night, with the Bay Area premiere of Free Chol Soo Lee, a documentary about Asian American activists right here in San Francisco. It felt like old times, coming together as a community for the gala at the Asian Art Museum, and welcoming new venues – The Great Star Theater, SF MOMA and Yerba Buena Gardens – before concluding the 10 day festival at Oakland’s New Parkway Theater.
Then in June, many CAAM staffers and documentary filmmakers from the Midwest convened in Detroit for the Vincent Chin 40th Remembrance and Rededication. While this may have been a more somber occasion, a common thread connects these events to the festival less than a month earlier: a re-commitment to telling Asian American stories.
The racially-fueled killing of Vincent Chin on one summer night in Detroit was a catalyzing event that drew together disparate Asian American ethnic communities to create a unified movement. The tragedy and the legal proceedings that followed were captured in the classic documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin?, which was screened as part of the four-day program in Michigan.
In addition to the stories of Vincent Chin and Chol Soo Lee, CAAM’s events this year have also featured narratives that are emerging out of our current times, such as Critics Choice award-winning Bad Axe, director David Siev’s documentary about life in his Mexican-Cambodian family’s restaurant during the early months of the COVID pandemic, as conflicts over mask mandates and Black Lives Matter movement splintered their rural Michigan hometown.
Maybe the biggest lesson we’ve learned in 2022 is that instead of going “back to normal”, we should set our sights on making things better than they were before. This fall, the CAAM co-production Rising Against Asian Hate premiered on PBS. The documentary was filmed following the March 2021 killings of x people in Atlanta–mostly Korean women– focusing on the efforts to seek justice and increased representation in the electoral system.
These are just a few of the ways that CAAM has made an impact during the past year. Stay tuned, as each week we will be reflecting on a different aspect of our ongoing work as well as our forays into new and exciting forms of storytelling.
Help uplift Asian American storytelling this Giving Tuesday by making your tax-deductible contribution to support CAAM’s ongoing work. Donate today and your gift will be doubled by a $10,000 match thanks to two anonymous CAAM Board Members.
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