As I reflect upon 18 years as Executive Director of CAAM, I am filled with gratitude and appreciation for the close relationships and shared values of so many – Staff, Board, community leaders, donors, and lovers of film – who have comprised the community that has supported CAAM’s work over the full four decades since our founding.
CAAM’S ORIGIN
CAAM’s origin story begins in the summer of 1980, at a conference in Berkeley, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which then, as now, channels public funding to our public television (PBS) and radio (NPR) system. The conference was organized and championed by Loni Ding, who understood that CPB had funded organizations supporting programming “by and about” Native American, Latino, and Black communities. So, the possibility of creating a non-profit organization to support Asian American filmmaking drew merging filmmakers from across the country, though primarily from the East and West coasts. I was a very junior program officer in the Media Arts program of the National Endowment for the Arts, and we were one of the very few sources of funding for filmmakers. I attended the conference to be on a funders panel and was excited by the possibility of being present at the inception of something new and important. We were united by a concern over the lack of authentic media images of our experience as Asian Americans, and the paucity of films by Asian American filmmakers. Over the course of those three days, a steering committee was formed, followed by proposals to develop two organizations, one for Asian American programming (National Asian American Telecommunications Association, or NAATA) and one for Pacific Islanders (Pacific Islanders in Communication). From that inception, our work at CAAM (as ourwe changed the organization has been known since name in 2005) has been guided by an understanding of the importance of seeing ourselves represented in media, and of the necessity of telling, and sharing, our own stories to the broadest audiences. As a result, we are now recognized as a leading organization in public media and the independent media arts community. We are also respected in the community leadership of the Asian American public service sector.
MILESTONES
At first, the staff, headed by James Yee, was small, and the board, comprised of peers, was a working board of filmmakers and community activists. With funding from CPB, we began the core work of funding the production of Asian American documentary films to be presented on public television. Among the first cohort of filmmakers supported were Felicia Lowe, Emiko Omori, Steven Okazaki, and Arthur Dong. All have gone on to produce many key films. In the second year, we started our film festival, though at first, most of the Asian American produced works were shorts, and the feature films were from Asian filmmakers. Key works, supported by NAATA, in the first couple of decades of work include A.K.A. Don Bonus, (Spencer Nakasako and Sokly Ny), First Person Plural, (Deann Borshay Liem), Who Killed Vincent Chin? (Renee Tajima Pena), and Unfinished Business (Steven Okazaki). Key documentary portraits of notable Asian American artists and performers made with CAAM’s help include Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (Freida Lee Mock), Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings (Tadashi Nakamura), and Lea Salonga in Concert (Todd Decker).
With support from CAAM, our filmmakers have created documentaries that place and connect our experiences to the triumphs and tragedies of American history itself, works like The Color of Honor (Loni Ding), Chinese Exclusion Act (Ric Burns and Li Shin Yu), and the five-part CAAM co-produced Asian Americans (series producer Renee Tajima-Pena).
Our annual film festival, now known as CAAMFest, is a major cultural event in the Bay Area, and has introduced many Asian American (as well as Canadian and UK) filmmakers and actors in early works of their careers, including Wayne Wang, Sandra Oh, Justin Lin, Mira Nair, and Gurinder Chadha.
Over the years, CAAM has developed a number of other programs, including a fellowship program to nurture new filmmakers, a regional program to support filmmakers throughout the country, an archive of home movies, Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies, and most recently, the Building Bridges Documentary Fund, a program supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, to support the creation ofdocumentary films about U.S. Muslim experiences.
THE FUTURE OF CAAM
Yet, amidst these successes, we face new challenges. There are tectonic shifts in the ways that works in media are created, distributed, and supported. Beloved cultural practices, such as film festivals and theatrical exhibition, are struggling. And, of perhaps even greater importance for an organization that has done so much to increase the understanding of America’s diversity, our nation seems to be intractably divided. We remain committed to the belief that effective and impactful media builds greater understanding, empathy, and compassion in society for the social good.
I believe that CAAM will continue to meet these challenges as we have done throughout our history, with integrity, creativity, and a commitment to bring Asian American stories to light. And with your support, together, we can ensure CAAM’s important work will thrive.
I’m filled with a sense of pride and anticipation for what’s next. After decades leading CAAM, the time has come for me to pass the torch. This transition marks the beginning of a new chapter for CAAM—one that will continue to amplify our stories, strengthen our voices, and build the bridges we’ve established through the power of film and media. It’s a moment of growth, both for the organization and for the next generation of leadership.
With Gratitude,
Stephen Gong
CAAM Executive Director
