Dear Corky (2022)

Hi, everyone. Our short little film, "Dear Corky," has started to make its way in the world.

For over fifty years, New York native Corky Lee photographed his hometown's Chinatown, and Asian American communities around the country. With a strong sense of social justice, he captured activists, celebrities, and everyday heroes with equal passion, taking over a hundred thousand photos. Sadly, while documenting the latest rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, Corky fell to COVID. Through his own words and pictures, Dear Corky reveals the man behind the camera.

UPCOMING SCREENINGS

October 15, 2022, Saturday,

Albuquerque Chinese American Film Festival

Additional screenings in Hawaii, California, and Massachusetts. Announcements to come.

PAST SCREENINGS

May 10, 2022, Tuesday - Sneak Preview

MLK Library (Washington DC)

May 13, 2022, Friday - World Premiere

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

May 25, Wednesday - Sneak Preview

Museum of the City of New York

June 2, Thursday

HAAPIFest (Houston)

July 16, Saturday, 7:00pm

DC APA Film Festival (Washington DC)

July 28, 2022, Thursday, 1:00pm

Asian American Journalists Association Conference (Los Angeles)

August 4, 2022, Thursday, 6:00pm

OCA Convention

August 13, 2022, Saturday, 7:00pm - New York City Premiere

Asian American International Film Festival (New York)

THE TEAM

Director - Curtis Chin (bio below)

Writers - Curtis Chin, Adam Wolman

Producers - Curtis Chin, Kenneth Eng (bio below), Adam Wolman

Executive Producers - Jeffrey Kim, Cynthia Lin

Director of Photography - Kenneth Eng

Editor - Kenneth Eng

Composer - Matthew Wang (bio below) Photo Archivist - Chee Wang Ng

Running time: 17:41

PRESS COVERAGE

A Photographer's Mission to Write Asian Americans Back Into History

Bloomberg News, Linda Poon, May 17, 2022

Video report from Spectrums's NY-1

Spectrum News, Ron Lee, May 27, 2022

Behind the Story: Curtis Chin's new documentary film, "Dear Corky," pays tribute to the late and legendary photographer

Asian American Journalists Association, Hayden Park, June 1, 2022

TEAM BIOS

Curtis Chin

Curtis Chin is a graduate of the creative writing program at the University of Michigan, Curtis Chin has received awards from ABC/Disney Television, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts and more. Chin has screened his films, Vincent Who? and Tested, with over 600 entities in sixteen countries including the White House, Amnesty International, and the Government of Norway. A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, his memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant" will be published by Little, Brown in Fall 2023.

Kenneth Eng

Kenneth Eng is a director, editor and executive producer. After graduating from Boston Latin School, Ken left for New York in 1994 to study film at the School of Visual Arts. His thesis Scratching Windows, a short documentary film about graffiti writers, was broadcast as part of the doc series REEL NY on WNET - NY PBS. In 2001, Ken directed and edited Take Me to The River a feature length documentary about the Maha Kumbh Mela festival in Allahabad, India. Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball, his film about the famous Koshien Tournament in Japan was nationally broadcast on PBS as part of POV and continues to play in Japan on NHK-TV. In 2007, Ken was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship to launch My Life In China. Recently, he edited Tested for director Curtis Chin, and is currently collaborating with him on a film “Our Chinatown” about the challenges chinatowns across America face. Ken is also involved in "The Great China Baseball Hunt" a film about the rise of baseball in China.

Adam Wolman

Drawing on his experience in television programming, Adam consults for companies and individuals creating content for all media. As the #2 exec at HBO Digital, Adam developed short-form series for HBO’s digital platforms. As Executive Consultant, Disney|ABC Television Group, he was brought on to help launch ABC’s award-winning Micro-Mini Series; the position was expanded to include sharing oversight of the Disney|ABC Writing Fellowship and other programs. Previously, Adam was VP, Original Series, Current and Development for MTV, covering comedy, drama, and reality and serving as exec in charge of production on several shows. Before MTV, Adam was Director, Comedy Series Programming at ABC Entertainment and Program Analyst at CBS Productions.

Matthew Wang

Matthew Wang is a Hollywood Music In Media Award-winning Asian American film and television composer who blends natural organic soundscapes with live instruments and electronic textures, creating atmospheres unique to each project. Born and raised in New York City, Matthew graduated from the NYU Tisch Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in 2018. Since then, he has written music for shows including New Amsterdam (NBC), Shrill (HULU), Mrs. Fletcher (HBO), Yellowjackets (Showtime), and Glow (Netflix). Additionally, Matthew has composed music for the Pharrell Williams Executive Produced Netflix Original Kids Show, Brainchild, as well as sonic wellness app Spiritunes. Matthew composed the music for Joseph Juhn's acclaimed documentary, Jeronimo, which tells the little-known story of the Korean diaspora community in Cuba, and particularly an unsung hero, Jeronimo Lim. The film had a theatrical release in Korea in 2019. He also co-composed IFC Midnight feature thriller Centigrade with Trey Toy and co-composed RENO 911: The Hunt for QANON with Craig Wedren. He also composed the score and wrote an original song for Shaquille O'Neal executive-produced animated short film, Headnoise.

THANK YOUS

Thank you to the support of Corky Lee and the Corky Lee estate.

MAJOR SUPPORTERS

Debbie Chen

Chinatown Railroad Workers Descendents Association

Chinese American Citizens Alliance

Michael Kwan

Cynthia Lin

Wing Tek Lum

OCA

SUPPORTERS

Ted Gong

In memory of Mikela D. Kwan, OD

Munson & Suellen Kwok

1882 Foundation

Adrian Arima

Melanie Chan

Davace Chin

Chinese American Citizens Alliance - Salinas Chapter

Lillian Gee

Ryan Hopkins

Shirley Kwan

Catherine Lee

Johnny Lee

Kevin Lee

Lillie Lee

Derrick E. Lim

Nancy Lo

Robin Lung

Tak Kuen Charles Mau

Calvin Moy

George Chunkau Mui

Virginia Ng

Sons of the American Legion, Lt. B.R. Kimlau Chinese Memorial Squadron 1291

Karen Su

G Tan

Pinduan Tong

Wai Fung Tong

Douglas Wong

Fay Yao

Donna Young

Mandy Yu

Additional thanks to

Alan Chin

Amy Chin

Asian Cinevision

Boeing Company

Chinese American Citizens Alliance Greater New York

Samantha Eng

Rob Gee

Vic Huey

Hyphen Magazine

International Documentary Association

Jeff Kim

Lois Lee

Virgo Lee

Potri Ranka Manis

Glenn Magpantay

Shirley Ng

Stanley Ng

Mae Ngai

Think Chinatown

Esther Chae Von Zielbauer

Betty Wong

John Woo

Roger and Irvi Woo