What We Have In Common  | FILM | Advocate.com

||  FILM  ||
What We Have In Common
Filmmaker Arthur Dong's new documentary Hollywood Chinese, explores the complicated relationship between Chinese culture and American Cinema
By Japhy Grant
An Advocate.com exclusive posted April 14, 2008
What We Have In Common

When you look at out documentary filmmaker Arthur Dong’s best known films, Licensed to Kill a searing look at anti-gay hate crime murders and Family Fundamentals, a tragic look at what happens when Christian conservative parents have gay children, you can understand how he could call his latest project, Hollywood Chinese, a retelling of the Chinese-American experience in Tinseltown by the people who lived it, “a nice change of pace”. The film, featuring interviews with Nancy Kwan, Christopher Lee, Amy Tam, M. Butterfly writer David Henry Hwang and out actor B.D. Wong plays in Oakland and San Francisco through April 23rd.

Arthur Dong, Christopher Lee | Advocate.com

What inspired you to take on this film?
I finished 10 years of intense filmmaking with Licensed to Kill and Family Fundamentals. It was nice to do a project with people I actually like! Talking to all the people in this film was such a joy. They made me laugh, made me smile. I loved working on it. You know, it’s a film about race and representation and sexuality. And it’s a film about Hollywood, the glamour and the sets. I always wanted to be a film historian as a kid. For me it was a trip back in time and I think it was important to tell he story before the it faded away.

Did you learn anything from the making of the film about Hollywood or being a Chinese American that you didn’t know before?
The thing that [Hollywood’s] all about -- money -- really came to the forefront. There are considerate people who want to do the right thing, but it’s ultimately about the bottom line and the box office. It’s about if they can make money off of you and if they can, they will.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

Back to top

Submit a comment for this story:

*Type your comment here (Required, 1000 characters max.):

*Name (Required): 

*Hometown (Required): 

*E-mail address: (Required, but will not be displayed)

Is this comment for publication? 
Yes   No

Daytime phone number: (Required for print publication only and will not be displayed)

Please enter the words you see in the box, in order and separated by a space. Doing so helps prevent automated programs from abusing this service.

  

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above. 

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

Comments that do not concern specific articles in The Advocate or on Advocate.com will not be posted or published. See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.