Film phase:Completed
SYNOPSIS
Set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and an unprecedented rise in anti-Asian racism, Big Fight in Little Chinatown takes us into the lives of residents, businesses, and community organizers whose neighborhoods are facing active erasure. In New York, it is the construction of the world’s largest vertical jail. In Montreal, it is developers swallowing up the most historic block of Chinatown, while big box chains displace the community in Toronto, and a Vancouver legacy business holds steadfast. These communities, resisting the pressure around them, offer Chinatown as a blueprint for inclusive and resilient neighborhoods of the future.
Big Fight in Little Chinatown is a participant of Project: Hatched 2023.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Karen Cho (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker known for her socio-political documentaries. Her films include In the Shadow of Gold Mountain, about the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act; Seeking Refuge, on refugees in Canada; and Status Quo?, about the women’s rights movement in Canada, which won Best Documentary at the Whistler Film Festival. In 2018 Cho was nominated for a Best Directing Canadian Screen Award for her work on CBC’s Interrupt This Program. Karen’s latest film, Big Fight in little Chinatown premiered at DOCNYC in 2022, and won both the Women’s Inmate Jury Award and the People’s Choice Award at the Montreal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM).
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Bob Moore (he/him) is a creative producer at EyeSteelFilm in Montreal, where he has produced more than 40 feature documentaries since 2008. He has been the recipient of more than 100 international awards, including Emmys, Cinema Eyes, Golden Horses, Owls, Phoenixes, and a variety of other celebratory animal-themed prizes. Moore is currently an advisor working with the Sundance Institute, IDFA, QUMRA, Tokyo Docs, Hot Docs, and others.
ABOUT THE CO-PRODUCER
Katie McKay (she/her) is a documentary producer based in Montreal who has been working with Eyesteelfilm since 2016. She was the director, producer, and DP of Body of Water, an interactive meditation on lake swimming. A former preschool teacher, she is formally trained as a cinema projectionist and is the co-founder of the queer femme DJ collective LADIES BEVERAGE ROOM.