How 'The Chinese Exclusion Act' documentary reunited a family with lost home movie footage

The story of how the footage made its way to CAAM, into 'The Chinese Exclusion Act' and back to its family.



In November 2014, the Center for Asian American Media published a blog post asking for help identifying a "mystery film" that had come to CAAM's Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies initiative.

The footage shows a birthday party for a family elder in either the 1940s or 1950s. It is entirely in black and whtie and shows many family members in attendance. The family is made up of people of all ages, with the women wearing cheongsames (qipaos) and the men wearing Western suits. The family elder wears a dark suit and is frequently shown holding a framed golden peach, a symbol of longevity.

The blog post was shared by this blog and other outlets, but nobody stepped forward to claim the footage. It seemed to remain an eternal mystery, just another unclaimed home movie languishing in an archive. Now, in the PBS and CAAM co-produced documentary The Chinese Exclusion Act, that footage has been used and incorporated into a larger history -- and as a result of it, the footage has been reunited with its family.

Old school Star Wars fans duel in vintage home movie

CAAM's Memories to Light presents Brian and Lynda Gee, circa 1978.



The Center for Asian American Media's Memories to Light program is a national, community-sourced initiative to collect, preserve and share the home movies (on 16mm, 8mm, and super 8mm film) and experiences of Asian American communities from across the United States from the 1920s through the 1980s.

In celebration of the holidays and the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (heard of it?) CAAM recently shared this special clip from the Gee family movie collection. Shot at the Gee family home in Sacramento (circa 1978), the scene shows O.G. Star Wars fans Brian and Lynda battling it out as Darth Vader and C3P0.

The clip is set to The Tonight Show's a cappella rendition of the Star Wars theme. Check it out:

Donate to CAAM's Memories to Light Campaign

Home movie initiative helps preserve Asian American memories and experiences.



The Center for Asian American Media's Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies initiative is a project to collect and digitize home movies and to share them -- and the stories they tell -- to a broad public.

For the past three years, CAAM's Memories to Light team has gathered, archived, and digitized home movies from 19 families -- comprising 180 films totaling about 15 hours of footage, spanning six decades. The films represent diverse communities including Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Thai American and mixed-race families, representing twelve states and the District of Columbia.

CAAM is now ready to take Memories to Light to the next level, and is asking for your support to make it happen. They've launched a campaign to raise funds that will help them collect and preserve more home movies from diverse Asian and Asian American communities from all 50 states.

Watch this video for more information about the project:

Is your family in this lost home movie footage?

Help CAAM identify the Japanese American family, circa 1939 San Francisco, in this old home movie reel.



The Center for Asian American Media's Memories to Light is a project to collect, digitize and share home movies -- and the stories they tell -- to a broad public. The footage is donated by friends and family looking to archive their home movies, but they occasionally acquire donated "orphan films" without any details associated with them -- no names, dates or locations written on the reels.

CAAM is putting a call out to the community to help them identify the subjects in one of their recent acquisitions. The 16mm Kodachrome footage features a Japanese American family living in San Francisco in 1939. Do you recognize any of the people in this footage? Maybe it's your family! It's a mystery.

Take a look at the footage:

CAAM presents Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies

Submit your old home movies to the Center for Asian American Media



Earlier this fall, the Center for Asian American Media launched Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies, a project to collect and digitize home movie reels and share the stories they tell to a broad public. The initiative gives an inside look into the overlooked and traditionally private lives of everyday Asian Americans spanning six decades, from the 1920s to 1980s. Got some home movies/memories to share?