Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month Documentaries

San Francisco's Lowell High, one of the best public schools in the country, draws high achievers, nearly 70% Asian Americans, from across the city into a fiercely competitive universe. The camera follows seniors through the hallways and into classrooms as the pressure intensifies to impress admissions officers at elite universities with their report cards, test scores, and overall awesomeness. 

Following the aftermath of the March 2021 mass shootings at three spas in Atlanta, this film chronicles how the Asian American community came together to fight back against hate and explores the struggles and triumphs of AAPI communities.

Profiles Chinese American artist Tyrus Wong, best known for his animation work on Disney's Bambi and his motion picture production art during the heyday of the Hollywood studios. Focuses on the racism he experienced during his career and in his private life, focusing on the treatment of Asian Americans during World War II.

When a Chinese-American police officer kills an innocent, unarmed Black man in a darkened stairwell of a New York City housing project, it sets off a firestorm of emotion and calls for accountability. When he becomes the first NYPD officer convicted of an on-duty shooting in over a decade, the fight for justice becomes complicated, igniting one of the largest Asian-American protests in history, disrupting a legacy of solidarity, and putting an uneven legal system into sharp focus.

The rags to riches story of Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee arriving in America in 1975 and building a multi-million-dollar empire baking America's favorite pastry, the donut. His story is one of love, hard knocks, survival, and redemption. Ted sponsored hundreds of visas for incoming refugees and helped them get on their feet teaching them the ways of the donut business. By 1979 he was living the American Dream, but a great rise can come with a great fall.

Master chef Ming Tsai is the award-winning chef/owner of Blue Ginger and the author of three cookbooks. He shows how to prepare a variety of Asian-inflected dishes that can be prepared in the home quickly and easily. By using Ming's master recipes, anyone can create a variety of dishes, keeping dining at home interesting and fun - whether you're a beginner or experienced cook.

Born to Chinese immigrant parents into 1950's America, it would be decades before Ms. Tan would come to fully understand how her mother's self-destructive tendencies were rooted in watching her own mother kill herself after being forced into the former marital system of concubinage. This painful family legacy inspired her stories of women without the power to choose their lives. 

In 1942, Executive Order 9066 paved the way for the profound violation of constitutional rights that resulted in the forced incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans. Featuring George Takei and many others who were incarcerated, as well as newly rediscovered photographs of Dorothea Lange, this film brings history into the present, retelling this difficult story and following Japanese Americans as they speak out against the Muslim registry and travel ban

A chronicle of the life and times of Nam June Paik, a pillar of the American avant-garde in the 20th century, widely regarded as the father of video art, who coined the phrase "Electronic Superhighway," and is arguably the most famous Korean artist in modern history.

Discover how the 1900 outbreak of bubonic plague set off fear and anti-Asian sentiment in San Francisco.