Ha Ha Shanghai

This film will be screened in-person only and is part of our in-person special presentation, Breaking Boundaries Across Time and Distance: A Christine Choy Tribute. It will be preceded by the short film, FEI TIEN: GODDESS IN FLIGHT. Click the BUY TICKETS button to proceed.

In 1992, the filmmaker Christine Choy returned to Shanghai for the first time in over 30 years: to track down the title of her family’s house that her mother abandoned on leaving China for the U.S. in the early 1960’s and to locate an old schoolmate. This is a documentary journal recorded over a period of eight years.

In 1992, the filmmaker Christine Choy returned to Shanghai for the first time in over thirty years: to track down the title of her family’s house and to locate an old schoolmate. She found her quest was like going down the rabbit hole with Franz Kafka as a tour guide. Her mother had abandoned the family’s house on leaving China in the early 1960’s and, after being sent to innumerable city housing authorities and agencies, Christine finds that the house had never been registered with the city of Shanghai, with the government taking over the property when her mother left.

Christine Choy led Newsreel as it became Third World Newsreel in 1972 with fellow filmmaker Susan Robeson. During her tenure, she made numerous documentaries, including MISSISSIPPI TRIANGLE. Choy went on to make 70 films, and received over sixty international awards including an Oscar Nomination for Best Documentary. She was featured in the 2022 film THE EXILES, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and received a lifetime achievement award from Hot Docs Film festival in 2023. Choy was also the founding director of the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong.

Screenplay: Christine Choy

Production: Christine Choy for Film News Now Foundation, Rod Wong

Other noteworthy crew: Ku Ling Choy Siegel (Cinematography); Patrick Tam (Editing); Deacon Yun & Gao Jiam Qiang (Sound)