The Auntie Sewing Squad Resistance Playbook

This film will be screened in-person only.

A Q&A will follow the screening, with writer/director/producer Valerie Soe, producer Lila Yomtoob, and participant Kristina Wong. It will be moderated by AAIFF Programming Director Kris Montello.

THE AUNTIE SEWING SQUAD RESISTANCE PLAYBOOK looks at a collective of mostly Asian American and BIPOC women sewists who saved the world during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. In March 2020, due to the Trump administration’s botched response to the pandemic, healthcare workers were scrambling for PPE. From this chaos the Auntie Sewing Squad emerged.

For the Aunties, sewing and donating masks was not just about public health, it was a way to address feminism, anti-racism, allyship, and destroying white supremacy. As Sun Tze wrote, “On desperate ground, fight.” During the pandemic we were desperate ground in the battle against COVID-19, and the Aunties continued to fight, to save lives.

Content warning: death, racism, strong language, violence

Valerie Soe is a filmmaker, writer, and artist whose work has won awards and exhibited at venues worldwide. Her documentary, LOVE BOAT: TAIWAN (2019) won the Audience Award at the Urban Nomad Film Festival in Taipei and played to sold-out festival audiences across North America and in Taiwan. Her most recent documentary, THE AUNTIE SEWING SQUAD RESISTANCE PLAYBOOK (2026) premiered in May 2026. She is a Professor in the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University.

Producers: Valerie Soe, Lila Yomtoob

Writers: Valerie Soe, Corey Ohama

Cinematographer: Kevin I. Castro

Editor: Corey Ohama