Out of Bounds: A Tribute to Christine Choy

Christine Choy never asked for permission. As a pioneering filmmaker, educator, activist, and co-founder of Asian CineVision, she spent a lifetime crossing—and dismantling—the borders of nation, language, identity, and expectation. She helped build the very community that continues to shape this festival, and her films remain as fearless, funny, and uncompromising as ever.

This tribute celebrates Christine’s legacy through a screening of rarely seen films by and about the artist herself, followed by a roundtable conversation with those who knew and worked alongside her. Spanning from 1980s New York Chinatown to the rapidly transforming Shanghai of the 2000s, these films highlight Christine’s lifelong exploration of migration, freedom, and the ways people carry home across time and place.

Adapted from pioneering Chinese American playwright Genny Lim’s Pigeons, Fei Tien: Goddess in Flight marks Christine’s rare venture into narrative filmmaking. The film follows an unlikely friendship between an older immigrant and a younger American-born woman in Manhattan’s Chinatown, using the image of the celestial flying goddess to mirror the immigrant experience of seeking their own forms of “flight.” 

Edited by legendary Hong Kong New Wave director Patrick Tam, Ha Ha Shanghai follows Christine as she returns to her birthplace after nearly three decades in search of her childhood home. As she reunites with childhood friends, consults fortune tellers, and storms government offices, what begins as a rediscovery of family history gradually expands into a sharp examination of China’s rapidly modernizing social and political landscape.

The screening will be followed by a conversation featuring J.T. Takagi (Executive Director of Third World Newsreel), Ku-Ling Yurman (Christine’s daughter and cinematographer of Ha Ha Shanghai), and Nancy Tong (filmmaker and longtime collaborator).

 

Panelists

J.T. Takagi is the Executive Director of Third World Newsreel, an alternative non-profit media center which works in educational distribution, production, exhibition, preservation, and training, prioritizing media by and about historically marginalized communities and social justice issues. An award-winning filmmaker, Takagi’s directorial credits include four PBS documentaries. As a sound recordist, her credits include POWER, the Oscar-nominated STRONG ISLAND, ZORA NEALE HURTSON: CLAIMING A SPACE, BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION, and “A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL: THE LIFE AND WORK OF AUDRE LORDE. In addition, Takagi teaches and works with several Asian American community groups working for peace and justice.

Nancy M. Tong has worked in film for more than 50 years. After moving to New York in 1981, she held major positions at ACV and produced award-winning feature films exploring the Chinese American experience. Since 1989, Tong has focused primarily on documentary film. Among her many credits are WHO KILLED VINCENT CHIN, IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR, and TRAILBLAZERS IN HABITS. She has also taught documentary production in Hong Kong and has trained Muslim women filmmakers in China, Iran, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

Ku-Ling Yurman is a filmmaker, cinematographer, photographer, and producer with over 25 years of experience in documentary and independent film, shaped by New York’s emerging activist film collectives. She holds a BFA in Photography from NYU Tisch, a MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute, and a MA in Art, Education & Community Practice from NYU Steinhardt. She currently serves on the boards of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Park Avenue Armory.

In this program

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