The screening on 8 March will be introduced by director Luka Yuanyuan Yang.
The screening on 16 March will be followed by in-person Q&A with the director and the launch of her new book about the making of the film and the Chinese diaspora, Dance in Herland.
To mark International Women's Day, the Chinese Cinema Project presents the debut documentary feature from visual artist and filmmaker Luka Yuanyuan Yang - a film that celebrates sisterhood, and the spirit of independent women.
Chinatown Cha-Cha originated from Yang’s research on Asian American women in show business. While tracing the films of Esther Eng, one of the earliest Asian American female directors, Yang discovered a group of former Chinatown nightclub dancers, who are deeply bonded by their passion for dancing.
As the second or third generation of Chinese immigrants in America (aged between 70-90) these dancers witnessed the rise and fall of the luminous nightclub era of San Francisco’s Chinatown. The film’s Chinese title, Women’s World, is itself a tribute to Esther Eng’s now lost 1939 film It’s A Women’s World, the world’s first all Chinese female cast movie.
The 92-year-old former owner of the illustrious ‘Forbidden City Nightclub’ and nightclub starlet Coby Yee decide to get back on stage again, after joining the senior dance troupe Grant Avenue Follies. Together they go on a final tour, bridging once isolated Chinese communities in the US, Cuba, and China.
