Memories to Light

The Center for Asian American Media has an ongoing program of finding Asian-American home movies, and transferring them to digital files or DVDs so that the families can re-connect with those family stories and memories. The project is supported by our foundation through the sharing of equipment, personnel and expertise, using our film handling and scanning equipment. Included in our Preservation Project Partnership acquisitions are several collections of Asian-American home movies. One of the most extraordinary of these is a rare 16mm Kodachrome color film of an Asian family living in San Francisco in 1939, celebrating Christmas and visiting the Fair on Treasure Island. The film was screened at The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, which also featured a photo exhibition, in which the following question was posed: Do You Know This Family?

Part of our mission is to find the descendants of those appearing in the film and to re-connect them to their family memories.

In addition to our co-operation on this joint project, our foundation donated a rare collection of anime artwork some of which will be used by C.A.A.M. at their fund-raising galas as silent auction items.