In this RAS Studio event, documentary maker Robin Lung will talk about her forthcoming film ‘Finding Kukan’.

A reflection on lost history and the power of art, this feature documentary follows a filmmaker’s quest to bring recognition to the unheralded woman behind the making of KUKAN, a long-lost Academy Award-winning colour documentary about World War II China.

Asian Americans have been a part of American history and culture for many generations, yet the term “Asian American Hero” is still an oxymoron in mainstream media and popular culture. In Finding KUKAN, Hawaii filmmaker Robin Lung embarks on an investigative journey to reclaim a Chinese American heroine from the past. At a time when Chinese Americans were denied basic rights of citizenship, Li Ling-Ai was a pioneering playwright and moviemaker. She was the un-credited producer of KUKAN, a 1941 colour film about World War II China, and one of the first documentaries to receive an Academy Award. Why have we never heard of Li Ling-Ai or KUKAN? And why have all copies of KUKAN vanished completely? These questions become deeply personal as Robin learns that the socio-political forces that robbed Ling-Ai of credit and caused KUKAN to go missing have shaped her own viewpoint in profound ways. Prior to producing KUKAN, Li Ling-Ai knew little about making movies and director Rey Scott had never held a motion picture camera in his hands. They had no Hollywood backing or government support. Yet they created an epic colour film of China that screened for President Roosevelt at the White House and had long runs in theatres across the country. Robin looks beyond the entrancing Cinderella story of KUKAN to ask why the Academy Award and most of the credit was given to Rey Scott. Were Li Ling-Ai’s achievements overlooked because she was a Chinese woman?

Robin Lung is a 4th generation Chinese American who was raised in Hawaii. She has been producing short films and documentaries for the past ten years.  A graduate of Stanford University and Hunter College in NYC, Lung made her directorial debut with Washington Place: Hawai‘i’s First Home, a 30-minute documentary for PBS Hawai‘i about Hawai‘i’s historic governor’s mansion and home of Queen Lili‘uokalani (aired December 2008). She was the Associate Producer for the national PBS documentary Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority (aired October 2008) and the Hawai‘i Unit Producer for the 2011 Venice Film Festival opening night film Vivan Las Antipodas! She was the producer/director for numerous short documentaries for the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.  As a filmmaker she is driven by a desire to preserve the stories of extraordinary people from minority backgrounds who are often overlooked by mainstream media.

 http://findingKUKAN.com