Center for Asian American Media

Center for Asian American Media is a nonprofit media organization based in San Francisco, California focused on presenting and promoting film, television, and digital work by Asian American and Pacific Islander artists. Founded in 1980, the organization produces festivals, funds independent projects, distributes works to public television and streaming platforms, and engages in educational outreach. It operates within a network of cultural institutions, public broadcasters, philanthropic foundations, film festivals, and advocacy groups.

History

The organization emerged from a coalition of community groups and cultural activists inspired by events such as the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the 1969 Stonewall riots, the 1979 Asian American movement gatherings, and the 1980s Bay Area arts activism. Early collaborators included programmers from KQED, curators from Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, filmmakers associated with Joan Chen, Wayne Wang, Essie Lin Chua and collectives linked to Visual Communications (VC) and International Documentary Association. Funding and institutional relationships developed with entities such as the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and foundations like Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation. Partnerships with festivals and venues including San Francisco International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Asian American International Film Festival, and Museum of Modern Art helped circulate programs. Over decades the organization worked with filmmakers such as Karyn Kusama, Shohini Ghosh, Masanobu Deme, Hirokazu Kore-eda (as exhibitor), Lester Shum, Ruth Ozeki, Wayne Wang (again), Allan Sekula (as collaborator), Alice Wu, Justin Lin, Bing Liu, Chris Chan Lee, and documentarians like Frederick Wiseman (as comparative exhibitor) to expand visibility for Asian American narratives.

Mission and Programs

The stated mission emphasizes cultural equity, media access, and audience development through commissioning, grantmaking, distribution, and exhibition. Programmatic elements align with funders and partners including National Endowment for the Humanities, Pew Charitable Trusts, Annenberg Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Hellman Foundation, and educational affiliates such as University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, Columbia University, and University of Southern California. Major initiatives have included documentary labs, narrative development programs, artist residencies, and co-productions with broadcasters like PBS, ITVS, NHK, BBC, and streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, YouTube, and Vimeo. The organization has been cited alongside advocacy groups like Asian Americans Advancing Justice, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Coalition for Asian Pacific American Youth (CAPAY), and arts networks including Americans for the Arts.

Film Festivals and Distribution

The organization's annual flagship festival showcases premieres, retrospectives, and competitive sections, collaborating with programmers from SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and Chicago International Film Festival. Distribution efforts have placed films on public broadcasting schedules via PBS Independent Lens, PBS POV, BBC Four, Arte, and specialty distributors like Zeitgeist Films, Kino Lorber, Criterion Collection, Oscilloscope Laboratories, and Film Movement. The catalog of screened works includes features, shorts, and documentaries by directors such as Ang Lee, Bong Joon-ho, Hayao Miyazaki, Celine Song, Chloé Zhao, Doze Niu, Patricia Cardoso, Debra Granik, Steve James, Ting Poo, Feng Xiao Gang, Gurinder Chadha, and producers tied to Participant Media. Exhibition partnerships extend to museums and cultural centers such as Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (again), Getty Center, Smithsonian Institution, New York Public Library, Japanese American National Museum, Chinese American Museum, and community theaters coordinated with National Endowment for the Arts grant cycles.

Educational Initiatives and Community Outreach

Educational programs include school screenings, curriculum guides, filmmaker Q&As, youth media labs, and teacher workshops developed with partners like California State Department of Education, New York City Department of Education, Asian American Curriculum Project, Teaching Tolerance (now Learning for Justice), Facing History and Ourselves, National Writing Project, and university film studies departments. Community outreach has engaged local civic groups such as Filipino American National Historical Society, Japanese American Citizens League, Korean American Coalition, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), Hmong National Development, Polynesian Cultural Center, and neighborhood organizations in Tenderloin (San Francisco), Chinatown, San Francisco, Japantown, San Francisco, Little India, Artesia and Little Saigon (Orange County). Media literacy workshops have been held in collaboration with public media entities including KQED (again), WNET, KCTS 9, and KPBS.

Governance and Funding

Governance is overseen by a board of directors drawn from filmmakers, academics, producers, arts administrators, and philanthropic leaders with affiliations across institutions such as University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Davis, New York University, Yale University, Harvard University, The J. Paul Getty Trust, National Endowment for the Arts (again), and media companies like Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros., NBCUniversal, and ViacomCBS. Funding sources combine earned revenue from ticketing and distribution, contributed income from foundations like Ford Foundation (again), Mellon Foundation (again), MacArthur Foundation (again), corporate sponsorships from Google, Apple Inc., Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and individual donors including philanthropists tied to Rockefeller Foundation (again). Financial oversight and accounting practices align with nonprofit standards overseen by auditors and advisors with connections to Grant Thornton, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and legal counsel experienced with Internal Revenue Service filings for 501(c)(3) entities.

Category:Film organizations in the United States