Josh Chuck

Making Waves: The Rise of Asian America explores the vital role of Ethnic Studies in redefining the narrative and promoting service to Asian American communities across the country. From the birth of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State to present-day movements, Making Waves documents the stories of Asian American activism and efforts to lift up Ethnic Studies as a strategy to address present and future waves of anti-Asian hate.

Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-1960s, a young San Francisco Chinatown resident armed with a 16mm camera and leftover film scraps from a local TV station, turned his lens onto his community. Totaling more than 20,000 feet of film (10 hours), Harry Chuck's exquisite unreleased footage has captured a divided community's struggles for self-determination. Chinatown Rising is a documentary film about the Asian-American Movement from the perspective of the young residents on the front lines of their historic neighborhood in transition. Through publicly challenging the conservative views of their elders, their demonstrations and protests of the 1960s-1980s rattled the once quiet streets during the community’s shift in power. Forty-five years later, in intimate interviews these activists recall their roles and experiences in response to the need for social change.