October 11, 2009
Bay area memories
Some of my memories of people and events in the Bay area have been prompted this past week.
Yesterday, at a DC APA Film Festival screening, I saw part of Manilatown is in the Heart (http://www.chonkmoonhunter.com/MITH.html) a meandering documentary film by Curtis Choy about a generation of Filipino men. These "manongs" are they are known, immigrated to California in the 1920s and 30s. The focal personality in the film is the late poet, musician, and Filipino community activist, Al Robles. He serves as a guide to the lives of the manongs.
I met Robles about 30 years ago. It was a chance encounter on a MUNI (SF transit) bus. We happened to be riding next to one another, and started talking. (That would've been memorable in any event, since I seldom talk to fellow passengers.)
I've also met Choy, the filmmaker. Several years after the Robles encounter, I was living in the DC area. Choy, whom I'd recently met, was visiting DC and needed a place to stay for a night. So I put him up, and the next morning, he went to Silver Spring, MD (or somewhere near there), to look at a Steenbeck film editing table that was for sale.
A Choy quote in the film festival program notes also tugged at my memories. He credits himself as producing the 'very first Asian American film festival in history.' I remember attending a San Francisco screening of that festival, before moving to DC. It served as a bit of a guide or inspiration, when I helped organize the first Asian American film festival in DC a year or two later. (That latter festival would have a 15-16 year run. It was a forerunner to the current festival.)
Finally, I wish to add my voice to the many heralding the life of Bay area Asian Pacific American radio producer and community activist, Gina Hotta. She died Monday night (or early Tuesday morning) of a heart attack.
I'm still in the process of retrieving my memories of her, but I found this picture from a visit to the APA show she helped found, "Inside/Eastside," at KFPA 94.1 FM. I think I staged the composition of the photo, so the show and station names could be visible.
(I'm not sure about the photo's date (early 90's?), but the show eventually dissolved. Hotta helped put together a new show the beginning of this decade, "Apex Express." It's still going strong.)