A physical statement of place, a personal affirmation of belonging dedicated to the human pillars and community treasures from our beloved neighborhood.
Our stories are our maps and lampposts that connect us to our past and back home to community.
YOU ARE HERE
Launched in October 2020 and showcasing short films seasonally, the series is intended for cross presentations on web, film festivals, and public television with the main goal of digitally archiving and preserving our community stories.
We begin by rooting the project in San Francisco’s Chinatown with future seasons to include portraits from historic Chinatown’s of Oakland, Honolulu, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Philly, New York and internationally to Lima, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Mexico City, Port Louis, Vancouver to name a few.
We partner with local filmmakers and organizations to center the vibrant and specific stories from within the community; bridging us to one another, one short film at a time.
A GOOD MEDICINE PICTURE COMPANY presentation
Series Creator/Producer: James Q. Chan
Associate Producer: Dorothy “Polka Dot” Quock
Special Thanks: Erika Gee, Roy Chan, Anna Oh, Jeff den Broeder, Chris Chung, Pamela Kong, Emma Marie Chiang, Henry Liu, Kaitlyn Tran, Anson Ho, Greg Louie, Ying-sun Ho, James DiRito, Karina Denike, Jon Jang, Francis Wong, Ivy Yi-Hsuan Wu, Jennifer Low, Jeffrey Chin, Katie Quan, Dan Szeto, Corey Tong, Penelope Wong, Victor Tung, Tim Kochis, Michael Ehrenzweig, Kathy Ang.
Community Partners: Chinatown Community Development Center, Chinese Culture Center, Portsmouth Square Plaza Community Fund, Center for Asian American Media (CAAM)
Our Collaborators
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Series Creator
James Q. Chan is a two-time Emmy-nominated and award-winning director and producer. His films have won audience, cinematography, and grand jury awards at film festivals, been broadcast nationally on PBS, screened globally including with the premiere film diplomacy program, American Film Showcase, where James served as a filmmaker envoy with the U.S. State Department.
Prior to filmmaking, James worked as a union SAG, AFTRA Talent Agent in San Francisco. He honed his experience working alongside Academy-Award winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (“The Times of Harvey Milk”, “The Celluloid Closet”, “Howl”) running their Telling Pictures operations for over a decade from 2000-2011.
Since Good Medicine’s inception, James has garnered recognition from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and prominent organizations within San Francisco Chinatown for his impactful films. His sensibilities throughout his projects are shaped by his refugee and working class background, love for travel, nature shows, and memories of his mother’s cooking.
James is a member of the Directors Guild of America and proud to serve his community through film.
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Associate Producer / Field Researcher
Born in San Francisco Chinatown, Dorothy’s ancestral heritage led her to probe into multi-cultural study, as well as American Chinese history.
With a travel / tourism degree, and International Tour Management Institute certification, she led 19 groups to People’s Republic of China, besides living there months at a time. In addition during 1982 to 1990 assisted colleagues on trips to Cook Islands, East Africa, South America.
In recent years Dorothy has traveled not only in USA, but countries around the globe. She is currently a Tour Manager for S.F. Wok Wiz Chinatown Tours since 1991. In 2020, Chinatown Pretty featured Dorothy’s passion for fashion and social justice.
Because of her inter-personal communication skills as a “people person”, combined with her cross-cultural sensitivity, Dorothy brings knowledge and experience to collaborate with Good Medicine Picture Company.
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Episode: “Real Soul” (Director, Featuring)
Raised by a family who found joy through jewelry making, sewing, music, painting, and crafts, it was no surprise that Katie, too, developed a love for creation. creating, writing, and storytelling.
In 2016, she launched her own storytelling platform, REAL SOUL(formerly This Asian American Life) aimed to give Asian American history a stage to thrive and collaborate. She is also the creator of GenerAsian, an illustration-based web series. As a descendant of a paper daughter, doctor, children’s librarian, and grocery store owner, her work centers around Asian American narratives, moments, and spaces.
She currently teaches Asian American History & Film at City College of San Francisco.
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Episode: “Real Soul” (Co-Director, Editor)
I'm a Chinese American filmmaker with a strong background in visual journalism. I was adopted from China, raised in Tennessee, studied photojournalism in Kentucky and now live in Brooklyn, NY. I currently work as a freelance editor and DP/cinematographer for various nonprofits, start-ups and independent documentary projects. Most recently, I worked as the lead assistant editor and media manager for Art21's PBS series Art in the Twenty-First Century. My previous work has been pubhslihed with USA Today and the Washington Post. I'm also a proud member of A-Doc, BIPOC Doc Editors and the Video Consortium. When making films, I strive to tell simple yet impactful stories with nuance and intimacy.
More about Michelle’s work here.
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Episode: “Miss Penny Wong” (Co-Director, Editor), “Becoming Polka Dot” (Sound Design)
Anna Oh is the co-director/editor of “Penny Wong/Ms. Chinatown” segment in You Are Here who met James while screening her own short film, "Halmoni", at the Boston Asian American Film Festival in 2016. She's also screened her shorts previously at CAAMFest and is a local resident of San Francisco.
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Episode: “Aaron Lim” (Director, Camera)
Anson is a San Francisco native rooted in the Chinatown community. While serving in the US Navy he found his passion in film and tv when he produced and filmed his own closed circuit television show on his naval ship, USS OLDENDORF. He followed his passion by moving to Los Angeles and worked on various short films, music videos and documentary projects. Notable projects included Sundance film FINISHING THE GAME as an associated producer and thereafter worked on Universal's Studio FAST & FURIOUS as an assistant to the director both directed by Justin Lin. He also help develop and film numerous webs-eries and comedy sketches on a Youtube Asian American channel called YOMYOMF which gained over 35 million views within a year. As a traveling cinematographer, he's film documentaries all over China, India, Indonesia, Nepal and Mt Everest base camp. He is currently working on a feature film narrative called SNAKEHEAD as a 1st Assistant Director.
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Episode: “At the Heart of Barrio Chino: Tusán Perspectives” (Co-Director, Editor)
Lenora Lee has been a dancer, choreographer and artistic director for the past 26 years. She has been an Artist Fellow at the deYoung Museum, a Djerassi Resident Artist, a Visiting Scholar at the A/P/A Institute at New York University 2012-2016, an Artist in Residence at Dance Mission Theater, and a 2019 United States Artists Fellow, an Artist in Residence at Dance Mission Theater, Pao Arts Center, ArtsEmerson, and Bunker Hill Community College. For the last 16 years, her company Lenora Lee Dance (LLD) has pushed the envelope of intimate and large-scale multimedia, immersive dance performance connecting various styles of movement/dance, film, text, research and music to culture, history, and human rights issues. LLD’s works are set in both public and private spaces, inspired by individual stories as well as community strength. From the proscenium, to even underwater, the company’s pieces are site-responsive and immersive calling audiences into deep engagement with the work and environment. Through partnerships locally and nationally, LLD’s work has grown to encompass the creation, presentation and screening of films, museum and gallery installations, civic engagement, and educational programming signifying the power of art as a movement for change. www.LenoraLeeDance.com @LenoraLeeDance
Photo by: Hien Huynh
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Episode: “At the Heart of Barrio Chino: Tusán Perspectives” (Co-Director, Featuring)
Moyra Silva, a movement thinker, director, and researcher from Lima, Peru, holds a Choreomundus International Master's in Dance Anthropology (Erasmus Mundus scholarship) and a Bachelor's in Communication Science and Arts (PUCP). Inspired by her Chinese-Peruvian ancestry, she explores art's intersections with ancestry and identity, integrating academic research with diverse movement and visual arts practice. Delving into dance's transformative power, she connects individual to collective experiences, investigating the role of imagination and memory. She aims to generate art's reflective capacity, triggering empathy, and bringing different cultures together. Currently, she collaborates with Lenora Lee Dance (USA) on Chinatown and Chinese-Peruvian stories, for a short-film and a dance performance (awarded by Peru's Minister of Culture).
Photo by: Stephanie Cuyubamba Kong
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Episode: “Becoming Polka Dot” (Editor, Camera), “Miss Penny Wong” (add’l Camera), “Leon Sun” (Editor), “Master Kuo” (add’l Camera)
Jeff is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and Environmental Communications lecturer at Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. Equally comfortable as a director, cinematographer, and editor, Jeff has a history of working in documentary, news, and corporate film. He has increasingly focused his passion for storytelling on the people, organizations, and companies driven to develop solutions to the climate crisis. He also loves being a dad.
More about Jeff and his work here.
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Episode: “Saving the Far East Cafe” (Director, Camema), “Master Kuo" (Camera), "The World of Victor Tung" (Camera),
Emma Marie Chiang is an independent filmmaker and photographer and proud San Francisco native. Emma focuses on documenting stories of displaced communities and cares about the rights of marginalized people. She believes storytelling has the power to plant seeds of curiosity, dialogue, inclusion, reconciliation and hope between individuals and communities. Emma recently completed a two-year long documentary project called Coming Home: The 990 Pacific Relocation Story, in partnership the nonprofit, Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) capturing the stories of Chinatown public housing residents through a building renovation. She has also produced a series of short stories of San Francisco and Bay Area residents in her column, San Francisco Explored. She received her B.A. in photojournalism and minor in Holistic Health at San Francisco State University, Spring 2016. She has interned at the San Francisco Business Times, San Francisco Examiner, SF Weekly and participated in the Missouri Photo Workshop, Cuba68. Her work has been featured online and in print for various publications and clients such as the AP, SF Chronicle, SF Gate, BuzzFeed News, Vox.com, El Tecolote, Instagram, among others. Emma was awarded second place for the 2017 Multimedia Hearst Journalism Award for her story about a nine-year-old girl living with a rare bone disease, published by the San Francisco Examiner. She loves community storytelling and is a contributor to Everyday Bay Area Instagram collective and neighborhood papers in San Francisco.More about Emma here.
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Episode: “The World of Victor Tung” (Co-Director)
Corey Tong is a film and media producer, public relations and programming/acquisitions consultant, guest lecturer, producers representative. He has two series in development in New Zealand and Brazil, and his films as producer or rep have screened on PBS and other international broadcasters or theatrical venues in over 20 countries.
He is the former director of the San Francisco Int’l Asian American Film Festival (CAAM) and former IFFCON director of special projects (co-production, development market). Corey is originally from Hawaii and is based in San Francisco and Honolulu, and also has a professional background in architecture and design.
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Episode: “The World of Victor Tung” (Co-Director)
With 25+ years in marketing & branding, Penelope Wong was CEO of Wong•Wong•Boyack (acquired by Havas), a relationship marketing firm, with clients NIKE, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Wells Fargo, SF Giants, Visa, sina.com, and Disney. Previously with Ogilvy & Mather Direct, other clients have included Pixar, Mattel, and Amex. She also developed and personified the brand “Jennifer Wong” for The Franklin Mint.
An author/writer on the subject of everything from food to fashion and change management, Wong is now focused on film. An award-winning screenwriter for “The Shanghai Café” (based on her grandfather’s spending 10 years in San Quentin for a murder he did NOT commit), she is at work on a narrative short about her parents titled “The Other Wife.”
She serves on the board of San Francisco Film Society, Oakland Museum of California, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, and the Greater San Francisco YMCA. She and her husband, Tim Kochis, reside in both San Francisco and Santa Barbara.
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Episode: “The World of Victor Tung” (Editor)
Daniel Szeto is a filmmaker with over 10 years in commercial video, specializing in directing and editing, with clients all around the globe. Daniel is currently based in Oakland, CA where he works on videos to bring awareness to stroke care and documentaries about life in the Bay Area.
More about Daniel and his work here.
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Episode: “Aaron Lim” (Composer)
Bio forthcoming
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Episode: “Miss Penny Wong” (Music- “Sentimental Reasons”)
Karina Denike is a vocalist, composer, arranger and performer from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her original songs are comprised of snippets of torch songs, doo wop drama, Eastern European lullabies, crackly records and girl group harmony. Played on chord organ, and vibraphone with band members and local composers in their own right- Aaron Novik on Bass Clarinet, Lily Taylor, and Melody Ferris on vocal harmonies, Michael McIntosh on piano, James Frazier on Fender VI, and Eric Garland on drums. Karina Denike and her band hold a popular residency in SF and have performed in Japan, LA and NYC.They were part of Noisepop 2009 sharing the bill with Martha Wainwright, the Mission Creek festival 2010 and 2011, and were one of the featured bands in the Undercover Presents SF series for Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. Denike's writing and performance credits also include fronting, touring and recording for groups Dance Hall Crashers( MCA, Pink and Black) ,Jezebelle ( Discovery/Warner), Mixtape, ( with members of Thee Oh Sees and The Dodos ), The Cottontails, Stara nova, Mr.Lonesome and The Bluebelles, 8 Legged Monster, Ralph Carney’s Serious Jass Project, and more. She has been a guest on albums by NOFX, HEPCAT, No Use for a Name, Tony Sly, Joey Cape, Aaron Novik, Katy Stephan in addition to many more beloved bands and has had her voice and compositions on numerous soundtracks including the 2012 20th century fox release "This means War".
More about Karina and her music here.
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Location Manager
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Graphic Design
James DiRito has a multidisciplinary design background with over 20 years experience (Lions Gate Films, Olivia travel, DiningOut Magazine) all of which has helped shape his aesthetics and sense of design. James is the founder of Healioscope, a design boutique based in San Francisco specializing in brand, identity, web and print campaigns. Healiscope was the creator of the Good Medicine and Chinatown Shorts logo.
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Legal + Project Advisor
Pamela Kong is a workers' and tenants' rights attorney at the law firm of Sundeen and Salinas in Oakland, California. Born in Chinese Hospital in San Francisco, she received a bilingual education at St. Mary's Chinese Day School, played on the floors of San Francisco's garment factories where her grandmother's friends worked and came full circle in 2003 at the Women's Employment Rights Clinic when she joined the trial team representing almost 300 monolingual Cantonese garment workers in a lawsuit to recover unpaid wages.
Since then, she has steadily provided legal services to the Chinese Community through volunteering with Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus and her own legal practice. Most recently, her law firm is co-counsel with the Asian Law Caucus to largely monolingual Cantonese tenants of an SRO in Oakland Chinatown who have filed a lawsuit against their landlord. She earned her B.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA and her J.D. from Golden Gate University. Proximity and love for Chinatown is a factor in many of her decisions.
We are actively curating stories for future seasons. If you have family roots to San Francisco Chinatown or another Chinatown community and would like to be considered for future episodes and/or would like to be considered to join our film team, we’d love the opportunity to get to know you. We highly encourage young persons with interest in documentary film production and interests in the Chinatown community to reach out.
