American cinema's seminal
achievements -- an
impassioned tribute to San
Francisco's Chinatown that
fearlessly critiques the racist
power structures, mindsets,
and presesumptions that
impoverish its community....
Questioning how anyone can
hope to consider themselves
a success at the expense of
not just their self-worth, but
their community's future, Choy
nails the crux of what it means
to engage in any relevant
political struggle as a minority
in America." - NAATA catalog
income property, the aroma of salted fish hanging in your past ruptures from
psychic containment as you realize...
DUPONT GUY is back!
Ranting and raving, poignantly pointy-headed, and pointing fingers
every which way, this is the classic Chonk underground broadside
that flips over all rocks and turtles and takes no prisoners.
WHO WE ARE forms the unifying theme of DUPONT GUY. It affirms
the legitimacy of Chinese-American (nee Chonk) culture, exploring
crosscultural currents of San Francisco's Chinatown: assimilation,
self-contempt, schizophrenic language, duplicitous behavior.
Dupont Guy is "DuPont Street" in Cantonese. After the 1906
earthquake, the city fathers re-named the street "Grant Avenue",
hoping to redevelop and reclaim Chinatown for a new civic center.
But the Chinese were not fooled and came back anyway, and folks
today still call it Dupont Guy. It is in this spirit of truth and defiance
that DUPONT GUY: The Schiz of Grant Avenue was created.
"It'll scramble your brains because it challenges basic assumptions
about the melting pot theory, language problems, and making it...
A free-form visual cruise through Chinatown, the projects, the
stores, the bus stops, and a mysterious interview... we hear a young
man try to square his life with his feeling that he really won't make it
because he'll always have to work under white people, kiss up to
them. Breaking into the interview are parade scenes - the Salvation
Army, a funeral, a satirical strip-tease to the tune of "Grant
Avenue". We are drenched with visual and aural stimuli. Kids at
play. Couples on the street. Women working in the shops, in
restaurants, buying fish. It lets you see what you want to see, hear
what interests you, but grabs you by the gut at the end."
--- Dale Yu Nee, Bridge Magazine
"A movie with a social conscience, beyond Kung Fu..."
---S.F. Bay Guardian
This film straddles no fences. Originally released in 1976, it was
ahead of its time. It lampooned the overflow of gangwar/sexbabe
stereotypes produced by The Media. It predicted the 1977 Golden
Dragon massacre. It questioned sacrosanct notions of success and
Chineseness. University and community audiences polarized
between those who loved it and those who hated it. Liberals loved it
AND hated it.
Winner, 1975 Documentary Film Award, Academy of Motion
Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Dupont Guy: The Schiz of Grant Avenue
Institutions: $175
Home use: $35