Spotlight on Loni Ding
By Justin Lowe
Half of the festival’s films are directed by women, perhaps best exemplified by the inauguration of the “Spotlight” program, focusing this year on the career achievements of Bay Area  filmmaker, educator and media advocate Loni Ding. Over a nearly 30-year career as an Emmy award-winning director and producer, Ding has created an outstanding body of work, ranging from Bean Sprouts, a multi-cultural children’s series, to the epic scope of the two-part PBS presentation, Ancestors in the Americas, the first television series to offer an in-depth look at the Asian American immigrant experience from the 1700s to the 1900s. Ding is currently on the faculty of the Asian American and Ethnic Studies Department at U.C. Berkeley and is the recipient of numerous fellowships and career achievement rewards.
In “Coolies, Sailors and Settlers, Voyage to the New World,” the first installment of Ancestors in the Americas, Ding explores the historical forces that brought the first Asians to American and Caribbean shores from China, India and the Philippines. Episode two, “Chinese in the Frontier West, An American Story,” deals principally with Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush era, their contribution to developing the West and their first legal actions to eliminate institutionalized discrimination.
Ding’s onstage “Spotlight” program interview with New York University’s Barbara Abrash will focus on the creative side of the director’s work and provide a sneak peek at clips from part three of Ancestors in the Americas, currently in production, as well as valuable insight into this pioneering filmmaker’s accomplishments, ahead of the March 23 and 30 PBS series premiere. |
