Always Chinatown
New York City, New York | Film Feature
Documentary, History
Always Chinatown follows a group of young Asian American trailblazers and their journey from a humble GoFundMe campaign to an indispensable community lifeline. We see them building the future of Chinatown through a first-of-its-kind innovation hub, and learn why this work is more crucial than ever.
Always Chinatown
New York City, New York | Film Feature
Documentary, History
108 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$18,601
Goal: $30,000 for post-production
Always Chinatown follows a group of young Asian American trailblazers and their journey from a humble GoFundMe campaign to an indispensable community lifeline. We see them building the future of Chinatown through a first-of-its-kind innovation hub, and learn why this work is more crucial than ever.
Participating In
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
In 2020, few neighborhoods in New York City were hit as hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as Chinatown.
Vic Lee, a born and raised Brooklynite who had lived in Chinatown for 10 years, saw business after business in her neighborhood shutter. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Vic put together a plan. With longtime friend Jen Tam, also a Chinatown resident by way of Houston, they pored over ways to support the mom-and-pop business that make up the backbone of Chinatown.
They called their project Welcome to Chinatown.
Their first successful campaign was a GoFundMe to purchase takeout meals from Chinatown restaurants that would then be donated to healthcare workers at local hospitals. Soon joined by Jackie Wang and Harry Trinh, the small but mighty team at Welcome to Chinatown began building a framework for sustaining the community through events, business support, and marketing efforts.
In 2023, they doubled down on their support by signing for a physical space: the Small Business Innovation Hub, or the Hub for short.
Their dream was to build a center where small business owners could come to connect, learn new skills and strategies, and plan for the next step. For some mom-and-pop shops, this meant legacy planning for their transition, while for others, it led to experimenting with pop-ups and community events for the first time.
It was then that our documentary team knew that something special was happening.
We jumped in and started filming, documenting the Hub’s transformation from pilot phase to construction to finished product. We joined working sessions with 70-year-old business Ting’s Gift Shop. We travelled to Houston with Jen. And we watched the team grow and evolve as the needs for community did, too.
Through the work of Welcome to Chinatown, our film aims to spotlight the legacy and entrepreneurial businesses in this unique neighborhood, all while building towards a sustainable future.
Manhattan’s Chinatown has one of the largest concentrations of ethnic Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. And with Chinese immigrants setting up shop as early as the 1870s, it’s also one of the oldest.
But still, the community is at a crossroads. Recovery from the pandemic is still sluggish with so many businesses having closed. The city is constructing the world’s tallest jail in the heart of the neighborhood. And now, a trade war with China is keeping businesses on edge.
When the rest of the world seems to have begun to look away from Chinatown, we believe in looking deeper. We want to show what it looks like when a community emerges from a crisis and how they can build a foundation for the future.
We hope to leverage Always Chinatown as a blueprint for all historic and cultural neighborhoods across the country and beyond.
We’re building an international campaign that uplifts the ingenuity and resilience of small businesses and working class communities, including activations such as:
- Host a screening tour that will start at Welcome to Chinatown’s very own Small Business Innovation Hub, with exclusive Q&A’s with the film’s protagonists
- Partnerships with local organizations and businesses to create neighborhood guides and community-based events, such as replicating Welcome to Chinatown’s “Chinatown Restaurant Week” concept
- Inspire new and existing volunteers through screenings paired with additional programming
- Share the Small Business Innovation Hub model and succession planning program
- Connect with Chinatowns across North America (many of whom we’ve already filmed with!) to host screenings, discussions, participatory budgeting sessions, etc.
- Empower entrepreneurs to connect to the local context and history, while supporting their personal growth
To take that next step and begin crafting the story of over 100 hours of footage, we need your help.
Always Chinatown has so far been produced by a collective of passionate and likeminded crew members, many of whom have worked for reduced rates or deferred payment because they believe in this story. Our team has donated our own time, money, and equipment to complete approximately 90% of the filming.
The way this works is that we need to reach 80% of our goal of $30,000 in order to receive any of our contributions. Anyone who contributes will only be charged when we hit that threshold. Every dollar helps us get closer to our goal—no amount is too small!
Every donation is tax-deductible!
If you can’t contribute at this time, you can support by telling your friends in person or online. Follow us on Seed&Spark to receive email updates and connect with us on Instagram @alwayschinatownfilm.
We can’t wait for you to join us on this journey!
Thank you!
多謝!
Dave Yim, Director
Kitty Hu, Producer
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
16 TB Hard Drive
Costs $300
A backup of all our footage to live off site. (God forbid something happens!)
Hiring crew
Costs $10,820
Compensating our amazing crew members who graciously lent their skills during filming.
Filming our last few scenes
Costs $7,950
Filming the last few scenes to finish up production!
Editing
Costs $10,930
Hiring an editor to begin crafting the story and diving into our over 100 hours of footage
Share this update!
About This Team
Dave Yim (Director, Editor)
Dave is a media professional and documentary filmmaker. Dave has worked in a huge variety of roles in the media business, including as a director, producer, editor, writer, researcher, podcaster, videographer, and voice over artist. He has worked with media outlets like CNN, Bloomberg, NBC and Vox, as well as directly with brands such as Stripe and Amazon. He has also directed music videos and hosted an interview podcast that focuses on Asian American musicians.
What started as an interest in his family’s VHS camcorder later bloomed into making a feature film with his high school film club. This would lead him to graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of Arts film program, where he started his focus on documentary film during a semester abroad in Johannesburg, South Africa. His first staff media role was as a producer and editor for Bloomberg’s digital video team, working primarily on news packages covering finance and technology. In 2015, Dave joined CNN’s video startup, Great Big Story, where he honed his production skills working as a director, producer, cinematographer, and editor for hundreds of short-form documentary-style videos that covered a wide range of topics, including culture, travel, human interest, and wildlife. He worked on productions that brought Great Big Story Emmy Awards, Webby Awards, and a Telly Award.
Kitty Hu (Producer)
Kitty is a queer Chinese diasporic documentary filmmaker and co-founder/head of development at Shoes Off Media. As the daughter of immigrants, Kitty’s work applies community-centered documentary tactics to amplify stories at the intersection of justice and human relationships, looking at topics like labor, housing, culture, migration, and climate. Her work has been featured on HBO, CNN+, Hulu, PBS. Her personal short, Golden Boy, played in festivals nationally including DOC NYC and LAAPFF. She’s also a proud member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Asian American Documentary Network, and Global Impact Producers Alliance.
Hope King (Executive Producer)
Hope King is a veteran business and tech journalist and the founder of Macro Talk, a video-first news platform focused on economic trends and the future of work. She’s spent more than a decade reporting for some of the most innovative and respected newsrooms, including CNN, Axios, Business Insider, and Cheddar, where she anchored from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Before journalism, she worked in finance as a Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Hope was born in China and raised in the U.S. As an Executive Producer of Always Chinatown, she’s proud to support a story that resonates personally — about resilience, community, and how we imagine what comes next.
Allison Lau (Additional Cinematography)
Allison is an award-winning digital media journalist passionate about stories caught at the intersection of social justice, business and culture. She is a visual storyteller at heart, whether the medium utilizes still images, beautifully shot video or archival footage. Allison has an extensive background in video production, photography, news reporting, data analytics, social media and editorial strategy for internationally-distributed digital media publications, advertising agencies, nonprofits and start-up businesses. Prior to her digital media journalism tenure, she was working in media advertising and marketing, which focused on backend analytics to optimize performance and view-goals for each launch.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
In 2020, few neighborhoods in New York City were hit as hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as Chinatown.
Vic Lee, a born and raised Brooklynite who had lived in Chinatown for 10 years, saw business after business in her neighborhood shutter. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Vic put together a plan. With longtime friend Jen Tam, also a Chinatown resident by way of Houston, they pored over ways to support the mom-and-pop business that make up the backbone of Chinatown.
They called their project Welcome to Chinatown.
Their first successful campaign was a GoFundMe to purchase takeout meals from Chinatown restaurants that would then be donated to healthcare workers at local hospitals. Soon joined by Jackie Wang and Harry Trinh, the small but mighty team at Welcome to Chinatown began building a framework for sustaining the community through events, business support, and marketing efforts.
In 2023, they doubled down on their support by signing for a physical space: the Small Business Innovation Hub, or the Hub for short.
Their dream was to build a center where small business owners could come to connect, learn new skills and strategies, and plan for the next step. For some mom-and-pop shops, this meant legacy planning for their transition, while for others, it led to experimenting with pop-ups and community events for the first time.
It was then that our documentary team knew that something special was happening.
We jumped in and started filming, documenting the Hub’s transformation from pilot phase to construction to finished product. We joined working sessions with 70-year-old business Ting’s Gift Shop. We travelled to Houston with Jen. And we watched the team grow and evolve as the needs for community did, too.
Through the work of Welcome to Chinatown, our film aims to spotlight the legacy and entrepreneurial businesses in this unique neighborhood, all while building towards a sustainable future.
Manhattan’s Chinatown has one of the largest concentrations of ethnic Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. And with Chinese immigrants setting up shop as early as the 1870s, it’s also one of the oldest.
But still, the community is at a crossroads. Recovery from the pandemic is still sluggish with so many businesses having closed. The city is constructing the world’s tallest jail in the heart of the neighborhood. And now, a trade war with China is keeping businesses on edge.
When the rest of the world seems to have begun to look away from Chinatown, we believe in looking deeper. We want to show what it looks like when a community emerges from a crisis and how they can build a foundation for the future.
We hope to leverage Always Chinatown as a blueprint for all historic and cultural neighborhoods across the country and beyond.
We’re building an international campaign that uplifts the ingenuity and resilience of small businesses and working class communities, including activations such as:
- Host a screening tour that will start at Welcome to Chinatown’s very own Small Business Innovation Hub, with exclusive Q&A’s with the film’s protagonists
- Partnerships with local organizations and businesses to create neighborhood guides and community-based events, such as replicating Welcome to Chinatown’s “Chinatown Restaurant Week” concept
- Inspire new and existing volunteers through screenings paired with additional programming
- Share the Small Business Innovation Hub model and succession planning program
- Connect with Chinatowns across North America (many of whom we’ve already filmed with!) to host screenings, discussions, participatory budgeting sessions, etc.
- Empower entrepreneurs to connect to the local context and history, while supporting their personal growth
To take that next step and begin crafting the story of over 100 hours of footage, we need your help.
Always Chinatown has so far been produced by a collective of passionate and likeminded crew members, many of whom have worked for reduced rates or deferred payment because they believe in this story. Our team has donated our own time, money, and equipment to complete approximately 90% of the filming.
The way this works is that we need to reach 80% of our goal of $30,000 in order to receive any of our contributions. Anyone who contributes will only be charged when we hit that threshold. Every dollar helps us get closer to our goal—no amount is too small!
Every donation is tax-deductible!
If you can’t contribute at this time, you can support by telling your friends in person or online. Follow us on Seed&Spark to receive email updates and connect with us on Instagram @alwayschinatownfilm.
We can’t wait for you to join us on this journey!
Thank you!
多謝!
Dave Yim, Director
Kitty Hu, Producer
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
16 TB Hard Drive
Costs $300
A backup of all our footage to live off site. (God forbid something happens!)
Hiring crew
Costs $10,820
Compensating our amazing crew members who graciously lent their skills during filming.
Filming our last few scenes
Costs $7,950
Filming the last few scenes to finish up production!
Editing
Costs $10,930
Hiring an editor to begin crafting the story and diving into our over 100 hours of footage
Share this update!
About This Team
Dave Yim (Director, Editor)
Dave is a media professional and documentary filmmaker. Dave has worked in a huge variety of roles in the media business, including as a director, producer, editor, writer, researcher, podcaster, videographer, and voice over artist. He has worked with media outlets like CNN, Bloomberg, NBC and Vox, as well as directly with brands such as Stripe and Amazon. He has also directed music videos and hosted an interview podcast that focuses on Asian American musicians.
What started as an interest in his family’s VHS camcorder later bloomed into making a feature film with his high school film club. This would lead him to graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of Arts film program, where he started his focus on documentary film during a semester abroad in Johannesburg, South Africa. His first staff media role was as a producer and editor for Bloomberg’s digital video team, working primarily on news packages covering finance and technology. In 2015, Dave joined CNN’s video startup, Great Big Story, where he honed his production skills working as a director, producer, cinematographer, and editor for hundreds of short-form documentary-style videos that covered a wide range of topics, including culture, travel, human interest, and wildlife. He worked on productions that brought Great Big Story Emmy Awards, Webby Awards, and a Telly Award.
Kitty Hu (Producer)
Kitty is a queer Chinese diasporic documentary filmmaker and co-founder/head of development at Shoes Off Media. As the daughter of immigrants, Kitty’s work applies community-centered documentary tactics to amplify stories at the intersection of justice and human relationships, looking at topics like labor, housing, culture, migration, and climate. Her work has been featured on HBO, CNN+, Hulu, PBS. Her personal short, Golden Boy, played in festivals nationally including DOC NYC and LAAPFF. She’s also a proud member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Asian American Documentary Network, and Global Impact Producers Alliance.
Hope King (Executive Producer)
Hope King is a veteran business and tech journalist and the founder of Macro Talk, a video-first news platform focused on economic trends and the future of work. She’s spent more than a decade reporting for some of the most innovative and respected newsrooms, including CNN, Axios, Business Insider, and Cheddar, where she anchored from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Before journalism, she worked in finance as a Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Hope was born in China and raised in the U.S. As an Executive Producer of Always Chinatown, she’s proud to support a story that resonates personally — about resilience, community, and how we imagine what comes next.
Allison Lau (Additional Cinematography)
Allison is an award-winning digital media journalist passionate about stories caught at the intersection of social justice, business and culture. She is a visual storyteller at heart, whether the medium utilizes still images, beautifully shot video or archival footage. Allison has an extensive background in video production, photography, news reporting, data analytics, social media and editorial strategy for internationally-distributed digital media publications, advertising agencies, nonprofits and start-up businesses. Prior to her digital media journalism tenure, she was working in media advertising and marketing, which focused on backend analytics to optimize performance and view-goals for each launch.