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Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words
US, 2011, 56 minutes, Color, DVD, English
Order No. W121064

Anna May Wong knew she wanted to be a movie star from the time she was a young girl—and by 17 she became one. A third generation Chinese-American, she went on to make dozens of films in Hollywood and Europe. She was one of the few actors to successfully transition from silent to sound cinema, co-starring with Marlene Dietrich, Anthony Quinn and Douglas Fairbanks along the way. She was glamorous, talented and cosmopolitan—yet she spent most of her career typecast either as a painted doll or a scheming dragon lady. For years, older generations of Chinese-Americans frowned upon the types of roles she played; but today a younger generation of Asian Americans sees her as a pioneering artist, who succeeded in a hostile environment that hasn’t altogether changed. Yunah Hong’s engrossing documentary is an entertaining and imaginative survey of Wong’s career, exploring the impact Wong had on images of Asian American women in Hollywood, both then and now. Excerpts from Wong’s films, archival photographs and interviews enhance this richly detailed picture of a woman and her extraordinary life.
AWARDS, FESTIVALS, & SCREENINGS

- Busan Int’l Film Festival, World Premiere
- San Francisco Asian American Int’l Film Festival, North American Premiere
- New York Asian American Int’l Film Festival, New York Premiere
- Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Canadian Premiere
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QUOTES

"This is a timely documentary about a luminous performer whose talents far exceed even her international fame… offers new archival discoveries and utilizes Anna May Wong's own words to help illuminate the complicated life of this early twentieth--century star.”
Anne Anlin Cheng
Department of English, Princeton University
“Indispensable to film retrospectives with a feminist or Asian-angled slant, this…is also accessible enough for knowledge channels.”
Maggie Lee
The Hollywood Reporter
“[A] must-see…a great film to show you the problems of an Asian American woman actress in the discriminate Hollywood of that era."
Gerrye Wong
Asianweek
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Anna May Wong: In Her Own Words is included in the following Special Collections.
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