Events › "From the Ground Up" film screening & presentation

Help us kick off Asian American and Pacific Islander Month (and Preservation Week!) for a special film screening and an introduction to the collections of the Oakland History Center.

"From the Ground Up" follows artist Leon Sun, Barnali Ghosh and Anirvan Chatterjee of the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour, and Caroline Cabading of Manilatown Heritage Foundation as they explore the intersections of Asian American community art, history, and archival work in the San Francisco Bay Area. The film will be introduced by director Katie Quan and runs for 35 minutes. 

Following the film and discussion, we will have a presentation from the Oakland History Center on what happens behind the scenes in their archives! They’ll share more about resources on Oakland and how you can get involved learning about your community!

More about the filmmakers:

Director, Katie Quan 

Born and raised on Ramaytush Ohlone Land (now known as San Francisco), Katie Quan (she/her) is a third-generation Chinese American artist and educator. Her work has been supported by the California Arts Council through an Individual Artist award, the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund, and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. "From the Ground Up" is her second short film. Through this film, she encourages people to go out, learn more about their own family or community stories, and support their local historical archives in any way they can. Learn more about her art at: www.katiequanart.com.

Editor, Shantre Pinkney Bio

Shantré Pinkney is a filmmaker, writer and photographer. She first began as a documentary photographer covering social issues in San Francisco before joining American Zoetrope as a script reader. Shantre's film work has screened at the Roxie, SomArts, Pan African Film Festival, African American Arts and Culture Complex, San Francisco Urban Film Festival and also won awards at Urban Media Makers and Montreal’s Art Color Digital Cinema International. As a lover of non-traditional and inquisitive storytelling, she seeks to raise dialogue between art and the audience by creating social impact films and photography. She runs a blog entitled Eat This Film which features stories of people of color as central characters. Learn more at: www.shantre.com

More about Asian American, Native Hawai'ian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

In the month of May we celebrate the important role that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) have played in our shared history. Explore Smithsonian events happening online and in-person and find resources, podcasts, and collection items to learn more about AANHPI contributions. Learn more from the collections, exhibits, and curricula gathered at asianpacificheritage.gov. 

More about Preservation Week:

Preservation Week inspires action to preserve personal, family, and community collections in addition to library, museum, and archive collections. It also raises awareness of the role libraries and other cultural institutions play in providing ongoing preservation education and information. Learn more at preservationweek.org. 

Be sure to join us at our other Preservation Week event on Wednesday, April 29: Dunsmuir House: Past, Present, and Future. 

Get accessibility information.