About the Film
Look Forward and Carry on the Past: Stories from Philadelphia’s Chinatown illustrates the strength and complexity of Philadelphia’s only remaining community of color in the city’s center. The documentary attends to the role of folk arts and community cultural expression in the community’s continuing struggles for respect and survival. Touching on community efforts to stop a stadium from being built in the neighborhood (one of many fights over land grabs and “development”), and on other occasions when the community comes together (including Mid-Autumn Festival and New Year), the documentary attends to the everyday interactions, relationships, and labor—so often overlooked—that build and defend endangered communities. The film is a collaboration between Asian Americans United, The Philadelphia Folklore Project, and Barry Dornfeld.
