Organizer:  Thirdworld Newsreel, City College of New York; Documentary Forum, City College of New York; Asian American / Asian Research Institute, CUNY

Type/Location: In Person / New York, NY

Description:

Join Thirdworld Newsreel and the Documentary Forum at City College of New York for an Indie-Lens Pop-Up screening and discussion of the documentary film Home Court, directed by Erica Tanamachi, ahead of its airdate (March 24, 2025) on PBS. The director will be joined by the producers of the film, Jenn Lee Smith and Brandon Soun.

Home Court is the coming-of-age story of Ashley Chea, a Cambodian American basketball prodigy in Southern California whose life intensifies as recruitment heats up. As she overcomes injury as well as racial and class differences between her home and private school worlds and against rival schools, Ashley strives to become her own person and leave a legacy behind.

About the Speakers:

Erica Tanamachi is an MFA Cinema graduate of San Francisco State University. Her recent film, Winn, attained a PBS distribution deal. She was creative producer for Motherload (2019), which won Best International Documentary from Hollywood North Film Awards. Erica also won Best Documentary from The Documentary Foundation for her short, Living Poets.

Jenn Lee Smith is a queer filmmaker and supporter of underrepresented narrative and documentary films such as Mija (2022) and Pray Away (2021). She was a part of Re-Present Media's Re-Take Oakland program and is the founder of Bewilder Films, a production company dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices.

Brandon Soun is an emerging Cambodian American filmmaker and an Asian American Studies graduate of UCLA. His work highlights the Cambodian diaspora in America. Brandon was a 2022 Armed-With-A-Camera Fellow and his short, Conversations at the Register (2022), won the “Audience Choice Award” at the 2023 Seattle Asian American Film Festival.

Registration Link:

To attend the event in person, please register here.