Asian CineVision

Asian CineVision (ACV) is a non-profit media arts organization that develops, promotes and preserves media made by or about peoples of Asian descent. Asian CineVision was founded by grassroots media activists in New York's Chinatown in 1976 to raise social and cultural awareness of the Asian American experience, both in the Asian American community and among the general public. Founders Tsui Hark, Christine Choy, Thomas Tam, Danny Yung and Peter Chow, and others also sought to raise awareness through media training in the local Chinese community. The organization sought to address problems of media access for Asian Americans and also to present and publicize the work of Asian American artists. The organization initiated the weekly, cable-access Chinese Cable Television (CCTV) in 1977, which covered a broad range of community-interest issues such as local politics, education, language, housing, labor and healthcare. Significantly, it was the first Chinese-language news program in the U.S. Production of CCTV ceased in 1983. Beginning in 1978, it has sponsored the Asian American (AIIFF) International Film Festival. In 1981, Asian CineVision assumed publication of Bridge magazine, a quarterly journal documenting the development of a pan-Asian American political and cultural identity previously published by the group Basement Workshop. Bridge ceased publication in 1986 and was replaced by the Asian American media arts journal CineVue. Through these and other programs, Asian CineVision supports Asian and Asian American mediamakers and presents their works to the Asian American community and wider audiences.