Learn more about East Bay AANHPI history! The Oakland History Center is excited to showcase two local filmmakers and their recent documentaries.
This year’s theme for Asian American, Native Hawai’ian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month is “Power in Unity: Strengthening Communities Together.” Each of these films explores the connection between personal and public history, uncovering the struggles and triumphs of past generations, and going deep into our collective past.
From the Ground Up screening + introduction to OHC collections
On Thursday April 30 (6pm), we welcome director Katie Quan and her new film. From the Ground Up follows artist Leon Sun, historians 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 Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour (berkeleysouthasian.org) has been educating the public on the local history of South Asian Americans since 2012. Their popular 3-hour tours provide “a deeply researched, sometimes emotional, and always inspiring glimpse at four generations of Desi freedom fighters, feminists, students, queer activists, and more”. Check out their website for some amazing local history resources, like the Secret Desi History blog (secretdesihistory.com).
From the Ground Up also profiles the activists behind the Manilatown Heritage Foundation, whose mission is to promote social and economic justice for Filipinos in the United States by preserving history, advocating for equal access, and advancing Filipino arts and culture. They operate the International Hotel Manilatown Center, “the historic site of the community struggle to save the International Hotel and prevent the eviction of its elderly residents from 1968-1977. [The I-Hotel] became a focal point in the creation of the contemporary Asian American movement, especially for Filipino Americans and San Francisco’s housing justice movement” (from https://www.manilatown.org/international-hotel-manilatown-center).
The film runs for 35 minutes and will be followed by an introduction to the collections here at the Oakland History Center: what we have, where to find things, and how to access them.
Oakland Ilokana screening + cultural preservation workshop
On Saturday May 9 (2pm), director Elenita Makani O’Malley presents her documentary Oakland Ilokana. Oakland Ilokana follows a 90-year-old Filipina American grandmother — one of the first Filipino children born in 1930s Oakland — as she reflects on a lifetime shaped by migration, community, and resilience. Her stories become a bridge across time and place, carrying the weight of a family’s legacy and revealing the untold histories of a community finding its place in America.
Seen through the lens of her granddaughter — a filmmaker tracing the threads of their shared past — four generations of Bay Area Filipinas come into focus. The film explores displacement, cultural inheritance, and the enduring power of memory to connect us across generations, across place, and across life itself.
After the film, director Elenita Makani O'Malley will lead a step-by-step tutorial on cultural preservation. Drawing from her experience with library archives and tools, she will guide participants through practical ways to document, safeguard, and share their own family narratives for future generations.
In an era when elders’ stories are too often lost, Oakland Ilokana seeks to preserve and uplift the voices that have shaped our communities. By fostering intergenerational dialogue and promoting the practice of oral history, we honor the sacrifices, triumphs, and lessons of past generations while empowering the storytellers of tomorrow. (Descriptions from www.elenitamakani.com/oaklandilokana.)
Further reading
For more on Asian American history of the East Bay and California, please see this booklist.
Add a comment to: Celebrate AANHPI Heritage with Local Documentaries