{"id":32635,"date":"2025-12-09T18:19:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635"},"modified":"2025-12-13T12:29:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T17:29:16","slug":"documentary-filmmaker-christine-choy-dies-at-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635","title":{"rendered":"Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a9<\/b>Courtesy of the Museum of Chinese in America<\/p>\r\n

Shanghai-born documentary filmmaker Christine Choy<\/a>, whose 1987 Oscar-nominated film Who Killed Vincent Chin?<\/strong><\/em><\/a> galvanized the Asian-American community, died on December 7 in Manhattan. She was 73.<\/p>\r\n

In a career spanning fifty years, the outspoken Choy made more than eighty films and received dozens of awards, including a lifetime achievement award presented to her in 2023 by the Hot Docs film festival. In the previous year, she had been the subject of The Exiles<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, a documentary \u00a0directed by two of her students that won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance. That film depicted Choy\u2019s meeting\u00a0 with a group of Chinese dissidents\u00a0 who had participated in the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989.<\/p>\r\n

For more than thirty-five years, Choy had been on the faculty of New York University\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts, where she chaired the graduate film\/TV program from 1994 to 1997 and 2002 to 2005.<\/p>\r\n<\/ins>\r\n

Christine Choy was born as Chai Ming Huie to a Chinese mother and a Korean father who was a political exile living in Shanghai. During the Cultural Revolution in China, Choy and her mother fled to South Korea where the family was reunited. In the mid-1960s Choy arrived in New York City, where she quickly became involved in political activism with the Black Panthers and other radical groups.<\/p>\r\n

In 1972, Choy co-founded Third World Newsreel<\/a> with Susan Robeson, the granddaughter of African American actor Paul Robeson. One of their first releases was a documentary about the 1971 Attica Prison uprising. Choy also directed many other films about the struggles of racial minorities, including From Spikes to Spindles<\/strong><\/em>, Mississippi Triangle<\/strong><\/em>, Sa-I-Gu<\/strong><\/em>, and A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\r\n

Choy\u2019s 1988 film Who Killed Vincent Chin?<\/strong><\/em>, which she co-directed with Renee Tajima, examined the 1982 murder of a Chinese auto worker in Detroit who had been targeted because his killers thought he was Japanese. The film was made at a time when tensions were flaring over the perceived threat to the American automobile industry by Japanese competitors. In the years following its release, the film was credited for helping galvanize the movement for pan-Asian identity and activism in the United States.<\/p>\r\n

If I may be permitted a personal note, Christine Choy and I became friends after she read an article about her Vincent Chin film that I wrote for The New York Nichibei<\/em>, a Japanese-American newspaper of which I was English editor from 1988 to 1994. She promptly commissioned me to ghost-write her memoir, which was translated and published in China and Korea. In 1999 and 2000, I visited with her in Hong Kong, when she was establishing the film school at the City University there.<\/p>\r\n

I was honored when Christine asked me to be literary advisor\u00a0 to her 2007 film Hyam Plutzik: American Poet<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, a documentary about the Jewish-American author who had been nominated three times for a Pulitzer Prize. Christine co-directed the film with her daughter, Ku-Ling Siegel, and the three of us spent many happy hours on the road chasing down interviews with some of America\u2019s leading poets including Hayden Carruth, Donald Hall, Galway Kinnell, Stanley Kunitz, and Grace Schulman. \u00a0The film was featured at the Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin, at Jewish film festivals in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and New York, and at a screening in Rochester, New York, where Plutzik had taught for many years.<\/p>\r\n

Christine Choy was a larger-than-life figure who was passionate about using the film media to counter racism, oppression, and injustice. She was also noted for her brook-no-nonsense, confrontational personality. According to the Age of the Geek<\/a>, actress Jodi Long described Choy as \u201ca loudmouth,\u201d \u201cskinny,\u201d and \u201ccombative\u201d while another unidentified observer called attention to her \u201cwhirlwind Tasmanian devil energy.\u201d She once famously clashed with Robert Redford over her criticism of the Sundance Festival as a “white-on-white” affair that neglected filmmakers of color. The following year, she was invited to serve on the jury.<\/p>\r\n

Christine Choy is survived by her daughter Ku-Ling and her sons Fleeta and Tatanka. A memorial service is planned after the New Year.<\/p>\r\n

Check out more of Edward’s articles.<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9Courtesy of the Museum of Chinese in America Shanghai-born documentary filmmaker Christine Choy, whose 1987 Oscar-nominated film Who Killed Vincent Chin? galvanized the Asian-American community, died on December 7 in Manhattan. She was 73. In a career spanning fifty years, the outspoken Choy made more than eighty films and received dozens of awards, including a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[29134,29135,29138,29137,29139,6721,29136,6726],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDocumentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73 | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shanghai-born documentary filmmaker Christine Choy, whose 1987 Oscar-nominated film Who Killed Vincent Chin? galvanized the Asian-American community, died on December 7 in Manhattan. She was 73.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73 | Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shanghai-born documentary filmmaker Christine Choy, whose 1987 Oscar-nominated film Who Killed Vincent Chin? galvanized the Asian-American community, died on December 7 in Manhattan. She was 73.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-09T23:19:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-13T17:29:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christine-Choy.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1202\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"818\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edward Moran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Edward Moran\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635\",\"name\":\"Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73 | Cinema Daily US\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christine-Choy.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-09T23:19:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-13T17:29:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bf0a19223aa026749c276918426a5bc\"},\"description\":\"Shanghai-born documentary filmmaker Christine Choy, whose 1987 Oscar-nominated film Who Killed Vincent Chin? galvanized the Asian-American community, died on December 7 in Manhattan. She was 73.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christine-Choy.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christine-Choy.png\",\"width\":1202,\"height\":818,\"caption\":\"Christine Choy\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\",\"name\":\"Cinema Daily US\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bf0a19223aa026749c276918426a5bc\",\"name\":\"Edward Moran\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Edward-Moran-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Edward-Moran-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Edward Moran\"},\"description\":\"Edward Moran began his journalistic career many decades ago as a theater and cinema reviewer for Show Business and the New York Theater Review. More recently he contributed film reviews to hosokinema.com and Movie Sleuth. His writings have appeared in publications as diverse as the Times Literary Supplement, Publishers Weekly, the Paris Review, and the Massachusetts Review. Moran also edited a memoir by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Christine Choy. He served as literary advisor to her film Hyam Plutzik: American Poet, which was the keynote film in the American Perspectives series at the 2007 Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73 | Cinema Daily US","description":"Shanghai-born documentary filmmaker Christine Choy, whose 1987 Oscar-nominated film Who Killed Vincent Chin? galvanized the Asian-American community, died on December 7 in Manhattan. She was 73.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73 | Cinema Daily US","og_description":"Shanghai-born documentary filmmaker Christine Choy, whose 1987 Oscar-nominated film Who Killed Vincent Chin? galvanized the Asian-American community, died on December 7 in Manhattan. She was 73.","og_url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635","og_site_name":"Cinema Daily US","article_published_time":"2025-12-09T23:19:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-13T17:29:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1202,"height":818,"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christine-Choy.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Edward Moran","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Edward Moran","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635","name":"Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73 | Cinema Daily US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christine-Choy.png","datePublished":"2025-12-09T23:19:54+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-13T17:29:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bf0a19223aa026749c276918426a5bc"},"description":"Shanghai-born documentary filmmaker Christine Choy, whose 1987 Oscar-nominated film Who Killed Vincent Chin? galvanized the Asian-American community, died on December 7 in Manhattan. She was 73.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christine-Choy.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Christine-Choy.png","width":1202,"height":818,"caption":"Christine Choy"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=32635#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/","name":"Cinema Daily US","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bf0a19223aa026749c276918426a5bc","name":"Edward Moran","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Edward-Moran-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Edward-Moran-150x150.jpg","caption":"Edward Moran"},"description":"Edward Moran began his journalistic career many decades ago as a theater and cinema reviewer for Show Business and the New York Theater Review. More recently he contributed film reviews to hosokinema.com and Movie Sleuth. His writings have appeared in publications as diverse as the Times Literary Supplement, Publishers Weekly, the Paris Review, and the Massachusetts Review. Moran also edited a memoir by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Christine Choy. He served as literary advisor to her film Hyam Plutzik: American Poet, which was the keynote film in the American Perspectives series at the 2007 Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com"],"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=3"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}