Research Guides: Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Film and Television: Special Collections and Archives

UCLA Library Special Collections

For information on archival moving image materials, please see also the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

UCLA Library Special Collections
Collections and access information for UCLA Library Special Collections, including papers, records, and manuscripts on a range of topics.

Online Archive of California (OAC) This link opens in a new window
Finding aids for primary source collections in all UC campuses and other contributing institutions, including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California.

Performing Arts Materials in Library Special Collections
Guides to archival collections related to animation, film and television, theater, dance, and music.
Library Special Collections: Plan a Visit
Requesting Duplication of Library Special Collections Materials

UCLA Film & Television Archive

The UCLA Film & Television Archive holds over 350,000 motion pictures and 170,000 television programs, spanning the entire course of film and broadcasting history. The collection includes independent and studio-produced shorts and feature films, documentaries, local and network TV programming, commercials, news and public affairs broadcasts, LGBTQIA media, and 27 million feet of newsreels produced between 1919 and 1971.

Not all of the Archive's holdings are listed in the public catalog, so contacting the Archive Research and Study Center directly about holdings and access is recommended.

UCLA Film & Television Archive Catalog This link opens in a new window
Motion pictures (silent era, classic Hollywood, independent cinema, LGBT collections, documentaries and newsreels, animated cartoons, foreign and contemporary American films), television (American telecasting from 1945 to date), and news and public affairs programs (1950 to date).
Film Collections; Theater, Film & Television; Archives

UCLA Film & Television Archive Research and Study Center
Includes help on using the Archive's catalog and arranging research viewing appointments at Powell Library (when in-person operations resume).
UCLA Film & Television Archive: Explore Collections
Includes help on using the Archive's catalog, as well as profiles of major collections by topic.
UCLA Film & Television Archive Online Collections
Includes KTLA news footage documenting local history, the LGBTQIA series In the Life, selected L.A. Rebellion and UCLA student films, and more.

Hearst Metrotone News Collection (UCLA Film & Television Archive) This link opens in a new window
Newsreels from the UCLA Film & Television Archive. In cooperation with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Packard Humanities Institute is developing this website as part of a joint project to make the Hearst newsreel collection more easily accessible to the public. Includes newsreels shown in theatres from 1929 to 1967.

Selected AAPI Media in Moving Image Archives

Arthur Dong Collection at UCLA
From UCLA Film & Television Archive.
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Housed at the UCLA Film & Television Archive, includes archival masters and invaluable extended interviews and production outtakes from the award-winning independent filmmaker's landmark documentaries Forbidden City, USA (1989), Coming Out Under Fire (1994), Hollywood Chinese (2007) and many others.
James Wong Howe Collection
From Academy Film Archive.
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"Since 1993, the Archive has housed close to twenty items related to James Wong Howe donated by his family, including several 35mm and 16mm prints of his home movies, interview recordings, and a 16mm short he directed, “Dong Kingman” (1953)."
Japanese American National Museum (JANM) Collection
From Academy Film Archive.
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"The unique films in this collection, shot by Japanese American amateur filmmakers, date from the 1920s to the 1960s. These home movies capture a wide variety of subjects, including family celebrations, cultural events, people at work, leisure activities, and vacations. The collection also contains rare footage of United States World War II internment camps filmed by Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in the camps."
My Van Preservation Project
From UCLA Film & Television Archive.
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The UCLA Film & Television Archive seeks to preserve and restore unique films produced by the Vietnamese production company, My Van, from 1925-1975.
Screenplays portraying Asian and Asian American characters
From John Hopkins Libraries.
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"This collection consists of film scripts that closely follow the depiction of Asian characters in Hollywood film history. It includes drafts, revisions, and final shooting scripts of film screenplays dating from 1929-2003. The scripts illustrate portrayals of Asians by Caucasian actors, as well as Asian American actors."

UCLA Film & Television Archive Festivals and Screenings

Past and upcoming screenings from the UCLA Film & Television Archive, related to Asian American and Pacific Islander film and television.

Archival Treasures: Miyoshi Umeki, First Asian Woman to Win Oscar (Archive blog, 2023)
Free Chol Soo Lee (2023)
Preserving Bruce Lee in Prime Time (2023)
“Journey from the Fall” by UCLA alumnus filmmaker Ham Tran (2022)
Directed by Wayne Wang (2022)
UCLA Asian American Studies Center Film Festival (2021)
Image Movers: UCLA Asian American Studies Center 50th Anniversary Film Festival (2020) Due to the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic in March 2020, the Film Festival was canceled. The films slated to be shown were "a diverse range of classic and new narrative and documentary films and creative works, and highlights key themes and topics."