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A
documentary about unknown, self-taught 81-year-old artist Frank Wong
who has spent the past four decades recreating his fading memories by
building romantic, extraordinarily detailed miniature models of the San
Francisco Chinatown rooms of his youth. This film takes the journey of
one individual and maps it to a rapidly changing urban neighborhood from
1940s to present day.
A meditation on memory, community, and preserving one’s own legacy,
Frank‘s three-dimensional miniature dioramas become rare portals into a
historic neighborhood and a window to the artist’s filtered and
romanticized memories and emotional struggles. In his bargain with
immortality, Frank announces plans to cremate his exquisite works with
him upon his death in order to ‘live inside them forever’ in his
afterlife.
Nominated for Best Documentary-Cultural/Historical at the Northern California Area Emmy Awards. Audience Award for Best Documentary Short at the Boston Asian American Film Festival, and the Austin Asian American Film Festival.