Christine Choy

Christine Choy (born Chai Ming Huei; September 17, 1949 – December 7, 2025) was a Chinese American filmmaker. She was the first Asian American feature-length documentary filmmaker with her first film preceding both “the godmother of Asian American cinema” Loni Ding’s first film by ten years and “godfather” Robert A Nakamura’s 1975 film Wataridori: Birds of Passage.

Early life

Life in Asia Choy was born in Shanghai in the People's Republic of China

Following the Cultural Revolution, the family fled mainland China via Hong Kong. Choy was given a scholarship to attend Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in New York, where she studied architecture. While attending, she made friends with a group of hippies that were a part of Newsreel. At Newsreel, Choy worked as an editor and animation director.

Career In 1972, Choy co-founded Third World Newsreel together with fellow filmmaker Susan Robeson. During her tenure, Choy directed documentary films on the 1971 Attica prison uprising, the life of women in United States prisons, and the history of social activism in New York City's chinatown, as well as documentaries on the division of the Korean peninsula and Namibia's struggle for independence from South Africa, among others.

In 1974, Choy directed her first feature-length documentary, Teach Our Children. As Choy related to the poverty and the migration issues that people around her faced, she was inspired to make a second documentary, combining the issues she faced in China and South Korea with the struggles she faced in the United States. The finished film, From Spikes to Spindles, was released in 1976, and focused on Chinese migration and Chinese citizens' struggle for equal treatment in America. and an activist. Choy shared lodging with Steven Soderbergh, who was in Park City premiering Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Also at the '89 Festival, she confronted Robert Redford about Sundance's lack of diversity. Who Killed Vincent Chin? was nominated for the Grand Jury documentary award at the Festival; and went on to win a Peabody Award in 1990.

In 2021, Who Killed Vincent Chin? was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

Personal life and death In 1979, Choy married fellow filmmaker Allan Siegel. 1988, Won: Who Killed Vincent Chin? - IDA Award, International Documentary Association 1989, Won: Who Killed Vincent Chin? - Asian Media Award 1989, Nominated: Who Killed Vincent Chin? - Cinematography Award, Sundance Film Festival 1989, Nominated: Who Killed Vincent Chin? - Grand Jury Prize, Documentary Feature, Sundance Film Festival 1989, Nominated: Who Killed Vincent Chin? - Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature 1997, Won: My America...or Honk If You Love Buddha - Cinematography Award, Sundance Film Festival 1998, Won: The Shot Heard 'Round the World, Jury Award, Bangkok Film Festival 2008, Won: "Long Story Short" - Honorable Mention, Documentary Feature, VC FilmFest - Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Filmography

Acting performances and documentary appearances