Chinatown | Production Biographies

A Documentary from KQED San Francisco

Chinatown

Production Biographies

Felicia Lowe, Producer/Director | Peter L. Stein, Executive Producer
Genny Lim, Poet | Charlie Chin, Narrator

Felicia Lowe, Producer/Director

Interview with Felicia Lowe

Photo of Felicia Lowe

Photo Credit: Joe Manio / ASIAN WEEK

With a B.A. from San Jose State University and as a graduate of the Michelle Clark Fellowship Program in Broadcast Journalism at Columbia University in New York, Felicia Lowe began her career as a broadcast journalist. Among her many credits, she was a reporter for KGO-TV News and a field producer for "Turnabout," the Emmy Award-winning PBS series on women's issues produced for KQED Channel 9.

In addition to her extensive journalism work in public and commercial television, Lowe has produced, directed and written two highly notable documentaries. In 1980, she received an Emmy nomination, a CINE Golden Eagle, and an American Film Festival Red Ribbon Award for "China: Land of My Father." The film chronicles her trip to her father's homeland and an emotional meeting with her grandmother and other relatives whom she had never met. In 1988, Lowe released "Carved in Silence," which uses historical materials and dramatic re-creations to tell the story of Chinese immigrants detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay. Among other awards, "Carved in Silence" received a CINE Golden Eagle, A Chris Plaque, and an Honorable Mention by the National Educational Film and Video Association. The program was selected for exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Smithsonian in Washington, D. C., the Hong Kong International Film Festival and other film festivals in the United States and abroad.

Lowe has taught film production and advanced scriptwriting to graduate students at Stanford University and San Francisco State University. She is a member of Asian Cinevision, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Chinese Historical Society, Film Arts Foundation, and the National Asian American Telecommunications Association.

Currently, Lowe is developing a dramatic, feature length film based on a novel by Laurence Yep, "Child of the Owl."

Peter L. Stein, Executive Producer

Peter L. Stein serves as executive producer for national production at KQED. His production credits include "Green Means," two series of short documentary profiles of environmental success stories (winner of the Silver Apple from the National Educational Film & Video Festival), "Today's Gourmet" with Jacques Pepin, three popular 26-part cooking series (winner of the James Beard Award for Best Culinary Video), and "The De' Medici Kitchen," 13 episodes plus a one-hour documentary on the food and culture of Italy. He is responsible for production of KQED's ongoing series "Neighborhoods: The Hidden Cities of San Francisco." The first program in the series, "The Mission," premiered in December 1994 and was subsequently nominated for three local Emmys. Stein wrote and produced "The Castro," the third program in the "Neighborhoods" series, which premiered in San Francisco in March 1997, and will also air later this year on public television stations nationally.

Prior to his work at KQED, Stein received a Northern California Emmy Award for one of more than 120 hours of television talk shows he produced for KPIX-TV. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University.

Genny Lim, Poet

Genny Lim's poetry and performance are interwoven throughout KQED's profile of "Chinatown." Lim's poetry of growing up bicultural and bilingual in Chinatown offers deep, personal insight into an emotional subtext of the neighborhood. Lim is a native San Francisco poet, performer, playwright, and creator of multi-art theatre pieces. Her first play, "Paper Angels," was produced in San Francisco, Seattle and New York, and aired on PBS' American Playhouse in 1985. "Paper Angels" recreates life on Angel Island, where most of the Chinese who came to American between 1910 and 1940 were held for interviews and examinations. Her second play, "Bitter Cane," examines the plantation experience in Hawaii. Lim is also co-author of the American Book Award winning Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940, and a collection of poems, Winter Place. She currently teaches in the Humanities Program at New College of California.

Charlie Chin, Narrator

Charlie Chin is a multi-talented performer, composer, writer and teacher. An accomplished musician on several instruments, he has recorded two albums, A Grain of Sand and Back to Back, which sample Asian American songs and music. As a playwright, his works include A.B.C., American Born Chinese; The Last Spirit Boxer; 10,000 Stories of Chinatown; and Sex Love and Marriage. His book Hua Mu Lan, China's Bravest Girl, was published in 1993 by Children's Book Press. A collector and interpreter of Chinese and Chinese American folktales, Chin is a frequent consultant on Asian American communities for the Smithsonian Office of Folk Life and Folkways, and a member of the American Folklore Society.

Press Contacts:

Tina Bachemin, KQED Channel 9, Tel: 415/553-2238; Fax: 415/553-2254

Stephanie Murphy, Stephanie Murphy Public Relations, Tel: 508/495-1796

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