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​PHOTOGRAPHIC JUSTICE: THE CORKY LEE STORY


Director: Jennifer Takaki

Executive Producers:  George and Hillary Hirose, Lily M. Fan

Producers: Jennifer Takaki, Linda Lew Woo

Co-Producers: David Koh, Nicole DiMiceli

Editor: Linda Hattendorf

Picture
PHOTOGRAPHIC JUSTICE: THE CORKY LEE STORY will be released theatrically in New York (DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema) on April 19 and in Los Angeles (Laemmle Glendale) on April 26 with a regional expansion to follow.

OFFICIAL SELECTION: DOC NYC, CAAMFest, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF), Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) and many more.

Filmmaker Jennifer Takaki is available for interview by request. Please contact: [email protected]

Viewing links are available by request to consider coverage. Please contact: [email protected]

For 50 years, Chinese American photographer Corky Lee documented the celebrations, struggles, and daily lives of Asian American Pacific Islanders with epic focus. Determined to push mainstream media to include AAPI culture in the visual record of American history, Lee produced an astonishing archive of nearly a million compelling photographs. His work takes on new urgency with the alarming rise in anti-Asian attacks during the Covid pandemic. Jennifer Takaki’s intimate portrait reveals the triumphs and tragedies of the man behind the lens.

Corky Lee was born in 1947 in New York to Chinese immigrants who owned a laundry in Queens. He majored in history at Queens College and became a community organizer in Manhattan’s Chinatown in the 1970s. Over the next five decades he photographed countless protests and cultural events in the Asian American Pacific Islander community. Lee’s photographs documented the birth and growth of the Asian American movement for social justice and he became known as “The Undisputed, Unofficial, Asian American Photographer Laureate.”   His death in 2021 at the age of 73 due to Covid was mourned in the press worldwide.

Filmmaker Jennifer Takaki  is a fourth generation Japanese American from Colorado. She began her career in journalism at a Denver TV station and later moved to Hong Kong to work with Encore International. In Hong Kong she produced English-based news programming broadcast in China, India, and the Middle East via Rupert Murdoch’s STAR-TV.  In New York, she produced and directed “Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story” which premiered at DOC NYC and was supported by the Ford Foundation and The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM). She was awarded the prestigious Better Angels Lavine Fellowship in 2023.

Running Time: 87 minutes / Language: English / Not Rated / Documentary Feature (USA)
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  • FireCity Illusion
  • January 11 2026 Edition
    • Community
    • Events
    • Films and Movies
    • Politics >
      • Big Wins as Gas Prices
      • 57 Times Democrats Declared War on Law Enforcement
      • Walz is Wrong
      • President Trump Puts Real Food First
    • Sports >
      • Philadelphia's 1st Big Soccer Event of 2026
    • Visual Arts
    • Alabama >
      • Gov Ivey Special Guests State of State Address
    • Alaska >
      • Rural Health Transformation Convening
    • Connecticut >
      • Gov Lamont Statement Work to Resume Revolution Wind
      • Gov Lamont Applauds Bipartisan Congressional Vote
      • Gov Lamont Statement on iCE Killing
      • Gov Lamont Statement Trump Adminstration Withdrawl
    • Michigan >
      • Gov Whitmer Attends Christening Ceremony USNS Lansing
    • Missouri >
      • Gov Kehoe to Expand Broadband Access
    • Tennessee >
      • Gov Lee Visit National Guard Forces
      • Gov Lee Short Film Tennessee The Original Frontier
    • Utah >
      • Utah US Forest Service Strengthen Stewardship National Forests
  • Independent Creators
  • About
  • Archives 2026
  • Archives 2025
  • Archives 2024
  • Archives 2023
  • Archives 2022
  • Surreal ValeCity