Aviatrix wins audience award for short film at this year's Marina del Rey Film Festival

From the Heart Productions and Asian American Film Lab are proud to announce that the documentary short film AVIATRIX: THE KATHERINE SUI FUN CHEUNG STORY has won the Audience Award for short film at this year's Marina del Rey Film Festival.

The documentary tells the inspiring story of pioneering Asian Aviatrix Katherine Sui Fun Cheung, a Chinese immigrant who defied racial and gender bias to become a daredevil stunt pilot during the Golden Age of Aviation in the 1930s.

Katherine's story has been the inspiration for short films, stage performances, visual art pieces, and even a comic strip.

Several Asian American Artists and Performers, who created works based on Katherine’s inspiring story were interviewed for the documentary, including actresses Marilyn Tokuda ("Xanadu" and "Farewell to the King"), Karen Huie ("Wild Bill"), Leslie Ishii ("The Bold and the Beautiful"), Katherine Park ("Looking"), playwright Judy Soo Hoo, and film director Barbara Beck.

Additional interviews include Congresswoman Judy Chu, who became the first Chinese American woman elected to the U.S. Congress and Asian American Historian Judy Yung, author of Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial History.

Katherine Sui Fun Cheung was one of only a handful of Chinese women pilots to earn a pilot's license in America during the 1930s when less than 1% of all pilots were women.

The documentary also features archival Universal newsreel from a 1935 women's air show held in Long Beach, California where Katherine performed stunts with her biplane, along with a group of 99s members (an organization consisting of women pilots led by Amelia Earhart).

Aviatrix: The Katherine Sui Fun Cheung Story was a Best Documentary Short Film Nominee in this year’s Long Beach Indie Film, Media, and Music Festival.

The documentary premiered at this year’s Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival on Memorial Day Weekend, followed by an East Coast Premiere at the Long Beach International Film Festival on Long Island, New York and Southern California premiere at the Marina del Rey Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Short Film.

AVIATRIX: THE KATHERINE SUI FUN CHEUNG STORY

2016, USA, CHINA, Documentary, English, 40 minutes

Directed by Ed Moy Produced by Ed Moy, Raymond Ma, Timothy Tau, Jasmine Shih, Katherine Park, Doug Despres Edited by Ed Moy, David Cu, Dorel Mihalia Original music by David Cu and Howard Ho In association with the From the Heart Productions and Firebrand Hand Creative

Website: www.aviatrixmovie.org