Li Ling-Ai, left, and photographer Rey Scott, who was credited as director for the film Kukan. Photo courtesy Nested Egg Productions.
In 1941, writer, filmmaker, actor and dancer Li Ling-Ai, a Chinese-American Hawaiian woman and longtime member of the OPC, worked as an uncredited producer on a documentary about China’s resistance to Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The next year that film, Kukan, received the first Academy Award ever given in the feature documentary category, and was screened for President Roosevelt at the White House. But copies of the film, and Li Ling-Ai’s association with it, have been nearly lost to time.
For the last 7 years, Hawaiian filmmaker Robin Lung has been tracking down the story of Ling-Ai and this film. Lung’s film, Finding Kukan, will have its North American premier at the DOC NYC festival on Nov. 15 at Cinepolis Chelsea.
Lung’s research included a call to the OPC office six years ago for information about her club activities. Veteran OPC Office Manager Boots Duque confirmed that Ling-Ai became an OPC member in July, 1965 and regularly attended club events through the late 90s. She maintained her membership until May, 2003. She died in October that year at the age of 95. Former People columnist Al Kaff wrote a remembrance in the December, 2003 issue of our own Bulletin, pictured below.
