Group 2 Post 4
We took a look into the library resource Access World News and found some interesting articles about The Great Star Theater within News Bank Inc. First article was from 2016 from Claudia Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle. It went over some of the theater's history, in that it has changed ownership many times and was closed for even 15 years because there was an issue receiving redevelopment permits for the space. The owner in 2016 was Paul Nathan, and he opened it for theater, primarily the show The Boy From Oz, but Nathan also used it for “Weimar-style cabarets, comedy, and nouveau circus, and indie theater” (Bauer par. 2).
The second article we looked at was also from the Chronicle, from writer Sam Whiting in 2010. This article noted the enormous amounts of work that went into simply cleaning the space up. Real estate refurbisher George Kaskanlian Jr. found the theater after walking off a fight with his partner. He found the place in all its niche, filthy glory and wanted to refurbish it. Kaskanlian and business associate Ken Montero took over The Great Star primarily for a film festival named “Another Hole in the Head”, and it took them the entire first year to merely clean the place of its mold and other filth (Whiting Par. 4). The two cared for the local community and wanted to infuse the theater with Chinese events to reestablish its roots. Though they noted that a theater that plays both Chinese language films and opera might be one of the only left surviving. At the time, Kaskanlian and Montero wanted to focus on their film festival and theater productions to keep things rolling.
Work Cited:
Bauer, Claudia. “Great Star is reborn with ‘The Boy From Oz’.” San Francisco Chronicle (CA), Advance1 ed., sec. Datebook, 4 May 2016, p. E1. NewsBank: Access World News (Formerly America’s Newspapers)
Whiting, Sam. “Fallen Great Star theater preparing to rise again.” San Francisco Chronicle (CA), Advance1 ed., sec. Datebook 12 Mar. 2010, p. E1. NewsBank: Access World News (Formerly America’s Newspapers)
We also found out about a film by Ruby Yang and Lambert Yam, A Moment in Time, which sheds light on this theater’s association with Chinese movies and their effect on the population of San Francisco's Chinatown. This documentary featured the Great Star and received its North American premiere at the Asian American International Film Festival in 2010. The production of this film suggests that some filmmakers were aware of this theater’s influence on Chinese movies and that they have the intention and ability to make the public better realize this theater’s significance. Originally, they were planning on screening it for the newly renovated Great Star; however, they could not make it happen, lacking the viewers to fill the theater with the warmth it needs. Lastly, we decided to go back further in time by examining the film culture prior to the establishment of the Great Star Theater. Chinatown film culture : the appearance of cinema in San Francisco's Chinese neighborhood was an in-depth discussion of how the film culture in Chinatown progressed before and after the earthquake. There was a strong anti-Chinese sentiment during the early 1900s, but the Chinatown and its entertainment industry played a special role in the coexistence of two distinct cultures as it became a “third space” or a “transcultural contact zone.” San Francisco residents would often visit the Chinatown and its theaters, willingly or unwillingly, interacted with the Chinatown culture. This might be what Chinatown theaters meant for the city residents, but movie theaters represented something drastically different, if not sinister, to some of the Chinatown residents – movie going was seen as a degenerate behavior that corrupts that traditional Chinese way of life with western ideals.
From Cosette: Your discussion of Chinatown culture and how theaters might have been viewed as a competing tension between western and Chinese ideals is really interesting. In your last couple of lines, are you suggesting that Chinese theaters were seen as an exception by the Chinese population? Or are you grouping them in a whole with movie theaters? Further, are you saying that a cultural difference is what led to the demise of so many Chinese theaters because there wasn't an interested audience? This is a really interesting line of argument you raise, and I would love to hear more about it.
ReplyDeleteHi, I really enjoyed this blog post as I my group also researched the Great Star Theatre. Did your group focus on a specific time period or did you mostly focus on the entire history. I really enjoyed the fact that you included the film A Moment in Time as it provides great information on the history of the theatre and showcases it's influence. Why do you think it was important for the owner of the theatre to maintain the roots of the theatre?
ReplyDeleteGood job on outlining the two articles you have found about the Great Star. It is very helpful because our group is also researching on Great Star so we would definitely look into the two articles. The second article which described the difficult process of renovating the Great Star is interesting. I think if you research more and elaborate on why the Great Star became the way it was, that would make your project on Great Star a comprehensive one. Maybe consider to connect it to the broad history of Chinatown theater overall or even Chinatown community as a whole. It will become a broader scope and would be very meaningful for audience who was trying to understand Chinatown by understanding Great Star. It is impressive to me that you have found the articles because I know how limited the sources are.
ReplyDeleteThese sources provide great information on recent history of the Great Star and also give us some understanding of the media surrounding it as well! The documentary sounds especially relevant. As your group wraps up for the final report and last post, think about some broad general secondary sources to look up so you can consider from a greater perspective the research related to Chinatowns in the US, San Francisco Chinatown, and theater culture in metropolitan areas such as SF or Chinatown. Looking forward to seeing your conclusions!
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