''The Curse of Quon Gwon: When the Far East Mingles with the West'' is a

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

. Filmed , it was never released and long thought lost. Two reels of an estimated total of seven or eight survived and were restored, rendering the film incomplete.

Background

Marion E. Wong created the Mandarin Film Company in Oakland, California and served as its president. In an interview with the Oakland Tribune in 1916, she expressed her interest in presenting Chinese culture to American audiences through film. She produced, directed and wrote the screenplay for ''The Curse of Quon Gwon,'' the only film her company made. The film tells a love story featuring Wong's sister-in-law, Violet Wong, as the female lead, and Wong herself as the film's villain. Other members of Wong's family also had roles in the film. According to Violet Wong's grandson, Gregory Mark, the film was turned down from distribution.

Restoration process

In 1969, Violet Wong told her grandson Gregory Mark about a film canister in the basement of the family home and said: "You do something with it." Mark turned it into 16mm, and a few years later, Violet showed the film to her family. In 2004, filmmaker

Arthur Dong Arthur Dong is an American filmmaker and author whose work centers on Asia America and anti-gay prejudice. He was raised in San Francisco, California, graduating from Galileo High School in June 1971. He received his BA in film from San Franci ...

learned of two nitrate reels and the 16mm print containing footage from ''The Curse of Quon Gwon'' that were in the possession of Violet Wong's descendants while researching his documentary film ''

Hollywood Chinese ''Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Feature Films'' is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Academy Award-nominated director Arthur Dong. From early films like the 1900s '' Beheading the Chinese Prisoner'' to Ang Lee's triumphan ...

''. He was given access to the footage and took it the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

, which restored the film in 2005. , it is the earliest known

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

and it is also one of the earliest films directed by a woman, Marion E. Wong. Most of the film remains missing.

Recognitions

In December 2006, the film was recognized as a culturally, historically and aesthetically significant film by the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

References

External links

* *''The Curse of Quon Gwon'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 55–5

The Curse of Quon Gwon'' dvd review on moviessilently.com
1916 films 1917 films 1910s rediscovered films American silent short films Films about Chinese Americans American black-and-white films United States National Film Registry films Rediscovered American films 1910s English-language films 1910s American films {{short-silent-film-stub