WINNER of 1976 DuPont-Columbia Citation for Broadcast Journalism and The Christopher Award.This DCTV and WNET/Thirteen production, co-produced by Jon Alpert, Keiko Tsuno and Yoko Maruyama was produced in response to what DCTV felt were inaccurate media portrayals of New York City's Chinatown. This award-winning, often startling portrait of an immigrant community probes beneath the tourist's-eye-view to uncover the complexity of an inner-city subculture plagued by poverty and exploitation. "This is the story of our neighbors," says Jon Alpert. His sympathetic "reportage from within" reveals kitchen workers earning less than $100 for sixty-hour weeks, rents that are among the highest in the city, and garment workers laboring for minimum wages in unsafe conditions. Focusing on individual stories to expose broader issues, this is an unflinching document of Asian immigrants under pressure to assimilate into mainstream culture and struggling to survive in America.
Less than a mile long, Canal Street is the dirtiest and noisiest, but also the most vibrant and dynamic street in New York City. Emmy® Award-winning director/producer Keiko Tsuno and Asian-American issues specialist Peter Kwong (1941-2017) take us on an insiders-only journey into life on this make-it-or-break-it street. From the bustling underground world of counterfeit goods, street vendors, shanty towns and sweatshops, witness the struggle of hardworking people subject not only to the difficulties of their labor but to a street with a law of its own.
