FIRST-EVER DOCUMENTARY ABOUT PORTLAND’S CHINATOWN PREMIERES SEPTEMBER 28

Portland, Ore., August 21, 2008 — Pig Roast & Tank of Fish, the first documentary film ever created about Portland’s Chinatown, premieres Sunday, September 28, 2008, at 7 p.m. The premiere will be held, at the Someday Lounge on NW 5th Avenue, in Old Town/Chinatown.

Portlander Ivy Lin directed and produced Pig Roast & Tank of Fish. “I’ve always wondered why our Chinatown went from being the second largest in the U.S. to almost like a ghost town. It’s in the heart of downtown, with that beautiful gate and garden and nothing much else,” says Lin. “Earlier this year, 70 Asians showed up at a city council meeting to testify against the the siting of another homeless shelter on Block 25 in Chinatown. I was not even involved with the Chinese community then, but I was very moved and this event became the inspiration for this project.”

About the Documentary

Portland’s Chinatown is the second oldest Chinatown in the United States. The first wave of Chinese immigrants started to arrive in Portland in 1850. Portland’s Chinatown was also the second largest Chinatown in the United States during the period 1890-1910. Most of the Chinese immigrants worked as railroad workers, loggers, and cannery workers, and they helped to build the city of Portland and the state of Oregon.

This documentary is the first-ever motion picture to acknowledge the history/legacy of Chinatown, Portland’s oldest neighborhood where the pioneers of many ethnic communities once called “home.” It includes some rarely seen footage of ongoing cultural/social activities behind closed doors…Chinatown is not dead!

Explorations of when, why, and how Chinatown became such a desolate neighborhood are executed, as well as the ongoing challenges the Old Town/Chinatown community has encountered since 1995 in their efforts to revitalize the neighborhood.

About the Director

Originally from Taipei, Taiwan, Ivy Lin has been living in the United States since 1989. She moved to Portland from the Midwest in 2002.

Ivy works at ad agency Wieden+Kennedy and has been an independent documentary producer since 2000. She is a classical musician by training and a member of Portland Cello Project.

In 2007, Ivy directed and produced Knowing All of You Like I Do, a documentary about the closing and deconstruction of the record store Music Millennium NW, chosen to be screened at the Reel Music Festival 2008.

About the Premiere Pig Roast & Tank of Fish Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 7 p.m. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Avenue, Portland, Oregon

watch "Pig Roast & Tank of Fish" trailer here- http://vimeo.co  m/1676699