Popular film festival CAAMFest in San Francisco showcasing Asian American independent filmmakers wrapped up its first weekend. One of the short documentaries being shown this year is about the almost-lost story of George Lee.
An audience at the Roxie Theater in the Mission watched a film about the pioneering Asian dancer. Lee was a prodigy who danced for rice to support his mother, dancing at Shanghai nightclubs in the 1970s before he and his family fled to the Philippines as refugees during civil war.
Later, Lee came to the U.S. where he was able to study dance. He eventually had a break with a featured role in George Balanchine’s "The Nutcracker" 70 years ago as a teenager. He later built a 25-year career as a dancer.
Lee’s story was mostly unknown until director Jennifer Lin found his photos in the archive of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She tracked him down in Las Vegas, where the then 88-year-old had been a blackjack dealer for decades after retiring from dance in his late 40s. He is still dealing cards today.
Lin worked with Bay-area based producer Jon Funabiki to bring this story to the screen, calling it "Ten Times Better." The saying comes from Lee’s Polish mother, whom he loved very much and who was also a dancer.
"When they immigrated to the United States, his mother warned him 'George you’re going to the United States, they’re all white. You’re nothing. You’re Chinese-born, you have to be ten times better,'" Funabiki said.
He was. Funabiki said Lee’s dancing was highly regarded.
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"He got rave reviews from his critics, from fellow dancers. They said he would do things that nobody else could do, that he could jump higher. His technique was absolutely incredible," Funabiki said. "I think especially Asian Americans, but I think all people who either love dance or are just interested in the history of the United States should know that there were people like George, immigrants, refugees who did extraordinary things but then have been long forgotten, and we need to fill in these missing pieces for everybody."
"Ten Times Better" premiered at the Dance on Camera Festival 2024 at Film at Lincoln Center.
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