This film will be screened in-person only.

A Q&A will follow the screening, with writer/director/producer Valerie Soe, producer Lila Yomtoob, and participant Kristina Wong (2006 Creative Capital Awardee). It will be moderated by AAIFF Programming Director Kris Montello.

THE AUNTIE SEWING SQUAD RESISTANCE PLAYBOOK looks at a collective of mostly Asian American and BIPOC women sewists who saved the world during the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. In March 2020, due to the Trump administration’s botched response to the pandemic, healthcare workers were scrambling for PPE. From this chaos the Auntie Sewing Squad emerged.

For the Aunties, sewing and donating masks was not just about public health, it was a way to address feminism, anti-racism, allyship, and destroying white supremacy. As Sun Tze wrote, “On desperate ground, fight.” During the pandemic we were desperate ground in the battle against COVID-19, and the Aunties continued to fight, to save lives.